Creative Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum for Kids That Need a Little Magic Dust

Do you know what happens with our homeschool language arts curriculum? We get bored! You know the curriculum, it’s usually a large work textbook or activity book that you have to spend 45 minutes to an hour each day diagramming sentences. Yes, after 14 years of homeschooling and three kids, you try different approaches and teaching methods, but no matter what, the language arts curriculum is usually the same. 

Look, let’s get this out of the way first. Should your homeschool language arts curriculum include grammar, spelling, and writing exercises? Of course! But I also know it doesn’t have to be completely dry and dull. 

Do you know the top three reasons homeschoolers tell me as a homeschool consultant why their language arts curriculum isn’t serving them well?

1. Repetitive Grammar Exercises: Some learners may find repetitive grammar exercises, such as completing numerous worksheets or drilling grammar rules, to be monotonous and uninteresting. While grammar is essential to language arts, overemphasizing repetitive exercises without variety or real-world application can lead to disengagement.
2. Dry or Dated Reading Materials: When a language arts curriculum relies solely on dry or dated reading materials, it can make the reading experience feel uninspiring and unengaging. Texts that lack relevance to students’ lives or fail to capture their interest can result in a disconnection from the material and decreased motivation.
3. Overemphasis on Test Prep: A homeschool language arts curriculum that excessively emphasizes test preparation and drills can lead to a sense of monotony and rote memorization. Focusing solely on preparing for standardized tests can overshadow the joy of exploring literature, developing creativity, and honing critical thinking skills, which are crucial aspects of language arts.

It’s important to mention that different students have different preferences and learning styles. But effective language arts curricula should balance structure and engagement.

Basically, we need to add a little magic dust for students who find all the details and rules of language arts incredibly dull. This is exactly what my own children have experienced already in elementary. 

As mentioned, we have tried multiple homeschool language arts options and even left a couple unfinished by our homeschool’s year-end. My kids were exhausted from our last homeschool language arts curriculum, and honestly, I was too. It took us at least 45 minutes each day to complete language arts, which didn’t even include reading aloud. (With two third graders.) 

I knew my kids needed a serious refresh from our last language arts curriculum, but I was searching for something unique. That’s where the magic dust comes in! Literary Adventures for Kids is a complete homeschool language arts curriculum for the whole family. 

I adore that Literary Adventures for Kids gets it! They understand that kids need adventure, excitement, and fun. Homeschool doesn’t have to be boring! 

So if you are like me and need that extra magic dust to keep your kids engaged and excited about your homeschool language arts curriculum, keep reading because this might change how you approach language arts. 

What to Expect from Literary Adventures for Kids? 

Literary Adventures for Kids is a comprehensive homeschool language arts curriculum that aims to foster a love for literature and encourage critical thinking skills in learners. With its unique blend of literature-based activities, this curriculum offers children an engaging and interactive learning experience. 

One of the standout features of Literary Adventures for Kids is its emphasis on using classic literature as the foundation for learning. The curriculum utilizes well-known works of literature and transforms them into immersive educational adventures. This approach exposes children to timeless stories and allows them to delve deeper into each book’s themes, characters, and settings. By exploring literature in this way, students are encouraged to think critically and make connections between the texts and the world around them.

Another unique aspect of Literary Adventures for Kids is the focus on developing language and literacy skills. The curriculum incorporates vocabulary-building exercises, writing prompts, and opportunities for creative expression. Students can expand their vocabulary, improve their writing abilities, and develop a deeper understanding of language arts through these activities.

Overall, Literary Adventures for Kids offers a compelling homeschool curriculum that fosters a love for literature and nurtures critical thinking skills and language arts. 

A Different Approach to Learning Language Arts at Home

One of our favorite homeschool activities has always been reading aloud. That’s why book clubs from Literary Adventures for Kids is perfect for our family. And actually, you don’t even have to read aloud. If you have independent readers, they can read on their own too. 

We chose to go with the full membership; however, there are multiple options to choose from if you want to purchase the book clubs separately. If you have more than one child, the complete membership is the way to go. It’s the best overall value. 

