I’ve made little secret of our more structured home education approach, and one of the things I’ve struggled with over the last year, is to find an English Curriculum that I can use with the children.
I will caveat this before I begin and explain that I really struggle with how English is currently taught in schools. Whilst there is a benefit to analysing language and the such, I don’t think as primary age it is helpful. I want my children to read confidently and understand what they’re reading and to learn to write before worrying about adverbs, conjunctions and the such. I am sure there’s plenty who will disagree with me, but I have been reluctant to go down that route so far.
What I have been looking for is something that allows us to explore different ideas and to look at how authors and poets use language and to find ways to encourage the children to become more adventurous in their own writing and use of language. My own personal view is that if you have children that read a wide range of material, and are read to out loud, they will develop a good grasp of language. And I certainly see this with the expressions that my children use when explaining things or playing.
My Approach To Date
It’s important to note at the time of writing, my children have just finished what would have been year 2, year 1 and nursery. The approach we have taken thus far has been quite relaxed and I have used books from Schofield and Sims to work on things like comprehension and grammar. What I haven’t done, to date, is to follow any sort of real structured plan, as I have struggled to find the right thing for us.
Using Scholastic’s 100 English Lessons
I am really keen for the children to develop their written skills, which is probably unsurprising given I earn money through writing! But the ability to write in different styles, and to be able to convey a message is really key in so many jobs that I want them to be confident in doing this. Whilst browsing for something else, I came across the 100 English Lessons from Scholastic. I had a voucher which was to buy two items and get one free, and so I bought some of the books. I started with the Year 3 English lessons and have since bought the Year 2 one as I think it will be good to move between the two.
About the Books
The books are quite hefty and come with a CD-Rom which has digital content on. I do wish that instead of this you were able to access it online through a portal, as the CD-Rom I find can be slow to load (plus laptops don’t really come with a CD drive these days!).
The book is split into six studies, two for each of the Autumn, Spring and Summer terms. There is a chapter introduction for each section, lessons plans, assessment and photocopiable pages. There’re set out clearly to show how the activities map to the National Curriculum and what the learning outcomes are, as well as ways to extend more able students. The terms are themed and there are daily/weekly lesson plans that talk you through the activities.
How we use Scholastic’s 100 English Lessons
I have completed one section from the Autumn term so far that used Roald Dahl as the basis. We looked at the Enormous Crocodile and then George’s Marvellous Medicine. The benefit of home education is that you can follow interest as the children develop it and whilst I used the lesson plans as a guideline, I didn’t follow them to the letter. Instead of focussing on those aspects I knew they’d get the most benefit from.
I also wasn’t too fussed about the correlation to the NC, as mentioned I don’t really think the way the NC is structured for English is overly helpful, and we were also able to get through it in a much quicker time than the book suggests.
I don’t think the 100 English Lessons is the perfect curriculum, but I think it offers some structure and it’s an approach that is, at the moment working for us.
