Our Reading Curriculum
This year, we began a new reading and language arts curriculum. I felt we needed more structure in this area, especially with my struggling reader. I opted for The Good and the Beautiful (TGTB) for all my kids. I loved the fact that it was free and covered phonics, grammar, spelling, writing, vocabulary, and reading all in one package. Some lessons also cover geography, poetry and art. The only thing I have to add to it is a handwriting program, and all my kids are set for their language studies.
I did opt to use a different spelling curriculum with my oldest since her spelling skills are much further behind than her reading skills and just skipped that section in her TGTB curriculum.
I am currently using the 3rd grade lessons with my oldest, 1st grade lessons with my second and kindergarten lessons with my third. The curriculum comes with access to an app with videos and letter tiles for students to use in lessons, but unfortunately I have not been able to get the app to work for us. I, instead, either skip anything that has us listen to anything on the app (we have no other choice here) or make up my own descriptive sentences to describe what they want to describe. I use the magnetic spelling tiles that came with out spelling curriculum with the lessons that require the letter tiles on the app.
Kindergarten Lessons
– So far, we are around 30 lessons in these with my kindergartner. They recommend that students already know their letter sounds before beginning these lessons, so we waited until January to start these lessons once his letter sound knowledge was firm. They immediately start with blending 2 and 3 letter words, so we worked slowly through the first few lessons, supplementing with some hand made activities like these reading and blending cards. The lesson pace is slow and allows for plenty of practice with reading, writing and spelling CVC words. My son is now reading simple sentences with easy 2 and 3 letter sight words and CVC words. I will be adding some simple readers to our routine soon! The kindergarten lessons take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to complete, depending on how cooperative my child is that day.
First Grade Lessons
– I opted to start my 2nd grader on the first grade level since I had not done much in the way of formally teaching spelling and grammar before then. He has not had any trouble with the lessons and is sailing through quickly. We are at around lesson 65 in this packet. The first grade lessons introduce more advanced phonics skills. These lessons move at a faster pace than the Kindergarten lessons, and focused on a single new skill for only a few days instead of several weeks, though it does cycle back around and review these concepts every couple of lessons. The 1st grade lessons take around 30 minutes for us to complete each day.
Third Grade Lessons
– I opted to start my 5th grader at the third grade level since I know she needs more help in solidifying her confidence in her ability to read. She has done fairly well with the reading and excels with the grammar and comprehension sections of this level. Third grade seems to have a heavy emphasis on poetry, having students read poems everyday and even encourages students to memorize poems throughout the course. This level also encourages a lot of journal writing and vocabulary learning for specific stories. My daughter has enjoyed most of the stories in this course and has even begged to go ahead in lessons so she can know what happens next. The 3rd grade lessons are not very consistent on the time commitment each day. Some days only take around 30 minutes while others take an hour and a half to complete.
All TGTB lessons from K through 5th are free on their website for download. Levels K through 8 are all free to download! They also offer a free math course as well.
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