I love Night Zoo Keeper! I wish my kid did as well! We did end up finding something that worked for her though. We went with Evan Moor's Daily 6 Writing Traits. Bite sized pieces of information helped her to want to write! And I just took the same approach as you, but with grammar 😬 I figure she'll learn it through writing. Oh! And being able to spell well helped her enjoy writing too!
We also began reading a poem a week to meet new authors and hear fun words like beseech but keeping it short and sweet. Something I've managed to sneak in and kiddo has been enjoying it. My kiddo prefers nonfiction and would much rather write about how Earth's moon was formed or why honeycombs are efficient designs. So I sneak in fiction writing where I can. We have been doing Super Silly Sentence prompts which have been a lot of fun and some days they become super silly paragraphs.
When did you start grammar? I am thinking of using the Brave Writer program starting in 2nd grade since those seem fun. Did you do grammar other than MCT?
I did with my oldest. We used First Language Lessons. Wasn't the best fit for us. We started grammar once my girls moved from learning to read to reading to learn.
We focus on learning to read using the All About Reading program, then add in simple grammar progressing to deeper grammar understanding with the Michael Clay Thompson program. Night Zookeeper reinforces what my girls are learning through their Language Arts program. Night Zookeeper can be used as a full Language Arts curriculum. Here's a link to give you some more insight. www.nightzookeeper.com/homeschool
Here comes my Whoo-whoo homeschool stance. Spelling out my homeschool writing philosophy for the first time. Eager to hear your thoughts!!
I love Night Zoo Keeper! I wish my kid did as well! We did end up finding something that worked for her though. We went with Evan Moor's Daily 6 Writing Traits. Bite sized pieces of information helped her to want to write! And I just took the same approach as you, but with grammar 😬 I figure she'll learn it through writing. Oh! And being able to spell well helped her enjoy writing too!
Glad you're finding what works!
We also began reading a poem a week to meet new authors and hear fun words like beseech but keeping it short and sweet. Something I've managed to sneak in and kiddo has been enjoying it. My kiddo prefers nonfiction and would much rather write about how Earth's moon was formed or why honeycombs are efficient designs. So I sneak in fiction writing where I can. We have been doing Super Silly Sentence prompts which have been a lot of fun and some days they become super silly paragraphs.
Love this!!
When did you start grammar? I am thinking of using the Brave Writer program starting in 2nd grade since those seem fun. Did you do grammar other than MCT?
I did with my oldest. We used First Language Lessons. Wasn't the best fit for us. We started grammar once my girls moved from learning to read to reading to learn.
Do you exclusively use Night Zookeeper to teach the foundational skills? If not, what do you supplement with?
We focus on learning to read using the All About Reading program, then add in simple grammar progressing to deeper grammar understanding with the Michael Clay Thompson program. Night Zookeeper reinforces what my girls are learning through their Language Arts program. Night Zookeeper can be used as a full Language Arts curriculum. Here's a link to give you some more insight. www.nightzookeeper.com/homeschool