TOS Crew: IEW Primary Arts of Language

My son is six and I’ve tried various other resources for teaching him reading and writing and nothing has really clicked for him – enter in Institute for Excellence in Writing and their Primary Arts of Language curricula for children in ages K through 2nd.  IEW has become one of the most respected providers for writing and spelling curriculum for homeschool families and I’ve been eyeballing their choices but never have actually bought – which I’m now realizing is a shame.

I received the Primary Arts of Reading and the Primary Arts of Writing which while they can be purchased separately are supposed to be used together at the same time.  The program complements each other and I can’t tell you how much it is very easy to get everything ready to go and use it together.  The Primary Arts of Reading sells for $69.00 (if purchased separately $98) and will include the following items:

• Instructional Video by Jill Pike
• The Four Language Arts MP3 Audio by Andrew Pudewa
• Nurturing Competent Communicators MP3 Audio by Andrew Pudewa
• Poetry as an Integrator MP3 Audio by Anna Ingham
• Intro to the Blended Sound Sight Program MP3 Audio by Anna Ingham
• Primary Arts of Language Reading Student Book (e-book)
• Primary Arts of Language: Reading Teacher’s Manual
• Primary Arts of Language: Reading DVD-ROM
• Primary Arts of Language: Phonetic Games
• Primary Arts of Language: Phonetic Farm Folder w/stickers

Before I began using this with my son I watched the DVD-ROM which explains the whole program very thoroughly and read the first few lessons of the reading and writing teacher’s manuals.  I assembled some of the file folder games and printed off the worksheets I’d need for the first few lessons.  It’s set up to do a lesson a day but it’s also understood that not every child is ready to do a lesson a day so we did a lesson over two days.  So I divided our days into:

1. Poetry
2. Story and discussion
3. journal writing
4. Introduce the new letter(s)
5. go over helpers and their sounds

The next day we would finish the previous lesson:

1. Poetry
2. review the helpers
3. journal
4. play the games
5. do worksheets
6. spelling test

This was by far my son’s favorite part of the program.  He has learned several letters and we’re working on having him read some basic sentences like, “This is a ___________”, or “This is ________”.  As well as recognizing color words by using their helpers and whether a letter is a consonant or vowel.

Christian working on his cutting and pasting worksheet for reading.

The next part is the writing portion which sells for $89.00 for the set, or $113 if purchased separately.   This focuses on three main points, writing, spelling and composition – to be used together with the reading portion, unless your child is already reading.  I took dictation for my son when doing the journal portion while he can write it’s not legible, yet.  The spelling test were fairly simple, I tell him a letter sound that he already knows and he writes it on the box provided on the worksheet.  This was hit or miss but I would give him a high five after every correct one – it seems boys like that!

The writing package includes:

• Primary Arts of Language: Writing Teacher’s Manual
• Primary Arts of Language: Writing DVD-ROM which includes the following:  Instructional Video by Jill Pike, Reading Comprehension MP3 Audio by Adam Andrews, Dictation, Narration and Public Speaking MP3 Audio by Andrew Pudewa, The Four Language Arts MP3 Audio by Andrew Pudewa, Primary Arts of Language: Writing student books (e-book)
• All About Spelling Basic Interactive Kit
• All About Spelling Level 1 (Teacher’s Manual and One Student Material Packet by Marie Rippel
• Bonus e-audio downloads:

• Units 1 & 2 in the K–2 Classroom MP3 Audio by Shirley George
• Unit 3 in the K–2 Classroom MP3 Audio by Shirley George
• Preparing the K-2 Writing Environment MP3 Audio by Richelle Palmer

This product is wonderful!  If I could I’d write a book on this program – I have all the supplies in a basket that we can just grab or Christian can get his games out and play them at any time.  Even his sisters  enjoy playing the games with him – next to the games the phonics farm and it’s stickers are the favorite parts for Christian.  The best part to me is that he is reading, or at least beginning too and I’m so relieved that we’ve found a program that works for what Christian needs.

If you’d like to see what other homeschool parents thought about the Primary Arts in Language visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

**Disclaimer:  As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

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