Book Review: Language Lessons for a Living Education 2

Language Lessons for a Living Education 2, written by Kristen Pratt, is an all inclusive (includes a recommended list of reading books) 2nd grade language arts course. Phonics, sentence formation, reading comprehension, spelling, types of words (antonyms, synonyms, etc.), worksheets, quizzes, and dictionary-building are a sampling of the course work. Students will be practicing independent reading of age/ability-appropriate books which the parent keeps track of on a chart. Over the school year, scripture memorization, writing, oral narration, review, and vocabulary are practiced/retained.

I love that the “Tell Your Story” sections include illustration boxes for your student to add illustrations to his/her writing. The choice of font used throughout the book draws your child’s attention to the work or question at hand. Overall, it’s an aesthetically appealing book and continues to build on learned concepts.

We’ve used a variety of language arts curricula over the years with our children and there are aspects of each that I would love to see pulled together into one book. While this book is intended to stand alone, I’m going to use it (Language Lessons for a Living Education 3) as a supplement to our current language arts course and see how things progress side by side. I can see my son enjoying the format.

Master Books publishes fantastic homeschool books, such as this, that include various facets of daily subjects under the umbrella of a single topic. I love that so many sides of language learning are included in a single lesson/unit. One book=multi-practice of skills. Clicking on any of the links above will direct you to their website where you can download a preview of Language Lessons, the table of contents, as well as the list of suggested reading books.