We began this schoolyear using several wonderful resources for teaching Language Arts.  We were using Intermediate Language Lessons, Spelling Power, Daily Language Lessons, and a few other smaller resources.  While all this curricula was great, and I have little complaints about any of it specifically, I do have a complaint about the amount of time and energy that was spent trying to complete it all.  I wanted to use Intermediate Language Lessons because I loved the Charlotte Mason feel it had, but I felt it lacked a bit in the daily Grammar practice, so that lead me to use Daily Language Lessons which gives a quick daily overview of grammar principles.  Then, of course, I used Spelling Power to teach spelling.  Trying to check off all of these boxes each day with different programs was draining.  We were spending way more time doing things that, quite frankly, weren't exciting enough to offset all the time and effort spent.

Somewhere around the beginning of the second quarter, I was re-introduced to the concept of dictation.  Oh, delightful dictation, this time I truly understood it and got it!  It's a wonderful way of combining L.A. subjects into one assignment that can be easily tailored to my child's interests.  I have to admit, when I first started doing dictation with my daughter, my first thought was "Is that all, it's over already, surely she couldn't have gotten all she needed from that."  But as time went on, sure enough, dictation proved to me over and over again to be very effective.  It cut our L.A. teaching time in half.  And to top it off, I was able to make it interesting and even fun!  How you ask?

The greatest thing about dictation is being able to take a passage from any literary or other source that my children are interested in and use it.  Sometimes we use chapter books they are reading, sometimes the Bible, sometimes we use poetry, sometimes songs, sometimes news or magazine articles, etc.  I just try to pick something on their reading comprehension level and in their interest.  And here's another really cool thing, you can tie it into whatever theme you are doing.  For example, this month we are using the winter/snow theme, so our dictation has been pulled from great books, articles, poetry, etc., about winter or in the winter theme.  On Thursday, we read a great article about frost that I came across, and used part of it for dictation.  Not only is this more in line with my childrens interests, but also it allows me to easily mix things up each day with different resources, making things more interesting and less mudane.

I think, in the past, I've always resisted dictation for fear that I would be missing teaching my children something they needed.  So it was truly a big deal for me to let go of the "in the curriculum box" thinking.  But, it was quickly realized that, letting go of control was just what our family needed.  I have, first hand, seen great progress with my children since making this change.  It's truly amazing how dication opens up so many doors for teaching Language Arts and much more.  I have found dictation to be fully satisfying the subjects of spelling, grammar, handwriting, building listening skills, and it helps tremendously with memory retention (which my daughter really needed).  And by using resources that model great creative writing skills, they are in fact learning this too.  All while using things that are of particular interest to them.  And, certainly I must mention again that we are done in half the time as before, you can bet the kids and mom like that one!  I think it's important to note that I do on occasion still use Intermediate Language Lessons, just because we like it too!

In my next post, I will go into where I found information about doing dictation and what one of our dictation lessons looks like in our home.

I am just beginning to start to understand this newfound freedom in our homeschool.  The freedom to not live under the umbrella of an academic checklist.  After all, I am homeschooling, I am my children's teacher, I do know what's best for "my" kids.  Now, if I can just learn to enjoy Math this way!  I need to keep re-reading over and over again my friend Cindy's Post.  Check it out.