But Literary Adventures for Kid’s homeschool language arts curriculum is founded on book clubs. These book clubs can be done with all your children together, or you can have each child in a different club if you have varying grade levels. My two youngest are homeschooling on the same level, so we did ours together. 

Our first choice for our first book club was Where the Red Fern Grows. I had read this book in fourth grade, read it to my oldest in 10th grade, and my two youngest would read it at the beginning of their fourth-grade year. But honestly, reading through it this time through the Literary Adventures for Kids Book Club has been my favorite so far. Because we got to experience the book on a completely different level this time!

How Does A Book Club Work at Literary Adventures for Kids?

Let’s chat details of this homeschool language arts curriculum and how they approach teaching essential information like writing, vocabulary, grammar, and spelling. I will use the Where the Red Fern Grows Book Club for reference since that is what we most recently used. We found this to be such a natural way of learning language arts in elementary, I think it’s fantastic. 

1. The book club has been broken down into eight parts, and Literary Adventures for Kids recommends working through a book club per month. You are completing approximately 2-parts per week which is doable. We weren’t in a hurry to finish this one too soon, so we worked through the book club in about eight weeks. 
2. Each week we would read about three chapters. (If you were following the book club a month recommendation, your student would read closer to 6-7 chapters each week.) The kids are encouraged to keep a journal, so we used spiral notebooks and would jot down any sentences that stood out to the boys as we read or afterward. We would also note any words or phrases the boys didn’t know or understand to look up later. 
3. If you like to do copywork for handwriting practice as we do, allow your kids to use one of the sentences they jotted down in their journal for the week, and it can be reused for daily copywork. Or you could choose a sentence from the book for copywork each day or week. 
4. The kids are given a short list of vocabulary words from the book to write in their notebooks and copy down the definition. I love this approach to vocabulary because it applies real-time and real-world learning. This shows children how to expand on their current understanding and helps reinforce or introduce them to independent learning. These are essential and practical life skills; I love that it is more than just a boring textbook telling them what to learn without a why.
5. Now for the spelling and grammar, the boys are given a sentence from the book and asked to add it to their notebook. They have to review the sentence and ensure they have spelled everything correctly and used proper grammar, punctuation, and capitalization.
6. Lastly, you will find an age-appropriate video explaining something relative each time. It may be about conjunctions, dictation, or a writing assignment. My children loved that each week was different! We weren’t flipping the page of the same language arts textbook each day; we got to explore and learn something new and different daily. 
7. Rabbit trails! But that needs its own section. Read about this below. 

Our Favorite Part of Literary Adventures for Kids Book Clubs

This may be more than one favorite part because we had many! 

Rabbit Trails – Yes, we are indeed a rabbit trail kind of homeschool family. We enjoy looking up things that we may not be familiar with when reading. It’s our thing, and guess what? Literary Adventure for Kids loves rabbit trails too! 

Each week, my kids got to travel down multiple rabbit trails. This was fun and fascinating, too. Where the Red Fern Grows has fantastic rabbit trail ideas. 

Literary Adventures for Kids has the best rabbit trails to follow! The way they tie the books to real-world learning is the best. For example, we followed more than 40 rabbit trails in this book alone. This is a partial list, but it will give you an idea of how the Rabbit Trails connect you to the book and real life. 

Rabbit Trails of Where The Red Fern Grows Book Club with Literary Adventures for Kids

• Redbone Coonhound
• The Ozarks
• K.C. Baking Powder Can
• Cherokee Land
• Log Cabins
• Daniel Boone
• Maxwell Car
• Quarter Candy Bag
• Price of a Dog (or Two) 
• Raccoon
• Sycamore Tree
• Mule
• Coonskin Cap
• Red Fern
• Mountain Medicine
• Birds of the Ozarks
• Molasses
• And lots more!

