Language Arts, Bible/Character, and Elective Books For Sale - January 2019...

Below you will find our latest list of Language Arts, Bible/Character, Elective, and misc. teaching resources for sale. A few of the books are ex-library, but most are from a private collection. Workbooks are clean, new, and unused unless noted. There is a variety of curricula and supplemental resources for language arts teaching.

The prices do not reflect shipping. We are a smoke and pet free home. I accept PayPal and ship media mail within the U.S. Please use the contact form on the right side bar to send inquires and desired list.

Thanks so much for your consideration,
Melissa

Writing & Grammar Books

Language Lesson for the High School Student 2 by Sandi Queen – student book & key $10

Many Luscious Lollipops – A Book about Adjectives by Ruth Heller $4

Up, Up and Away – A Book about Adverbs by Ruth Heller $4 each (x2)

A Cache of Jewels and Other Collective Nouns by Ruth Heller $4 each (x2)

Little Kids Can Write! by Karen Sevaly ages 3-6 student workbook $3

The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. & E. B. White (hardcover) SL AO 9 $4 each (x2)

Scholastic Success with Writing Grade 5 $3

Evan-Moor Daily Language Review Grade 2 $4

Evan-Moor Daily Language Review Grade 5 $4

Evan-Moor Daily Language Review Grade 6 $4

No Frill Grammar Drill grade 4 $2

Scholastic Narrative Writing by Tara McCarthy grades 4-8 $3

Spectrum Writing – grade 2 $3

Spectrum Writing – grade 3 $3

Spectrum Writing – grade 7 $3

Spectrum Language Arts – grade 6 $3

Teacher Created Resources Daily Warm – Ups Language Skill Grade 5 $3

The Student Editor by Virginia Allison – middle school $4

Critical Thinking Co. Editor in Chief Book A-1 $4

ETA Daily Writing Reinforcers (spiral bound with answers and teacher notes) grade 2 $3

ETA Daily Writing Reinforcers (spiral bound with answers and teacher notes) grade 4 $3

Jensen’s Grammar by Frode Jensen AO $8

Easy Grammar Ultimate by Wanda Phillips Teacher Edition Reproducible for Student use Grade 8 $10

Easy Grammar Ultimate by Wanda Phillips Teacher Edition Reproducible for Student use Grade 12 $10

Writer’s INC, A Guide to Writing, Thinking, & Learning MFW $5 each (x2)

Reading, Phonics, Vocabulary & Spelling Books

Spectrum Word Study and Phonics Grade 5 $4

Claims to Fame – Fourteen Short Biographies – Book 2 w/key by Carol Einstein $5

Bob Books – Levels 1, 2, & 3 $3 each level

Wordly Wise 3000 8 Test Booklet & Answer Key $3

Vocabulary in Action by Loyola Press Level E (student workbook) $3

Building a Strong Vocabulary by Carl B. Smith, Ph.D. $3

Vocabulary from Classical Roots Level A $8 set

-       Student book (some writing)

-       Test Book

-       Teachers Guide & Answer Key

Vocabulary from Classical Roots Level B $8 set

-       Student book (some writing)

-       Answer Key

-       Teachers Guide & Answer Key

The Writing Road to Reading by Romalda Bishop-Spalding 4^th edition $3

Spelling Workout Level G Student Workbook NEW! $3

Spellwell Levels A-D w/answer keys $30 set

Art, Music, Foreign Language, & Home Economics

Art & the Bible for Children by Barry Stebbing (NEW hardcover) $20

Rich & Sharon Jeffus Preschool & Early Elementary Art Basics $5

Adventures in Art Kindergarten Teacher’s Guide $5

Discover Art by Laura Chapman $30 set

-       Kindergarten Teacher’s Edition (by Cynthia Colbert & Martha Taunton)

-       Art Print Guide grades 1-3

-       Grade 1 student book (hardcover)

-       Grade 1 teacher’s edition

-       Grade 3 student book (hardcover)

-       Grade 3 teacher’s edition

-       Art Print Guide grades 4-6

-       Grade 4 student book (hardcover)

