The first book of this series authored by Jessie Wise, co-author of The Well Trained Mind, is based on Lessons in the Use of English by Mary Hyde (which, when edited by Cyndy Shearer of Greenleaf Press, became English for the Thoughtful Child). Jessie Wise believes that children as young as first or second grade are capable of learning the correct use of language; it’s just a matter of if and how the material is presented to them. After all, she says, if you believe in exposing your children to quality literature before they have begun to read proficiently [which most of us do], why shouldn’t we expose them to the sounds and sights of correct language and grammar usage? Although at this age learning these rules will require a lot more patience on both the part of the student and the teacher, learning it the right way early on is a huge step towards learning proper English and grammar rules later in life. Although it sounds like a big job, her books are very straightforward and easy-to-use.

The author’s goals for this series include: 1) training student’s ears to be attuned to the sound of properly spoken language, 2) training their speech to the correct use of grammar, 3) having their attention sharpened by asking them to narrate parts of a story back to you after hearing it aloud, and 4) using correct language in writing.

Starting in second grade they should be able to copy short sentences properly using grammar and punctuation and be able to write short sentences both from dictation and on their own, again using proper punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. Sounds like a lot of work to get to that point, right? True, it will take patience and a lot of practice, but the author has included four important tools in your toolkit to help you through this process. Her “Four Strand“ approach relies on using memory work, copying and dictation, narration, and grammar to help both you and your student reach these goals. Memory work begins with the child memorizing and reciting short definitions and rules to reinforce the sounds of correctly spoken sentences as well as short poems to discover the enjoyable rhythm of language and continues through the elementary grades with rhymes and rules and longer poems. First graders will be copying short sentences, but copying sentences from dictation is withheld until second grade when children’s motor skills and their “feel for” language are stronger. Narration exercises alluded to earlier include story narration where a short story is read to the child and he or she is asked to recite in complete sentences the story in their own words back to you or to answer comprehension questions about the story in complete sentences. Picture narration exercises are also used, where the student will observe a picture and describe it using complete sentences. Grammar, the last tool in your kit, is taught early on by giving the child definitions of the parts of grammar - reciting the rules and using them in speech and in writing as much as possible. These four strands are continued through the levels with increasing complexity and length.

FLL 1-2 covers both first and second grade and is designed to accompany separate phonics, spelling, and penmanship lessons. There are 200 lessons in all -- 100 for first grade and 100 for second grade. The lessons tend to be very short, with the topic printed at the top of the page and other things to review underneath. The structure of each lesson is easy to follow with different print fonts denoting notes for the teacher, what the teacher might say to teach the concept, and something similar to what your child may say in reply to a question. Though it is not necessary to follow the script exactly, it gives an example of how you may wish to teach the lesson. Each lesson takes up only a page or so, and most of them contain oral lessons to complete together, such as answering questions or focusing on narration of a story, picture, or a poem to memorize. Memorization exercises are reviewed for days after the initial exposure, and the child is encouraged to recite poems to themselves and to an inanimate object before working up the courage to present it to his family. Following the lesson enrichment activities are often given, although it is up to your discretion and the ability of your child to determine if you will have them complete these or not. Often these ask for the child to illustrate the prose studied or to copy part of a lesson out in writing. These are more advanced than the exercises in the lessons and were included for the more precocious children to complete if they so desire. A sampling of topics covered for first grade includes nouns (common, proper), days of the week, pronouns, capitalization, seasons, days, months, holidays, verbs, addresses, dates, and an introduction to sentence types. In second grade, verbs, contractions, adjectives, letter writing, prepositions, and interjections are covered, along with extensive review of the topics covered in first grade. Although this may sound heavy for first and second-graders to handle, don’t worry, everything is broken up into manageable morsels easier for them to digest and remember. The key is in repetition and practice, and the author reminds us that if it is our intention to take a lengthy break from school, such as summer break, then we should still keep up with the lessons, ideally covering one or two a week so that everything you’ve worked so hard on up to this point isn’t half-forgotten and recovered with a struggle the next year. Several different versions of the first book are now available; choose from the original paperback, hardcover, or spiral-bound. The Audio Companion CD provides theater-quality presentations of the fun poems, entertaining stories, and memorable rhymes found in First Language Lessons (1-2). There are also some original songs to aid memorization of the parts of speech.

