Language Arts is the foundational subject of all other learning in my book. If you can’t communicate or read, learning much of anything becomes an almost impossible task. I have a love/hate relationship with Language Arts. I love it because I love words. I love logic. I love reading, writing, learning. These are my favorite things and without a good working knowledge of the Language Arts, I would be a very unhappy girl. : (
Teaching my children, on the other hand, to love Language Arts makes me hate it at times. I’ve recently discovered some wonderful things to help with this sometimes awful task so my delicate relationship with English is on the mend.
One of these resources is a curriculum called Language Smarts by The Critical Thinking Co.. Designed to teach Language Arts concepts by grade level, these books can be used as a core curriculum or as a supplement. We use them as a supplement to what we already do. This is very easy to do because there’s no preparation needed at all.
“Each section introduces a specific topic, followed by appropriate practice and application activities. These engaging and colorful lessons develop critical thinking and language arts skills through a variety of activities and different genres: Common Phrases, Palindromes, Pangrams, Mnemonics, Nursery Rhymes, Poems, Folk Tales (Fairy Tales and Fables), Fiction, Non-fiction, Reality, Fantasy, Rhyme, Riddle, and Word Play.”
-from The Critical Thinking Co. website
I’ve been using the second grade level Language Smarts Level C book ($39.95) with Beans, who is seven years old. He really enjoys working in this workbook. The actual book itself is very appealing! As thick and glossy as a department store catalog, this thing just begs to be picked up and opened. The pages are cool to the touch and super smooth. The only downside to this is deep pencil marks will leave a carbon copy effect on the following page. Mark easy or use crayons for this book. My son was thrilled to get his Level C workbook and immediately opened it up with pencil in hand.
Seriously, before the packaging could make it to the trash can he was already working on the first page. We sat together for a little while and did a few more pages. Amazed, I sat there with a mouth like a cod fish that my Beans was actually doing multiple Language Arts worksheets without being threatened with Wii time! This has always been his most dreaded daily task.
From the Mom perspective, these really are great books. The content is right on with where a 2 grade level student. I like the way the sections are broken up and taught fluidly. At times, the instructions are obvious to me, but not always to my son. This is something that will require a parent to be available for assistance. Not all the pages are this way, but a good majority of them are. For us, this is not a big issue. It gives me the opportunity to make sure he understands the concepts taught and I will often encourage him to tell me what he thinks he is supposed to do before I tell him. It’s a great way to build some deducing skills.
The Language Smarts series is available for purchase (along with many other really good resources) on The Critical Thinking Co. website. I highly recommend grabbing a cup of coffee and spending a little while perusing. They also offer books and software products for learning deductive reasoning, science, math and history. I viewed the samples of the science curriculum and I’m impressed with what they’ve done with your traditional T/F, fill in the blank material. Definitely take the time to look it over. 
If you’d like to try before you buy, you can find printable samples on the product description pages and software samples can be found here. Also, if you really like what you see and are considering buying several books, check out the bundles to see if they have a discounted set of what you’re looking for.
As fun as the workbooks of The Critical Learning Co. are, I’ll be picking up a few more for the other kiddos.
-Sara O’