-       Grade 4 teacher’s edition

-       Grade 5 student book (hardcover)

-       Grade 5 teacher’s edition

-       Grade 6 teacher’s edition

Discover Art Teacher’s Edition by Laura Chapman grade 3 $4

Discover Art Teacher’s Edition by Laura Chapman grade 4 $4

The Gift of Music, Great Composers and Their Influence by Jane Stuart Smith & Betty Carlson $5

Art in Action by Guy Hubbard Grades 1-5 hardcover $10 set

Come Look With Me – American Indian Art by Stephanie Salomon (hardcover) $4

Kids Colorpix My Favorite Masterpieces Assorted Cards & Envelopes $3

Start with Art – Animals by Sue Lacey (hardcover) $4

Sue Patrick’s Workbox System Starter Kit for 2 Children & A User Guide book $10

Hand – Print Animal Art by Carolyn Carreiro (Williamson Publishing) $3

Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists Faith Ringgold by Mike Venezia $3

The Story of Painting by H. W. Janson (hardcover w/jacket – excellent!) AO $10

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards $6

Linnea in Monet’s Garden by Christina Bjork and Lena Anderson (hardcover w/jacket, ex-library) $4

Bible, Character, & Misc. Resource Books

Bible Quest: God’s People, God’s Land – Home School Teacher’s Edition $5

3 in 1 (A Picture of God) by Joanne Marxhausen $3

Little Visits with God by Allan Hart Jahsmann & Martin P. Simon $3

Egermeier’s Bible Story Book by Elsie Egermeier (hardcover) SL K $5

Egermeier’s Bible Story Book by Elsie Egermeier SL K $5

Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible for Young and Old (original 1932/1947 hardcover) $5 each (x3)

NIV Women’s Devotional Bible (Zondervan – hardcover) $5

Little Ladies series by Sandi Queen (new) $10 set

-       Dressing for God

-       Speaking to Please God

-       Keeping Myself Pure for God

The Sling and the Swallow by Eleanor Means Hall (hardcover) $3

Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook (hardcover w/jacket) $4

Early Education at Home – A Curriculum Guide for Parents of Preschoolers and Kindergarteners by M. Jean Soyke $8

Art Adventures at Home – Level 1 (grades K-2) by Pattye Carlson and M. Jean Soyke $7

Learning at Home – Preschool and Kindergarten by Ann Ward $15

Home-Spun Schools by Raymond and Dorothy Moore (hardcover w/jacket) $5

What Your First Grader Needs to Know by E. D. Hirsch $4

What Your Second Grader Needs to Know by E. D. Hirsch $4

What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know by E. D. Hirsch (hardcover) $4

Why Johnny Can’t Read and What You Can Do About It by Rudolf Flesch $3

Logic of English Review....

After finishing All About Spelling Level 3 last year in 4th grade, I felt RileyAnn was ready for a change.  I had done extensive research the year before, but decided to stick with AAS one more year.  She was doing well with the program and liked it.  She is a gifted writer with well organized thoughts.  However, after completing Level 3, her spelling was still weak and hindering her writing fluency.  Hence began my pursuit for yet another spelling program.

I initially heard about The Logic of English among other homeschool circles.  I spoke with a few acquaintances that were using the program.  I also listened to seminars at the local homeschool convention.  I felt this new program could be the answer to our need.  After watching videos on The Logic of English website and corresponding with author Denise Eide, we decided to make the switch.  Riley started off this fall, 5th grade, with Logic of English Essentials.  

The Logic of English (LOE) was created "for students ages eight through adult who want to improve their reading, spelling, and/or sentence level writing ability.  The program systematically teaches how and why English words are spelled in a particular manner and how to build words into phrases and sentences, thereby providing students with the tools needed to decode, spell, and write."   The program is based on the Orton-Gillingham method of multi-sensory instruction. 