Level 3 and higher of this program continues the basic components, but in addition to the teacher manual, a consumable workbook is provided for the student’s work. The four teaching goals remain the same, and the authors (Sara Buffington is co-author) continue to weave the lessons with the four strands: memory work, copying/dictation, narration, and grammar. There is also a continuation of the scripted teaching approach using the same type formatting as the first book. There are 89 lessons in Level 3 plus three short (7 lessons each) optional teaching sections: writing letters, dictionary skills, and oral usage. A sampling of the topics include: eight parts of speech, forming plurals, linking & state of being verbs, four types of sentences, parts of a sentence, comma usage, quotations, and contractions. Diagramming is introduced at this level. As in the 1-2 book, grammar concepts are introduced and reinforced through the use of rhymes and rhythmic chants. [Just a note on these, you might want to practice these a bit ahead -- I experimented with the one on state of being verbs and found it to be a bit tricky in terms of rhythm. I wouldn’t have wanted to be trying it out for the first time with my student. I’m thinking there would be more entertainment than learning in that “lesson.”] The course can be completed in one year in about 30 minutes per day and 3 days per week. Workbooks provide some lesson examples, copies of the memory work pieces, and space for diagramming as well as for the copywork and dictation exercises. The pages are perforated and 3-hole punched so they could be filed in a binder. Level 4 provides a continuation in both format and content and covers a full range of grammar topics including parts of speech, punctuation, sentence diagrams, and skills in beginning writing and storytelling. Optional end units provide practice in dictionary use and letter writing.

There are so many things to like about this program that one hardly knows where to begin. It’s easy to follow and use, the instruction is comprehensive and thorough yet gentle, teacher prep is at an absolute minimum, all learning styles are addressed, and last but not least, underlying the entire program is a love for the beauty and structure of our language. - J.L / J.P

Customer Reviews

 
Teri A. from North Carolina wrote the following on 08/02/2009:
I didn't find out about the First Language Lessons CD until we'd already finished First Language Lessons 1... and I wish we had known about it sooner! The parts of speech songs were worth the price of the entire CD. This was an effortless way to learn pronouns, state of being verbs, helping verbs, conjunctions, articles and prepositions. The songs were catchy with a guitar and male vocal. Perhaps my only criticism was that the vocal on these parts of speech tracks was in too low a register for most moms and kids to sing along with! But we did manage to learn these parts of speech just the same. Besides the parts of speech, some of the poems and short stories that are presented in the First Language Lessons text are found on this CD as well (which will give your vocal cords a rest, if you're used to reading aloud a lot!)

 
Victoria G. from Americus, Georgia wrote the following on 02/01/2007:
I'm using this English book with my 7 year old son, but inevitably my 9 year old and 4 year old daughters chime in. They all enjoy the memory work and have learned quite a bit this year about grammar. This book requires no planning on my part, other than looking at the start of the lesson for what's required, i.e. pencil and paper for child or parent. We can just pick it up and go. That in itself is invaluable, but the book itself is a fabulous value. I really enjoy having scripted lessons, even though I'll sometimes skip or add things to make it more personal. I'm anxiously awaiting the second book in the series for us to go into next.

 
Karen O. from england wrote the following on 04/26/2007:
At first glance, I was unsure if we were a "right fit" with this book. It seemed like too much information for a first and second grader and I thought my "hands-on" child would be bored to tears. Boy, was I wrong! Doing our "language lessons" is one of my child's favorite times of day and she frequently blurts out her list of helping verbs or the definition of a preposition whenever she fancies (usually as a way to impress her older siblings and I believe they have been challenged in their own grammar studies as a result!) There is literally no preparation needed to use these lessons and they only take a few minutes a day. The lessons are completely scripted and yet easy enough to modify or paraphrase to better fit your own situation. For example, I asked my child to give me four sentences (when learning about the four sentence types)based on our lunch we had, instead of what to do with a puppy, like mentioned in the lesson. I also found it very effective and fun to use simple body motions when memorizing the various lists of words. My child loved this! I also appreciated the poem memorizations and there was just the right amount of review of these. Again, my child loved being able to recite these and it has inspired us to memorize other favorite poems. The lessons also have enough variety to not get into a boring pattern and yet the grammar learned was amazingly in depth. No "dumbing down" here. The grammar stage is truly the time to instill lots of information in a child, and this book has made it extremely easy and wonderfully delightful.

 
Emily E. from Kansas wrote the following on 08/13/2007:
I must admit that we do not use this book exclusively. I partner it with another language arts program and phonics instruction, so we end up using First Language Lessons about twice a week. Even so, I have seen amazing benefits from using this book. First Language Lessons introduces the parts of speech, poetry memorization, narration, and dictation/copywork. I have found it to be a very gentle and enjoyable introduction to grammar for my child. You might not think that learning the difference between common and proper nouns, for example, is very important at a young age, but I have found that it has assisted my daughter's writing. Instead of simply telling her that a word has to be capitalized, I can now remind her that a word is a proper noun and she is able to make the corrections herself. Language and grammar rules are starting to make sense to her, simply because she has memorized a few key definitions. My daughter especially likes learning the poems. I like how easy it is for me to teach since it is scripted for the parent. Would I use this as a stand-alone language arts program? Probably not. But it has been a useful supplement for us.

