Navigating Language Arts with a Solid Guide

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Here at The Book House we love literature oriented curriculum and I am always glad to discover different approaches to teaching Language Arts. Recently, I was able to review Home School Navigators Reading and Language Arts Curriculum with several of my kids.

This is an online subscription-based program that uses a combination of physical books, video teaching, printable worksheets, creative writing prompts, poetry and more. It might sound like a lot, but the program is well thought out, streamlined and neatly organized. The first thing that appealed to me was the simplified and easy to understand at a glance Teaching Guide.

Teach at a Glance, Plan Weeks Ahead

Tasks are broken down to make teaching as simple as possible. I love the heading of the guide pages; Month 1 – Week 2 – Day 4. You never have to guess what to do today because the tasks are literally numbered for you to complete in order. Need a quick overview? You have a nine month, one page calendar, breaking down month-to-month, exactly what you will be covering for the school year. Subjects you will cover over the year in this comprehensive Language Arts Program are…

Literature and Composition
Reading Skills and Strategy
Writing Skills
Grammar
Phonics
Word Study and Vocabulary
Handwriting

Stream Lined Teaching with a Mix of Books & Multimedia

I signed up four students and at first was afraid I had been overly ambitious. Because the program is literature based, I expected as a committed full time user I would want to purchase the books we were scheduled to read. However, since we were reviewing just the first month or so, I was hesitant to incur the added expense of purchasing physical books for four students. It turned out that it was not a problem.

Navigator Schedule at a Glance.jpeg

The books for levels Red and Orange were often familiar and available at the library. Books like “The Mitten,” The Gingerbread Man,” and “The Little Red Hen.” Fortunately, for myself and as a bonus to the users, many of the books for the younger age levels are read aloud in video format. Several books could also be found being read aloud read on YouTube as well. Though I love physical books, it is good to know that you can use these video resources as well.

I did check the availability of all of the books for the Green Level that my daughter would be using. First, from the library; only one was available, but we are in a small, rural community, so I expected that. Next, I did a quick search on Amazon and found every title available for under $8 each. It would be easy to cart up the whole year, or purchase a semester at a time and create a nice little library of your own for the school year. The truth is that the price for the whole curriculum is very low, at $97 for the first student for the whole year. That is less than ten dollars a month. The books are used for a few week in the upper levels, so I feel that Home School Navigator is an affordable choice for any homeschool family.

Home School Navigator is Your Guide — No matter what level your learner is at, Home School Navigator will guide you in teaching a comprehensive Language Arts program using live books and video, with plenty of fun and the uncomplicated structure you desire.

Learning Tasks the Actually Teach and Connect

The student is asked to read the assigned book and then check their comprehension with a printed task. These varied widely and were always fun and engaging. None, were too long or difficult. Each week words are added to the “Word Wall” for spelling review and these words are also used for handwriting (cursive) practice.

EACH READING LEVEL INCLUDES:

A 36 Week Course
Daily Reading, Writing, and Word Study Lesson Plan (including flex days for your busy schedule!)
60 Instructional Videos
Word Study Program (including word wall headings, cards, and games)
Activities That Encourage Multiple Learning Styles
Monthly Skills Checklist
Online Portfolio Maintenance
Monthly Goal Sheet/Portfolio Check-In
Downloadable Review Games
And More!

Try it out Risk Free and Learn with Your Favorite Books

If you wanted to try out a portion of Home School Navigator’s curriculum over the summer or are looking for a supplement for your current program, I would suggest their interactive notebooks. You can easily add a study guide for any one of our favorite books. Among the titles available were, “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes,” “Because of Winn-Dixie,” “Shiloh” or “Holes.” I am not normally a note booking enthusiast but my kids did like using them. The interactive notebooks are a low risk way to see if your students will respond to this teaching format. Sometimes it is good to reintroduce an idea when your kids hit new learning stages or with different students. My older kids did not like note booking, but this new class of students surprised me by embracing the whole concept.

For clarity, brevity, and price, I feel like Home School Navigator is going to only continue to improve on the really solid product they have created for the homeschool community. It is well priced and the multimedia format is in line with how we are teaching students today. It is a powerful program to help establish life the long learning habit of reading success. Feel free to check out more families reviews by clicking the box below and check out Home School Navigator on all of your favorite social channels. Feel free to ask me any questions you might think of and I will get right back to you.