We FINALLY received the boxes from Illuminated Ink with the products to sell at the Curriculum Conference tomorrow night and Saturday......(Illuminated Ink© is a small Catholic company that is dedicated to developing, designing, and producing high-quality Catholic educational materials for children all over the world. Our goal is to instill a sense of beauty and wonder in children, based on the teachings and traditions of our Faith, in a fun and educational manner. ) They sell great kits that are high quality and just downright beautiful! We are selling them because a)being a small company-the price of travel these days is just cost prohibitive.....b)we were going to be at the conference anyway! They also have a coloring contest that is just wonderful!
At the ARCH Conference, we normally buy the majority of our curriculum for the coming year (just the thought makes me giddy with joy!). I've been really trying to look hard at what has worked for Cameron and what hasn't this past year. I'm very sad that while he is an excellent reader-well beyond his years in both reading and comprehension-we have yet to find any books that really spark that joy of reading we want him to have. He has really enjoyed book club this year and I'm very thankful to Christine at JazzCreations for putting it together. So following that concept, I was looking at doing some type of Unit Studies with specific literature (see my plea for help on the Swiss Family Robinson post.....). For the last 2 years we've tried Learning Language Arts Through Literature but while the "language arts" part was great-the "literature" was not-only one or two "books" read at his level and not exactly what I had in mind....I vaguely remembered there was something out there that I had seen before that would really fit into my "plan" but for the life of me I couldn't remember the name! Ok, that just won't work for me......I'm an info "geek". So I've spent the last 2 days off and on surfing and googlizing and last night I FINALLY came across the curriculum I saught! TOTAL LANGUAGE PLUS
Total Language Plus is an innovative curriculum focused on teaching thinking and communication skills using literature as a base. The authors believe an integrated system is more efficient than a fragmented approach, discovery style learning is the most effective and learning should be enjoyable. The "discover, do, drill" method is employed throughout the TLP program with activities focusing on thinking skills
These comprehensive novel studies cover:
- Spelling - Grammar and punctuation - Vocabulary - Analytical and critical thinking - Comprehension - Writing - Listening - Field trips/projects
They are a little pricey and they don't have too much for Cameron's age group yet but I'm thinking of doing at least one or two with him-maybe 1 each half of the year. Their website/purchasing is kind of weird-you can't just go online and purchase the product and the only time a "rep" will be here will be in August at the THSC Conference so I'm hoping to come across some gently used ones this summer that we can try.
If any blessed bloggers out there have used TLP in the past, I'd appreciate some feedback on the product/curriculum!
Have a great Thursday!
Strong is God's love for us; He is faithful for ever: come, let us praise Him! Alleluia! Ps 117:2
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