Language Arts

An Apple a day will help keep your spelling woes at bay! Apples is designed for the older student (junior high or high school) who struggles with spelling. Have you ever felt like taking your older student back to the beginning with phonics - but hesitate to do so because the available phonics books are so....elementary!? 

An Apple a day will help keep your spelling woes at bay! Apples is different than any other spelling program out there, taking into consideration the unique needs of poor spellers. Once a week your student is introduced to a spelling rule (called a clue). He will study that rule for the entire week, applying it in all kinds of spelling situations: puzzles, fill-in-th-blank, complete-the-Bible-verse, etc. Some of the clues break a word down into syllables. 

Beyond the Code Book 3 uses engagingly illustrated stories such as: Kids Need Pets, What’s the Fuss?, Day Care for Dogs, A Fish That Can Fly!, and Kate and the Ten-Speed Bike. Introductory exercises teach word families and vocabulary, while follow-up questions develop students’ understanding of the stories and encourage their reasoning abilities. Drawings accompany many of the new words to help students understand the vocabulary. After each story, students can complete illustrations by adding their own drawings. 

What a fun way to learn sentence diagramming! Designed for grades 5-12, the Grammar Slammer provides easy instruction for a complicated subject (at least complicated to ME!). Karen Newell, author of Write On! (one of my favorite creative writing programs - see link below),  is a gifted teacher. Your students will find her approach interesting, non-threatening, and friendly. Skills are reinforced with a game (instructions and "cards" included) for one or more students.

Mention "creative writing" to most typical boys, and they'll run screaming from the house, or play sick, or try to flush their creative writing book down the toilet. However, "Caution: Writing In This Book Might Be Fun!" was written by a boy who really hates creative writing. Stephen, my son, sympathizes with your son's writing struggles and tries to give your son ideas of zany-boy things to write about. Full of bright colors and obnoxious color schemes, writing examples to get the proverbial ball rolling, and crazy ideas (with a few cautionary comments from Mom Kemmerer - er, me), your son might actually enjoy creative writing! 

"Caution: Writing In This Book Might Be Fun!" (Girls version) was written by my daughter and my daughter-in-law. My daughter, Monica, loves to write and desires to pass her sense of enjoyment on to other students. My daughter-in-law, though she doesn't profess to "love" writing, is a wonderful writer. She is, however, one of the most talented, feminine, delightful young ladies you'd ever want to meet. Monica and Rachel teamed up to create a book full of wonderful, girly ideas to write about. Your daughter might actually enjoy creative writing! 

Character Italics. These books are set up just like the Getty-Dubay Italic series, but provide additional practice. What makes them really special is that the child practices his penmanship by copying wonderful quotes from wise men and women. There are quotes from George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Charles Spurgeon, the Bible, and much more. Each book provides more than 70 pages of additional practice.

Character Italics. These books are set up just like the Getty-Dubay Italic series, but provide additional practice. What makes them really special is that the child practices his penmanship by copying wonderful quotes from wise men and women. There are quotes from George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Charles Spurgeon, the Bible, and much more. Each book provides more than 70 pages of additional practice.

Fifty classics are addressed with a short description of each title, objective and discussion questions (like a mini-quiz) for each book, a list of vocabulary words in their context (quoted right from the book your child is reading), important quotations, and more.  

Targeted areas covered: Adverb, Adjective & Noun Clauses, Gerund, Participial & Infinitive Verbals. Gerund, Participial, Infinitive, Prepositional & Appositive Phrases