We’ve recently finished the entire Nessy phonics program, and I’ve been on the search for a grammar and writing program that fits the parameters of my son’s personality and dyslexia struggles. His learning style is humor, (and no, you won’t see that on any learning style list, but trust me—it’s a thing). That was one of the key successes with Nessy for him; the humorous videos helped him to finally remember the phonograms we’d been struggling to learn for a while. For grammar and writing, he needed something visual, humorous, and creative—a hands-on homeschool language arts curriculum that was fun.
Finding Guest Hollow’s Language Arts program was like having someone read my mind. Her Beowulf’s Grammar activities and lesson plans are full of picture books, drawing lessons, finger puppets, and projects tailor-made for my son.
(Disclaimer: I received elements of this program for free in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for a positive review. All opinions are my own.)
Guest Hollow’s Hands-on Language Arts Homeschool Curriculum
The Details
Beowulf’s Grammar is written and taught from the perspective of a friendly family dog. It is colorful, engaging, and hands-on—and very thorough. All the parts of speech, as well as diagramming, are taught and reinforced in a variety of activities. This curriculum is packed, giving you tons of activities to choose from. Though the lesson plans (see below) pace this for one year, you could easily take two years to complete it all. Even then you will probably want to pick and choose the activities your child will most resonate with. (Glance at the complete table of contents on this page.)
The Teachers Manual includes all of the answers, teaching tips, and several additional learning activities, including writing exercises. The accompanying lesson plans provide a daily schedule of what to cover each week, plus a list of additional online activities, videos, and picture books to provide even more reinforcement.
Beowulf’s Grammar and the Teacher Manual are a very full program all by themselves, covering both grammar and some writing. Add Guest Hollow’s Language Arts lesson plans, and you’ve covered spelling, vocabulary, a variety of writing styles, poetry, and even some reading recommendations—a very complete language arts program, perfect for elementary grades 2-6. (Although, I typically wait to introduce grammar until reading skills are well on their way, but that’s coming from someone who’s on “round 2” of teaching a child with language-based difficulties.)
My Organization and Set-up
Beowulf’s Grammar is a downloadable pdf that comes in four parts of about 100 pages each (last section is 130 pages). It’s a lot of printing, a lot of paper, and a lot of colored ink. But for me, paper and ink are part of our budgeted homeschool expenses. That said, I did only print off part 1 (about 94 pages). I would recommend single-page printing since many of the activities involve cutting and pasting. Because the pages printed with very tight margins, I was afraid to whole punch or bind it. There might have been a printer option to increase the margins, but I missed that and wasn’t about to reprint it all. Instead, I decided to use a binder clip and slip it into a binder envelope pocket that I often use for lapbooks and other projects. I’ve actually loved using it this way. I use a sticky tab on the side to mark where we are at, open right up to where we need to be, and pull out exactly what we need. As we’ve gone along, there have been a few pages that I wanted to laminate and keep as reference charts, so I was really glad I hadn’t whole-punched.
The Teacher Manual is a downloadable pdf as well and just as extensive; so for this one, I opted to upload it to iBooks. I reference it from my tablet and print off a page here or there as we need it.
The Guest Hollow Language Arts lesson plans are accessible online as well as a printable pdf, and I really like this option since a lot of resources are hyperlinked. However, I did print it off as well (a mere 88 pages) for quick reference when I need to double-check what I need for the day or where we are at.
Overall, I’ve been very content with this set-up and don’t anticipate changing anything in the fall when we head back into this. I’m assuming that I will need to print Part 2 of Beowulf’s Grammar right around our Christmas break. And yes, I do plan on taking about 2 years to complete this program. There is too much goodness to rush through!
Our Favorites
I honestly can’t tell you what activities have been our favorite. We’ve loved them all! My son belly-laughed over the mad-libs noun recipe he made up and begged me to print off more copies so that he could write more recipes. He thoroughly enjoyed creating his noun treasure hunt page. And the Story Magnet Noun Hunt was another brilliant idea, so much fun. The program provides plenty of review and variety without filling out page after page of workbook exercises (which is what your typical grammar program includes). Beowulf’s Grammar allowed him to experience nouns in a variety of ways and interact with them creatively over and over again, really reinforcing his understanding. Things like abstract nouns, that had been so difficult for my daughter to understand (she’s my other dyslexic child), were presented so clearly and easily that he had very little trouble understanding them.