I think the idea behind The Logic of English is brilliant.  English really is a complex language.  Most people are not natural spellers.  We don't have photographic minds.  Rules and reasons explaining the why behind the how we spell English words are helpful.  For example, did you know the phonogram /ough/ has six different sounds?   Check out each of these words and notice the position of your mouth when pronouncing the vowel sound: thought, though, through, bough, rough, and trough.  How in the world do you know to used /ough/ rather than just plain o, ow, uff, or off?  Well, if you know the logic behind English, you know that /ough/ is used "only at the end of a base word or before a "T".  The Logic of English gives you the rules and reasons, "104 tools", behind the spelling of 98% of English words.   

The large LOE Teacher's Manual offers several sample schedules and much teacher support in the sixty-seven page Introduction.  As noted in the quote above, LOE not only provides spelling remediation, but also vocabulary, reading, grammar, and composition instruction.  Riley reads well above grade level and has fine vocabulary and composition skills.  However she needed spelling help so I decided to go with the "Struggling Spellers" schedule.

For spelling remediation, LOE suggests the possibility of completing one lesson every one to two days, finishing the entire 40 lesson course in 8-16 weeks.  This seemed a rather rapid pace to me so I modified it to spend three days, completing one lesson per week.  I figured with this schedule, we could complete the entire course in approximately one school year, which I felt sufficient.

Each LOE lesson is broke into three parts.  Part one introduces and reviews phonograms, explores spelling sounds, and includes teaching new spelling rules.  Part two provides spelling word dictation which includes syllabification and marking words according to their sounds.  Part three teaches grammar. It also gives phrases and sentences for dictation, using spelling words with various learned phonograms.  In addition, there are composition and vocabulary exercises.

We were excited about starting fresh.  It seemed to be going very well.  Then suddenly we hit a snag!  Every fifth lesson in LOE is an assessment and review.   Even though the beginning four lessons/weeks were review for Riley from previous school years, lesson five, the first LOE Assessment & Review, was very difficult for her.  We went back and reviewed a bit more and pushed through, as I attributed the struggle to starting a new program.  I figured we just needed to smooth out the bumps.  The next couple lessons went OK, but it became apparent around lesson eleven that LOE was not the right fit for us.

The multi-sensory piece of LOE is playing the phonogram and spelling games.  We tried a few games from the game book and they did not appeal to Riley or I.  Learning all six sounds of /ough/ in one lesson, as in the sample above, was too fast paced and confusing for Riley and I.  I couldn't remember the clues to cue her during dictation.   Riley is also currently using Michael Clay Thompson for English and grammar so the added grammar from LOE was sometimes repetitious and sometimes confusing.

Because LOE is more of an all in one program, covering spelling, reading, composition, vocabulary, and grammar, it felt like overkill to me.  I really just want a program for spelling remediation.  If improvement comes in those other language arts areas due to better spelling, it's a bonus.  However with RileyAnn, I am not interested in an all in one program.  I feel like in using Charlotte Mason's methods she has a great grasp on language arts and is heading in the right direction. 

I think we gave LOE a fair shot.  Needless to say, after twelve lessons in twelve weeks, we've decided to go back to the simplicity of All About Spelling.  The smile is back on RileyAnn's face.  I have learned if your child likes and buys into the program you're using, stick with it, you've conquered half the battle!

Charlotte Mason on Language Arts....

Unfortunately, uttering the term "Language Arts" today among homeschoolers often brings mothers to tears.  It is a new term, not spoken in Charlotte Mason's day.  However, language arts is certainly not a new concept.  Language is the method of human communication either spoken or written.  Art is a branch of learning.  Therefore, the study of language arts is the act of learning to communicate. 

If we think in terms of communication, language arts has four components: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.  You've actually been teaching your child language arts since birth!   They listened to the sounds you made, watched your lips form words, and then started speaking. 

