Conquer Elementary Reading and Language Arts with Pathways 2.0

Have you ever noticed how “language arts” encompasses so many other subtopics?

The thought of homeschooling this particular subject is likely to get a new homeschool parent a bit nervous. After all, there’s a lot to cover – reading, spelling, grammar, writing, and vocabulary to be precise.

Now that I’ve been homeschooling for a decade, I’ve learned a few tricks of the trade, such as combining combining combining!

Gone are the days my poor children used to have five separate workbooks for language arts alone. I’ve discovered far more practical ways to cover the bases. 

(I received this product for free and was compensated for my time in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are entirely my own.)

Pathways 2.0 by Kendall Hunt Publishing is one of them.

What is Pathways 2.0?

Pathways 2.0 is an elementary Christian reading program that integrates language arts into its activities. Since reading is so closely linked with all of the other categories of language arts, Kendall Hunt Publishing created this course to enable elementary age children to not only learn to read and comprehend, but also to write, spell, and learn sentence structure.

This curriculum spares absolutely no details. Included in the beginning of the Teacher Daily Lesson Guide is a comprehensive schedule that is planned out on a day-by-day and week-by-week basis, along with suggested assessments to determine where a child’s abilities fall on the learning spectrum.

 

Each grade level goes through a series of topics, including:

• Heroes
• My World
• Living Things
• Walking with God
• Friends and Family
• Environment
• Personal Feelings
• Yesterday
• Social Issues

(Check out this program brochure for more details.)

Using a trade book, or anchor text, as the focal point of each topic, activities encompassing Word Study, Reading Workshop, and Writing Workshop serve as a comprehensive language arts curriculum that is based upon the stories being studied.

How We Implemented Pathways 2.0

For those of you who have visited here before, you are well aware that we are a very relaxed homeschooling family. Part of the reason we do that is because as a mom of many, I tend to get overwhelmed if I try to accomplish too much at one time.

I’m going to be upfront and say that when I opened the Teacher Daily Lesson Guide for the first time, I was a little anxious. As I said earlier, this guide is detailed, and while some homeschooling parents absolutely love that, I can get a tad flustered before I catch my bearings.

But catch my bearings, I did.

Once I realized that each day’s lesson only contains three sections: Word Study, Reading Workshop, and Writing Workshop, I was able to breathe a little, and my daughter and I set out to have some fun.

One of my favorite things to do with my children is to read aloud, so I absolutely love that living books are incorporated into the activities and reading aloud is encouraged.

Our typical schedule for this curriculum was very simple:

We read the assigned pages of the anchor text, and then completed one activity from each of the three sections.

(I will confess that I sometimes simplified the activities, as many of them are written for classrooms. This curriculum would actually be wonderful for a co-op.)

At the back of the teacher’s guide is an appendix and any reproducibles your child will need to complete the activities. Other than a few suggested supplemental books, everything that you need is right in the Teacher Daily Lesson Guide, which made things very easy for this busy homeschool mom.

If you are looking for a reading/language arts resource that is fully integrated, head on over to Kendall Hunt Publishing and check out Pathways 2.0. 

It may be just what you’re looking for.