I stopped by the annual GHSA curriculum fair today. This was the first year in well over 10 that I haven’t had some kind of display or table to tend to. Because this years’ fair was so early in the year, and interest seemed a little lacking, I didn’t want to put a lot of effort into manning a table this year. And it was very relaxing to be able to stop in and look around and just listen and talk to other homeschooling moms about what they use with their children.

Lots of talk on grammar and spelling. This seems to be a big concern with most homeschoolers. What is the best grammar program to use? What do you use for spelling? How do you get your child to write?

Coming home I pondered these questions and wondered what people would think about our methods or what curriculum we use.

When I arrived home I found Stephanie reading to Cassie and Eric from Eric’s DSi, where they were playing one of the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney games. Eric is reading along with Stephanie and Cassie is watching and trying to follow along as best as she can. I count this as their “reading curriculum”.

Yesterday in the car, Eric was reading through a Flipnote he had downloaded and was pointing out to me all the spelling errors he found in it. He told me the misspelled word and then spelled the correct word for me. Cassie listened and soaked up this information too. I’m sure that if I ask her how to spell “stair” she will have the correct spelling. This I count as their “spelling curriculum”.

At the office, Cassie and Eric both have a thick stack of papers stapled together into a “book”. Both of them have been writing and drawing in their books throughout the week. Eric has several stick figure comics happening and Cassie draws pictures and then puts titles to her pages. This is their “writing curriculum”.

As for Stephanie, she writes an average of 2,000 words per day on various forums, fan fictions sites, and on her collaborative story she is working on. Included in this writing is a lot of reading and of course spelling and grammar just go hand in hand with this all. It is my firm belief that spelling and grammar should not be taught as separate subjects but are a part of the whole “language arts” subject that also includes reading and writing. To separate these essential tools of reading and writing out of the program and treat them as a separate subject does a disservice to the English language. It really is all one.

So back at the fair, I smiled and nodded and asked or answered the appropriate questions. Pretended interest in these curricula and kept my money in my pocket. Yes there are good programs out there. And yes they are valuable for homeschoolers to use. But necessary? Not really.