We received our core kit today for the SWR program plus our Cursive First curriculum. I’M SO EXCITED, I feel like when I was in grad school and got my reading list for classes and was so eager to start reading that I couldn’t pick which book to begin first…

So, the kit came with a cd that included the phonograms which Mo and I already listened to part of and did together. VERY good from a speech standpoint!

There are flashcards for the phonograms and spelling rules that we cut apart and will laminate for practice.

There are two books – the teacher’s manual (Spell to Write and Read) and the spelling book (WISE Guide for Spelling.) Then two composition type books, one for C and one for me. His has a specialized section in the back where he will write his spelling rules and a variety of other reference information. I’ll need to get another one of those for Moira…

Then with the Cursive First book there are flashcards for each letter (lowercase) and a reference card then the teacher’s manual. There are practice pages for the kids that we’re authorized to photocopy for personal use (entire family, not just one child) and they are half page so we can cut them and staple them into a book. The entire cursive curriculum is $15 and can be used for all the kids?? Great deal. They use the visual of a house with tall letters going up into the attic and hanging letters going down into the basement. The kids really clicked with that visual! The manual spends a lot of time explaining why to start cursive first (vs. print) and then teaches you step by step how to teach the kids. They don’t have you stick them at a desk with paper and start writing. We draw in the air, we draw in a “salt box” (box with black paper in bottom glued down, salt sprinkled over) and a variety of other tactile things to try before pencil to paper. They also have pages discussing signs of readiness in kids, etc, etc. It looks good and I just barely skimmed it. Of the handwriting programs I’ve looked at, I like this one best.

Back to SWR – it works with the cursive program and teaches the phonograms and spelling rules for K through 6th grade or so. There is SO MUCH INFORMATION it’s overwhelming and I’m attending a workshop to help me learn how to use this… I’ll post more later as I learn more. 🙂

We’ll be using this in addition to First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind because that has some overlap (narration, dictation, some spelling rules/grammar) but this covers handwriting and spelling and in Moira’s case, speech therapy. This one program covers years of work and will be used with all the kids with just the purchase of new learning log books ($5 for the first specialized one, then regular composition books after that.)

I did the spelling evaluation on the kids so I could know about where they need to start in the program. C tested at 5th grade and Mo was 1st grade, which sounds about right since Mo’s still a starting reader and Christopher is reading at that level at least… though spelling often tests behind reading level, especially since we’ve not actually done any spelling with Christopher officially. 🙂 This is our first spelling program and I didn’t want to do a straight spelling curriculum, I wanted something in context and I like how this integrates whatever they are reading plus spelling plus handwriting – it makes it more relevant and I think the connection across subjects makes it stick better in their brains. Glancing at the section C should start it, it lists the spelling word and then a quote for the sentence to give it in context. An example – suppose: “Happiness depends less on exterior things than most suppose.” – William Cowper. The kids practice the spelling word and for their handwriting/dictation they can write the quote. I love it.

I’m so excited!!!