For the past six weeks, I’ve been using Logic of English Foundations B in Cursive with Sterling as a part of a review for the Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Review Crew. Sterling is six, nearly seven, has just completed first grade, and has used Foundations A (also in Cursive) some last year. (I reviewed that here.) Logic of English is available in both cursive and manuscript, but since we’re working on cursive with Sterling anyhow, it seemed like a great way to keep going with that.
I want to love Logic of English. They learn. They are engaged. There’s no boredom. It’s a fabulous curriculum.
But it takes so much time. So much of my time. If I had fewer children, both to care for and to school, I could see loving it completely. If I were teaching a class of children, and not trying to accomplish everything that has to happen around here, I’d jump on this wagon for all of my children. I love the concept, even now. But I struggle, when time is so entirely valuable around here. And so, with mixed feelings on this one, I’m just not certain I can say I love it.
Sterling did Foundations A in August/September last year. We did it for the review period, but didn’t keep going – only because of the time required and because he knew much of what it was teaching. I was thrilled to review this again, with the next book in the series, to meet him where he is a bit better. It builds on itself so entirely, it would be hard not to start at the A book and work systematically through – possible, I suppose, but difficult. I jumped in with both feet this time, having Ruby listen along and work in book A where Sterling stopped and Sterling do Foundations B. We did Logic of English every day of our school week at home – for us, that’s four days a week. (We spend our fifth day at a homeschool co-op.) It teaches cursive in a systematic way, learning strokes and lines involved, and then putting them together to form letters. I have a horrible time remembering what each stroke is called in the book, and we’d often end up looking it up. The flashcards I received last year were invaluable again this time, and the laminated sheet of all the strokes was an often-checked resource. The whiteboard is a fun thing for the kids to practice on and has, I’m quite certain, caused better cooperation with practice – it’s fun, after all.
Logic of English includes handwriting, reading, and spelling in a systematic way that never becomes overwhelming. How can you become overwhelmed with learning cursive when today we’re just learning how to write a curved line? It’s perfect. It’s simple, builds on itself, and has plenty of opportunity for practicing what’s been learned – today and in days past.
What a mixed review. My only complaint is the time required. If that doesn’t bother you, jump in. It takes a bit of learning to figure it all out, but it’s pretty amazing once you do. The teacher’s book is completely necessary, steps you through, and tells you at the beginning of the lesson which flashcards and the like that you’ll need. The workbook is a fun addition to the curriculum, but it only touches the surface of what’s learned – most of the lesson is in the teacher’s manual. Logic of English claims to be “a complete Language Arts curriculum for children ages 4-7”, and it’s true. If you consider how many subjects it covers, the time spent on it each day isn’t even so bad – it took us about and hour, sometimes just over an hour, each day. It is, though, super teacher involved – even the workbook seat work required my time and attention most of the time.
Logic of English can be found on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube.
Logic of English Foundations B can be found here for purchase. The Teacher’s Manual is $38.00 and the Workbook, available in Cursive or Manuscript, is $18.00. The reusable resources I used in my last review and again this time (flashcards, white board, etc.) is $37.00 and available here.
For the rest of the Crew’s opinions on the Logic of English curriculum and the levels they reviewed, you’ll find a linky on the Review Crew Blog that will list the reviews from the Crew for Logic of English.
