Review: Logic of English

I wanted to do this review and yet I was a bit scared to sign up for it.  The review called for doing two lessons a week of 1.5 hours at a time... I know my boy, I know what he thinks with reading/writing.. and this was a solid concern for me.   I wondered how I was going to do it, hubby assured me that I should be able to break it up over the course of a day so I was encouraged to try it out.

I invite you to stop in and see how I made Logic of English work for us.  :)

Product Details.

Vendor: Logic of English
Product reviewed: Essentials: Logic of English Complete Set
I received the Manuscript version.
Age Range: Age 7 to adult.
Price: $243.00 for the complete set.
Available in Manuscript or Cursive editions.

We received Logic of English Essentials the complete set, for manuscript.   

Due to my son's styling and artistic endeavors with his words it may be hard to see that these are actual words. :) just shows he was having fun doing his Logic of English lessons. :)

What you get in the Complete set

• Essentials Teacher’s Manual (non-consumable)
• Essentials Student Workbook in Cursive or Manuscript (consumable)
• Spelling Journal (consumable)
• Basic Phonogram Flash Cards
• Advanced Phonogram Flash Cards
• Spelling Rule Flash Cards
• Grammar Rule Flash Cards
• Phonogram & Spelling Rule Quick Reference Chart
• Phonogram & Spelling Game Book
• 2 sets of Game Cards

Before I used it, I went through the teacher's manual.  I felt completely daunted and thought "what in the world did I sign up for?".   I dithered a bit, gathering my thoughts, read a couple of posts on our review board and realized that I wasn't alone in my thinking so gathered up my nerve and plunged in.   It wasn't as horrid as I thought it would be!  (aren't you glad to hear that?).  :)  

The lessons start with just reviewing the sounds of the alphabet but by paying attention to the shape of the mouth and what your teeth and tongue are doing.

it actually went fairly smoothly though my son fought the "why did I have to think about my tongue and the shape of my mouth".  UNTIL .....  (and this is an important clincher) he learned the difference between "F" "T" and "TH".   He has ALWAYS struggled with those sounds and now he knows how they are formed!  COOL!   We were hooked.   Now on to the meat of the program......

How we used this program.

I have to admit, I tried the 1.5 hours in this house.  Doing it in one shot, doing it over the course a day....  The result was this: one unhappy dad because of one VERY stressed out son.  NOT WORTH IT.    A stressed boy child, causing a stressed dad, which just makes the whole household a mess.   So I said.. I have to make this work.   I know I"m not the only family who will struggle with the intensity, so how can I make this work for us....There must be a way.

So I backed things up.    We did one lesson a week.   Doesn't seem like much, but it was highly effective and since there is SO MUCH information in the quality teacher's manual it worked for us.
We did about 15-20 minutes at a stretch and the result was this:
A lad happily working, no stress, learning!  WOOT WOOT!!!  Do you see that look of concentration on his face?  (in the pic below)
I now have a lad asking me "Mom, how do I write _____?"
The other day he composed a song and was helping me copy out the words for it.

I am STOKED!   My boy... wants to write and read more!!!!   WOOT WOOT!

When I asked my son what he thought of the program and how we made it work for us I got the following the response:

"MOM, I like this!".

"What?   You like this program????"  (I have to admit I was surprised!)

"Yes".

"Why?" I queried.

"I read better mom.  I can spell words better too!"

He's learning why the English Language is written as it is.  And why it's confusing sometimes, and he's not stressing out over it.  :)  I am SO pleased.

I have to admit... sounds are hard in this household.
They just are.
I find them hard myself and I am often found mispronouncing words.
My son just doesn't overall "GET IT" when it comes to sounds, but with this program we are both learning, and I like that he is starting to get it better.  :) 

ONE THING I wish they had was an actual sound component, as quite honestly.. I don't know how to make the some of the different sounds that letters makes.  I don't.  I'd love to actually be able to hear someone say them.   I don't know what the logistics of doing that would be though as how do you contend with accents and regional differences in sound?

One of my friends used the program with my son while I was laid up recently from surgery.  She is VERY interested in getting the program to use with her children.  She found it easy to use, likes that she can use games with all her children, and that she can do it all in an hour or so, or she can break it down into shorter segments like I do.

Essentials is a systematic system to teach spelling, reading, writing and grammar.

So just how do the lessons break down?

Each lesson is clearly laid out in the teacher's manual.

I'm going to use one of our recent lessons as an example.
At the start of the lesson there is a box that how what will be the focus of the lesson.  
For lesson three that means phonograms "er, or, ea, sh", exploring syllables, spelling rule 4 and grammar will be irregular plurals and non-count nouns.

Part One starts with a list of items needed: flash card for the phonograms, spelling rule card 4, phonogram game cards. 

Then off to learn the phonograms one card at a time.   Learning the sounds of each.

Syllables.   Learn the shape your mouth makes with different sounds, figure out what your tongue is doing as well.    Watch what your mouth does as you make vowels and consonants, The opening and closing of your mouth is a beat.   And from there the lesson goes on to explain what a syllable is.     And then one learns how to listen and sound the syllables in a word.   (my son was intrigued by this and practiced several times with different words like Fireheart and Cinderpelt.  " Mom.. They have three syllables right?"   
"Yep!" was my response.

Spelling Rule 4 is introduced.   Long Vowel sounds at the end of Syllables.  Once again The warrior clan cats were once again used to help reinforce this.   Tigerstarm Thunderclan etc.  :)  So nice to be able to use a favourite series to reinforce what learning is happening.  :)

Part two calls for doing a spelling list.

My approach as to say the spelling word, use it in a sentence and then as carefully as I could enunciate the word.   I wouldn't correct his spelling I would just say the list.  Then I would go back and say the word, use it in a sentence, and the spell it out loud.  The lad would tell me yes or no and then we'd compare the two, trying to sound out what the difference was.  The lad found that to be very helpful.    He really liked the last part of the spelling list when he needed to come up with new words based on the word used.  Sometimes it was a struggle for him... like.. MOM... YOU can't make a word from seven!!!   So I'd challenge him a bit on that.. and eventually he'd guess something    We would often do this part walking up and down the stairs.   For some reason that action took the pressure off and he would just think and walk and then say various words to go with the spelling list.

Part three covers grammar .. reviewing what a noun is, and introduces irregular plurals and non-count nouns.  This area also includes dictation and composition to be done orally.    Vocabulary is also developed.

That is the basic set up of a complete lesson.    The approach that worked best in our household was to break up a lesson over the course of 2-4 days.  It worked well and allowed for me to find books that would emphasis the different phonograms being worked on.   I have a series of books from Scholastic choice used to helping learn phonics.  Pictured below are two of them.   This systematic phonics program works well for us in this household at this point.  :)

My Final Analysis.

Logic of English is a definitive go to resource in our household.
We will continue to work our way through the book.
I am very grateful that we had a chance to review this very solid curriculum, developed by people who definitely have a passion for helping people learn how to read well.

I do hope that you will click on the banner below to read what other TOS reviewers though of the Logic of English products.  We did review several of their products.

Essentials: Logic of English Complete Set
Rhythm of Handwriting Cursive - Complete Set
Rhythm of Handwriting Manuscript - Complete Set
Foundations, Level A  also  REUSABLE RESOURCES. and some received the Doodling Dragons App
Foundations, Level B 
Foundations, Level C 
Phonics with Phonograms App

Did you know that you can also find Logic of English on various social media platforms?

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