To begin our discussion, I'm going to focus on writing or composition since this is often the part of language arts that freaks people out...including myself before finding the Charlotte Mason method.   Much to my chagrin, I am guilty of getting out my red pen and going crazy on Angel's papers.   Truth be told, I also royally screwed up dictation.  Anyway, thankfully, I feel like I'm finally getting on the right track  :)

Composition comes by Nature. - In fact, lessons on 'composition' should follow the model of that famous essay on "Snakes in Ireland" - "There are none."  For children under nine, the question of composition resolves itself into that of narration, varied by some such simple exercise as to write a part and narrate a part, or write the whole account of a walk they have taken, a lesson they have studied, or of some simple matter that they know.  Before they are ten, children who have been in the habit of using books will write good, vigorous English with ease and freedom; that is, if they have not been hampered by instructions.  It is well for them not even to learn rules for the placing of full stops and capitals until they notice how these things occur in their books.  Our business is to provide children with material in their lessons, and, leave the handling of such material to themselves.  If we would believe it, composition is as natural as jumping and running to children who have been allowed due use of books.  They should narrate in the first place and they will compose, later, readily enough; but they should not be taught 'composition'.  - Charlotte Mason (Vol. 1, Home Education, p 247)

OK, so I don't know about you, but this was a huge relief to me!  Reading great books and requiring the child to narrate serves as composition lessons in the early years.  Charlotte actually did not start formal composition until high school.  She was able to encourage the elementary students to explore the four types of writing (narrative, expository, descriptive, and persuasive) via narration. 

Charlotte used copywork to teach handwriting....

Set good copies before him and see that he imitates his model dutifully: the writing lesson being, not so many lines, or 'a copy' - that is, a page of writing - but a single line which is as exactly as possible a copy of the characters set.  The child may have to write several lines before he succeeds in producing this. - Charlotte Mason (Vol. 1, Home Education, p 235)

An ah ha moment for several of us moms regarding copywork came while watching SCM's Learning and Living DVD series.  Charlotte did not encourage copywork until the child was able to read.   She also didn't encourage a full page of the letter "b", for example.  Rather, she required "a single line which is as exactly as possible a copy of the characters set".   In other words, the children were to produce one perfectly written line. 

Regarding spelling....

Early Spelling. - Accustom him from the first to shut his eyes and spell the word he has made.  This is important.  Reading is not spelling, nor is it necessary to spell in order to read well; but the good speller is the child whose eye is quick enough to take in the letters which compose it, in the act of reading off a work; and this is a habit to be acquired from the first: accustom him to see the letters in the word, and he will do so without effort. 

If words were always made on a given pattern in English, if the same letters always represented the same sounds, learning to read would be an easy matter; for the child would soon acquire the few elements of which all words would, in that case, be composed.  But many of our English words are, each, a law unto itself: there is nothing for it, but the child must learn to know them at sight; he must recognise 'which,' precisely as he recognises 'B,' because he has seen it before, been made to look at it with interest, so that the pattern of the word is stamped on his retentive brain.  This process should go on side by side with the other - the learning of the powers of the letters; for the more variety you can throw into his reading lessons, the more will the child enjoy them.  Lessons in word-making help him to take intelligent interest in words; but his progress in the art of reading depends chiefly on the 'reading at sight' lessons. - Charlotte Mason (Vol. 1, Home Education, p 203-204)

The above passage intrigues me.  I agree and disagree at the same time.  I totally get what Charlotte is saying here and in theory she has many good points.  However, my dyslexic kiddo would never read or spell if I solely relied on the sight method of teaching him because of the irregular patterns in English.  I believe in phonics teaching over the sight method. 

Charlotte always taught spelling in context, again using good literature.  First the children looked at words and recreated them, "word-making" as she called it.  Then the children did 5-10 minutes of copywork, eventually transitioning into transcription of longer passages.  Finally, Charlotte used prepared dictation to teach spelling. 