 

Magic Dust – Another engaging activity that you get with the Book Clubs from Literary Adventures for Kids is the magic dust. Each book club has its own unique magical dust options, but for example, here are a few from Where the Red Fern Grows:

• Bake Cornbread (We did this and it tasted wonderful, but mine was too ugly for pictures! Lol) 
• Make Butter – We definitely recommend eating this with your warm cornbread. 
• Leaf Identification (Nature Study)
• Have a Pie Supper (My kids thought this was so cool, lol) 

 

 

Party – As a former homeschool group leader, I still love an excellent wrap-up party! We have always had celebrations in our homeschool to mark the end of a book, unit, or project. 

This has been one of the ways that I keep my kids excited about learning and returning to the homeschool table for more! Well, Literary Adventures for Kids shares my philosophy and gives you fantastic ideas for throwing an end-of-book club party at home. 

You get creative ideas for food, decorations, and activities to celebrate! We wrapped up our book club by watching the movie and incorporating biscuits and strawberry soda. I forgot to get any good pictures of movie night, but we had so much fun celebrating. Here is one of my boys tasting strawberry soda for the first time, it wasn’t what they thought it would be. lol

Will The Literary Adventures for Kids Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum Work for Your Family?

This is a great question, especially if you are homeschooling multiple children! I have used Literary Adventures for Kids with my high school ages daughter, around 9th or 10th grade. We used the Poetry and a Movie Curriculum for high school, and my daughter really enjoyed it. (And I loved it!) Now, we are using Literary Adventures for Kids for my elementary-aged boys, and they have had a wonderful time using the membership so far!

All that to say, Literary Adventures for Kids has something for every age, from early learners to senior year. I recommend looking into the membership options; you get a lot of value for a homeschool family. 

Plus, the book clubs and courses from Literary Adventures for Kids work well for all types of learning styles. 

If you are a parent interested in cultivating a more independent learner, it’s possible with Literary Adventures for Kids. The online learning platform is incredibly easy for kids to learn to navigate. Using Literary Adventures for Kids is an excellent opportunity to either introduce or practice working independently in your homeschool. 

A Flexible Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum for the Whole Family

As a busy homeschool parent, I respect that Literary Adventures for Kids knows we need flexibility when choosing a homeschool curriculum. So they have options allowing your family to select the best choice for your homeschool. 

• Membership: This option is the best value for your money if you have more than one student using their homeschool language arts courses or book clubs! With this option, you get access to all the book clubs, including the live book club events. 
• Bundle: With this option, you can choose a year’s worth of book clubs on your child’s grade level. 
• Book Club: If you want to buy individual book clubs, you can do that too! I think if you plan to buy more than one, you might as well get a bundle or the membership to save yourself some money in the long run. 

You can flexibly enjoy whatever option you choose at Literary Adventures for Kids. You can use Literary Adventures for Kids whenever it works best for your family. Since all of the book clubs and courses are online, you can choose when you want to access them. You can decide when to add language arts to your weekly homeschool routine. 

There are also no start or end dates, so if you are like us and take longer chasing down rabbit trails and fully immersing yourselves in a book for a while, then this will undoubtedly be your speed too. There is no rush to complete anything, and you decide when you are ready to move on. As a homeschool parent who despises curriculum with strict schedules, I love that Literary Adventures for Kids lets us linger in a book for as long as it takes. Because it’s a love of learning we are cultivating, not a race to complete the book. 

But, even with the flexibility offered with the membership and book clubs, there is also a sense of community! If you have children who thrive when they get a chance to connect with teachers and peers, they will love the live community events. 

Literary Adventures for Kids offers live poetry tea times, Summer Literature Camps, and live book clubs too! These live events are exciting, engaging for students, and filled with adventure. It’s a wonderful way for children to learn and connect with their online community. (I have seen some of the live events that Dachelle, the owner of LAFK, facilitates, and I was blown away! She is in full costume sometimes, teaching literature, talking poetry, and her students love it! I adore teachers that are passionate about what they are teaching.)

Visit Literary Adventures for Kids for Your Homeschool Language Arts Needs Today

This gives you a glimpse into how your family can approach learning language arts differently this homeschool year or semester. Or maybe you need a more relaxing approach to literature this year. Either way, you should look at the entire course and book club offerings here. Your kids will be so glad that you did! (and you will too.)

Try a FREE Book Club from Literary Adventures for Kids HERE