Spelling and Writing Philosophy

The Good and the Beautiful not only makes homeschool…

  • Beautiful
  • Engaging
  • Inexpensive

and

  • Easy-to-Teach

but it is also

  • Academically Solid

 

Jenny Phillips—a best-selling author with a degree in English and work experience in technical writing, fiction writing, magazine writing, editing, and teaching language arts—developed the spelling and writing philosophy for the language arts courses through years of study and testing and with the help of a team of education specialists.

Spelling Philosophy—In a Nutshell

Children do not learn spelling best by practicing lists of random spelling words. Rather, children learn spelling best through a combination of the following experiences:

  • Reading a lot of high-quality literature
  • Practicing a short, carefully selected list of words for each level that includes rule breakers or commonly misspelled words
  • Practicing writing words with phonics principles that they are currently learning to read (This also speeds up and cements reading fluency.)
  • Learning a carefully selected, small list of spelling rules, determined to be the most useful (There are many spelling rules that are very complex or have more exceptions to the rule than instances that follow the rule. We’ve done the work to determine those that are the most useful, and they are incorporated into the courses.)

Writing Philosophy—In a Nutshell

A great writer is developed over many years through reading a large amount of high-quality literature, understanding the principles of effective writing, and gaining a creative and academically strong mind that can organize and describe things in effective and beautiful ways. The Good and the Beautiful creates solid writers in the following ways:

Reading Large Amounts of High-Quality Literature
  • Our methods expose children to a large amount of high-quality literature, which has proven to have the biggest impact on children’s writing skills.
Younger Children
  • Children in the lower level courses (Levels K–3) have the incredible capability to create, imagine, organize, and tell stories (sometimes it has to be found and cultivated, but it is there!). However, they are inhibited from writing down what they can form in their minds because of all the focus they have to put on their still-developing skills of correct letter formation, neat handwriting, spelling, grammar rules, and punctuation. Thus, writing can be a negative experience when it is too overwhelming for their developmental level. Our courses help young children gain a strong, confident foundation in handwriting, spelling, grammar, and punctuation, while exposing children to model examples of writing, giving them occasional, small writing projects, doing writing exercises to learn effective writing principles, and teaching them how to imagine, summarize, and organize information through oral narration. In addition, and perhaps most importantly, the lower level courses help shape children that can read well (and thus read a lot more literature) and think clearly and deeply.
Older Children
  • Oral narration and small, short writing exercises are replaced with full-length writing assignments in Level 4, when children are armed with the skills needed in handwriting, spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Children complete written exercises to learn effective writing principles, and the lessons walk the child step-by-step through the writing process. Assignments are meaningful and broken down into manageable pieces. The emphasis on writing increases with each level. Children continue to develop into strong writers through writing exercises and assignments, reading large amounts of high-quality literature, and learning to think well and deeply.