Steps of a Dictation Lesson. - Dictation lessons, conducted in some such way as the following, usually result in good spelling.  A child of eight or nine prepares a paragraph, older children a page, or two or three pages.  The child prepares by himself, by looking at the word he is not sure of, and then seeing it with his eyes shut.  Before he begins, the teacher asks what words he things will need his attention.  He generally knows, but the teacher may point out any word likely to be a cause of stumbling.  He lets his teacher know when he is ready.  The teacher asks if there are any words he is not sure of.  These she puts, one by one, on the blackboard, letting the child look till he has a picture, and then rubbing the word out.  If anyone is still doubtful he should be called to put the word he is not sure of on the board, the teacher watching to rub out the word when a wrong letter begins to appear, and again helping the child to get a mental picture.  Then the teacher gives out the dictation, clause by clause, each clause repeated once.  She dictates with a view to the pointing, which the children are expected to put in as they write; but they must not be told 'comma,' 'semicolon,' etc.  After the sort of preparation I have described, which takes ten minutes or less, there is rarely an error in spelling.  If there be, it is well worth while for the teacher to be on the watch with slips of stamp-paper to put over the wrong word, that its image may be erased as far as possible.  At the end of the lesson, the child should again study the wrong word in his book until he says he is sure of it, and should write it correctly on the stamp-paper.  - Charlotte Mason (Vol. 1, Home Education, p 241-242)

I did try prepared dictation last year with RileyAnn and it was much more successful than I thought it might be.  I do plan to continue at some point with her. 

Lastly, I want to touch briefly on grammar...

Grammar a Difficult Study. - Of grammar, Latin and English, I shall say very little here.  In the first place, grammar, being a study of words and not of things, is by no means attractive to the child, nor should be hurried into.  English grammar, again, depending as it does on the position and logical connection of words, is peculiarly hard for him to grasp.  In this respect the Latin grammar is easier; a change in form, the shape of the word, to denote case, is what a child can see with his bodily eye, and therefore it's plainer to him than the abstract ideas of nominative and objective case as we have them in English.  Therefore, if he learns no more at this early stage than the declensions and a verb or two, it is well he should learn thus much, if only to help him to see what English grammar would be at when it speaks of a change in case or mood, yet shows no change in the form of the word. - Charlotte Mason (Vol. 1, Home Education, p 295)

Charlotte postponed grammar until around age ten.  She used a text book for teaching.  Then followed with living books/literature for practice.  Charlotte was very straight forward in her teaching of grammar as she believed grammar was abstract knowledge, which is difficult for young minds.  She talked specifically about being careful not to dumb down the lessons. In fact, she said....

But a child cannot dream parts of speech, and any grown-up twaddle attempting to personify such abstractions offends a small person who with all his love of play and nonsense has a serious mind. - Charlotte Mason (Vol. 6, A Philosophy of Education, pg 210)

Hopefully, I've given you some food for thought regarding teaching language arts using Charlotte's methods.  For further interest, a while back, I posted some notes regarding Ruth Beechick's philosophy on teaching reading here and writing here. 

Speaking of Spelling....

I'm in the process of assessing RileyAnn's language arts needs for next school year.  This particular post will regard spelling.  We started Spelling Workout in kindergarten/1st grade with undesired results.  In 2nd grade, we switched to All About Spelling (AAS) Level 1 and just finished Level 2 this year for 3rd grade.  I am drawn to the Orton-Gillingham method.  I love that AAS teaches the phonograms and spelling rules and is a multisensory program.  I love that after initial prep, the lessons are open and go.  It's sequential and straight forward.  There are no lists to memorize because you are spelling words according to the phonograms and rules you have studied.  This just makes sense!!  I also appreciate the dictation method used in AAS.  It falls in line with the Charlotte Mason method of teaching. 

One of my struggles with AAS is determining how much to teach each day.  The program recommends spending about 20 minutes per day on spelling.  However, I don't feel there is enough material here to last that long.  I scheduled about a lesson per week and then tried to stretch it out for 4-5 days.  This only gave us 5-10 minutes of instruction per day. 

In addition, Riley doesn't love the tiles used in AAS.  She prefers to write on a white board or in her notebook.   Hence my quest to find a spelling program with the notebook approach. 

I purchased The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading by Barbara Beers at the recommendation of friends.  However, after watching approximately 3 hours of the instructor DVD's, I felt like I was going crazy.  Phonics Road is based on the Orton-Spalding method.  Again, I like the approach of teaching the phonograms and rules vs. memorizing lists.  But, I did not care for some of the rule tunes, marking all the sounds, and the idea of being tied to my computer, watching instructional DVD's prior to every lesson.  I ended up selling the program.