Because of the Covid-19 lockdowns, we didn’t have access to our library, which made accessing the recommended Bryan Cleary grammar books very difficult. But some of the other recommended picture books and resources for writing and spelling that I purchased were absolutely brilliant!
Hangman for spelling review was such a hit that my sixth-grade daughter brought out her spelling book and asked to join us. The Writer’s Toolbox gently presents a variety of writing genres and tips for letters, reports, poems, short stories, you name it! Let’s Draw a Story had him so inspired that we worked ahead, and he was soon off writing his own imitation adventure story. Another one of my favorites was The Jolly Postman, which told the story of a mailman delivering letters to fairy tale characters—letters included! One resource in particular that I was extremely impressed with was How to Tell a Story. The included cubes are creative, but it’s the book that really took me by surprise. I was expecting childish instructions and basic story writing. Instead, the depth and quality of instruction would make it just as suitable for my soon-to-be ninth grade who loves writing fiction, and the humorous quirky style of the author had him giggling as I read it aloud to him.
Everything I’ve seen and used, I’ve been enamored with. If I were to write my own language arts program, I’d want it to be just like this. I wouldn’t change a thing. The writing instruction is excellent, the grammar is just what it needs to be, even the spelling was a pleasant surprise!
A Note about the Spelling:
The Guest Hollow Language Arts plan uses a free resource called Modern Speller which teaches spelling through a series of copywork and dictation lessons. (You could easily replace this with a spelling curriculum of your choice, and I almost did. This method of using copywork/dictation for spelling was such a huge fail for both of my other two kids that I nearly didn’t give this a try. But, in order to present you with a complete review, I opted to try it out for a week or two just to see. My youngest loved it and really excelled! I copy the sentences onto our whiteboard, and he copies them onto his special handwriting paper (primary lines). Though the curriculum recommends coming back later in the day for dictation, I leave the sentences on the board all day, erase them the following day, and choose one sentence to give as dictation.
Additionally, there are just a handful of spelling words that are emphasized with each lesson. These I write on index cards, and we practice with them for a few minutes each day, adding our new word cards with each lesson. Sometimes he practiced with Bananagrams tiles or the hangman game; other times, I’d call out the word and he would hop across the floor as he spelled it out (similar to “red light-green light” or “what time is it Mr. Fox”). If he misspelled the word, I would show it to him, and he’d take a step back for each letter in the word. When he made it across the floor to me, he won.
Even though I had my doubts, we’ve both really liked this method, so at this point I plan on continuing with this method and not purchasing the spelling I originally planned to purchase.
For vocabulary, the Guest Hollow Language Arts program recommends English from the Roots up and Rummy Roots. I went ahead and purchased the English for the Roots Up flashcards rather than the book itself and intend to use this next fall with both of my younger two (rising 3rd grader and 7th grader).
Guest Hollow’s Language Arts program is top-notch! I wish I’d know about it for all of my kids. We’ve paused using it for now, at the end of the nouns section, but it’s taking all my self-control not to make it a summer subject. I just can’t wait to teach it. And that, friend, is when you know you’ve struck gold, when you’ve got a subject you can’t wait to teach and your student can’t wait to learn.
Beowulf’s Grammar and the Teacher Manual are available on the Guest Hollow website as a bundle for $40, and the Guest Hollow Lesson Plans are available for $20. Many of the additional resources are optional or can be found at your library, making this flexible no matter what your budget.
Best yet, Guest Hollow has generously offered Beowulf’s Grammar and Teacher Manual as well as the Language Arts lesson plans for free to one of you! Enter the giveaway below for a chance to win, or visit Guest Hollow’s website to check out some samples and to purchase your own.
Guest Hollow Language Arts Giveaway
What you’ll receive:
Enter the giveaway below for a chance to win the free downloadable pdfs for the following products:
- Beowulf’s Grammar
- Beowulf’s Grammar Teacher Manual
- Guest Hollow Language Arts curriculum and lesson plans