 
Amy G. from TN wrote the following on 01/21/2008:
We are currently using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level 3 for my 3rd grade daughter. Although she did not use Levels 1 + 2, she had no problems transitioning into Level 3 from a different language arts program. The teacher’s manual is scripted and fairly easy to follow. It’s not as clearly written as Saxon Math’s teacher scripts, but I usually prefer to put the text into my own words anyway. My daughter seems to become unfocused when I follow the script word for word. The teacher’s manual is vital to the use of this program—it includes directions, word lists, sample schedules, and answers to the lessons. This curriculum includes 89 grammar/writing lessons, 7 letter writing lessons, 7 dictionary skills lessons, and 7 oral usage lessons. This provides plenty of material for one school year at the rate of three lessons per week. Memorization of the basic parts of speech, 6 poems, and grammatical rules are at the heart of this program. Surprisingly, these are not presented in a tedious way—there are physical activities, games, and chants that help to make this memorization fun. The companion CD for Levels 1 + 2 is quite useful for Level 3 as well—it includes the chants and songs for several of the lists to be memorized. This has made our learning more enjoyable and the memorization of the lists almost effortless. This program also presents copywork/dictation lessons and narration. My daughter loves these because they are short and sweet. Teacher preparation is minimal—it does help me to read through the brief scripted lesson before presenting it to my daughter. We only use this with our 3rd grader, but I think it would be fairly easy to adapt to 2nd through 4th levels without much alteration. First Language Lessons Level 3 is great for just about any learning style. Although there aren’t any pictures or “cutesy” decorations in the workbook, but it is good for visual learners because it teaches sentence diagramming. It’s great for auditory learners because of the repetition of the chants, poems, rules, etc.—this is especially fun when using the songs from the companion CD. The rhythmic clapping, physical games, and drama included in the lessons are a great help to all students, especially those who need hands-on activities to make the information stick. One thing that would be beneficial is an audio companion CD for Level 3—this would be a great time saver. It has helped me to make our own CD of the poems since we have to repeat them aloud so many times. The poems that are memorized in this level are as follows: “The Land of Nod” by Robert L. Stevenson, “A Tragic Story” by William M. Thackeray, 3 stanzas of “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth, “A Time to Talk” by Robert Frost, the first stanza of “The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe, and “A Slash of Blue” by Emily Dickinson. In contrast to Levels 1 + 2, these poems are left unaltered—this was a great relief to me, as I feel that the original poet deserves to have his work remembered in its original text. The only thing I noticed is that one line of “A Tragic Story” is left out, but I think it was just a typo because the line that was omitted is a repeated line (much akin to Robert Frost’s “…and miles to go before I sleep…” line from “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening). Aside from the small number of typographical errors, this language arts program is enjoyable and easy to implement. If you decide to use this curriculum, you will need to include handwriting, spelling and reading lessons to make a complete language arts program. First Language Lessons Level 3 is a good value for the money, and it introduces challenging concepts in a gentle way.

 
Deborah G. from Virginia wrote the following on 04/29/2008:
My daughter (kindergarten, age 6) left public school about 8 weeks ago to be homeschooled. I chose this curriculum to start her off in Language Arts at home. I wasn't too sure she would like it at first, but have been amazed at how excited she has been about her lessons. We don't do every activity, since she has been able to write her name, etc. for awhile now, but most of the concepts and definitions are new to her. It offers a varied approach so that almost every day brings something different. She has memorized her first poem, and even was able to stand up and recite it for her Dad and brothers. We added a pretend microphone for her to hold for the occasion. Together, we each drew an illustration for the poem and are making a collection of drawings for the year. I highly recommend this book for a relaxed and fun way to cover language arts with your young child.

 
Jenni H. from Cary, NC wrote the following on 05/11/2009:
This choice for grammar is an excellent one. My child learned more than I thought she would. I found the teacher guide easy to use and the fact that it is scripted is great. There was little teacher preparation involved and I enjoyed interacting one on one with my child. I believe it was worth the money and I will hold on to the teacher guide for my son in two years. This program engages the child and encourages listening skills. The child practices the concepts and reviews concepts throughout the year. We enjoyed the poems, dictionary skills pages, letter writing lessons, and extra activities. I have shared this with many fellow homeschoolers. Definitely worth it!