I then started researching the Spalding method and obtained a copy of The Writing Road to Reading (WRTR) by Romalda Spalding.  I purchased the 4th edition along with teaching material from The Riggs Institute at a used book sale.  I also got a 5th edition from our local public library for comparison.  These two editions are grossly different. 

The 4th edition was the last revision during Ms. Spalding's lifetime.  It's very basic, has larger print, and includes the 70 phonogram cards you need for teaching. It's 288 pages.  The 5th edition has smaller print, gives scripted samples of a lesson, includes a list of the 70 phonograms though not in card form, and is 471 pages.  It is divided into two parts: "Lessons, Procedures, and Why This Method Works", which describes the content and methodology of the program, and "Instructional Materials", for use in lesson planning and instruction.  I believe the idea behind this was to make WRTR more user friendly as it's typically described as "being a beast to teach" by many.  Other changes in the 5th edition are a revised Extended Ayres Word List and an updated list of recommended children's literature.  Additions include a section on syllable division, recommended language arts scope and sequence, and a framework for planning integrated language arts lessons.  

I should note, WRTR is now in it's 6th edition, which was written to align with The Common Core State Standards.  I understand it's similar to the 5th edition, but I have not seen it yet.  
 

I love the idea of the spelling notebook the child creates while progressing through WRTR as they learn the phonograms and spelling rules.  However, again, I'm not crazy about the marking system.  I went through all seven levels of All About Spelling and The Writing Road to Reading and created a comparison chart of the phonograms taught. 

All About Spelling Phonogram Sequence

Level 1

a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
i	j	k	l	m	n	o	p
qu	r	s	t	u	v	w	x
y	z	th	sh	ch	ck	ng	nk

Level 2

wh	ee	er	ar	or	ou	oy	oi
aw	au	ow

Level 3

ay	ai	ur	oa	oo	ea	ed	igh
ir	ey

Level 4

tch	dge	ew	ei	wr	kn	eigh	ear
ph	ti	oe

Level 5

si

ie

ough

ui

gn

our

ci

Level 6

mb

gu

augh

Level 7

Writing Road to Reading Phonogram Sequence

First 70

a	c	d	f	g	o	s	qu
b	e	h	i	j	k	l	m
n	p	r	t	u	v	w	x
y	z	sh	ee	th	ow	ou	oo
ch	ar	ay	ai	oy	oi	er	ir
ur	wor	ear	ng	ea	aw	au	or
ck	wh	ed	ew	ui	oa	gu	ph
ough	oe	ey	igh	kn	gn	wr	ie
dge	ei	eigh	ti	si	ci

Additional 17

tch	eo	eau	augh	ce	gh	gi	our
di	cu	aigh	sc	ge	rh	eu	sci
pn

The initial 70 phonograms are the same, however, each program has added additional phonograms.  AAS teaches a new phonogram with it's spelling rule, then the child practices writing words, phrases, and sentences using the new material.  WRTR teaches all 70 phonograms upfront in a relatively short amount of time.  (one per day in kindergarten, 4 per day in 1st grade, all of them in a couple of weeks for upper grades) Then you go back and add words and rules to the phonograms creating a spelling notebook. 

I have not attempted this method, though it seems like a lot in a short amount of time, particularly for younger students.  It is recommended students spend two to three hours per day on the Spalding language arts program, which consists of spelling, writing, and reading lessons divided into three or four periods a day, with twenty to forty minutes on the spelling lesson alone, depending on grade level. 

After much research, I'm trying to devise a way to combine AAS and WRTR.  I'm thinking I would use AAS as the base, adding in the creation of a notebook used in WRTR.  I need to do some more brainstorming on this.

One other spelling book I picked up at a used book sale is How to Teach Spelling (HTTS).  I'm intrigued by this program in that it teaches phonograms and rules and is designed for kindergarten through adult.  You have the option of using a notebook or purchasing the three workbooks that accompany the program.  HTTS is relatively inexpensive compared to AAS.  However, I need to spend more time with it before giving a proper review and making a final decision. 

What's your favorite spelling program?  I'd love to hear more about it.  Please feel free to comment below.