We recently had the opportunity to review Primary Language Lessons – Part 1 and Part 2 re-written by Cynthia Albright. She has made learning language arts classically much easier.

Primary Language Lessons – Part 1 and Part 2 are based on the 1911 copy of Primary Language Lessons. Using classic materials for instructing our children is always ideal. Trouble comes in with the way that textbooks used to be written. Language has changed slightly. The teaching methods though used in these books are timeless and helpful. Cynthia Albright wanted to use the original Primary Language Lessons written by Emma Serl with her children, but she saw the need to make a few changes. She took the time to re-write and make necessary adjustments to use them with her children. She then shared them with everyone.

Some of the adjustments she made include adding: a glossary, vocabulary to the glossary, a resource list (full of wonderful resources), lines, so that when you print the workbook pages, students can write directly in their book, dictation sheets, and she adjusted some writing lessons.

You can purchase these updated versions of Primary Language Lessons – Part 1 and Part 2 in easily downloadable PDFs.Primary Language Lessons – Part 1 is meant for Grade 2 and Primary Language Lessons – Part 2 for Grade 3. If you have older children, she has lessons for Grades 4 – 6 on her Intermediate Language Lessons site. You can also buy an updated Teacher’s Guide, but it is not necessary for using this curriculum.

The format was quite easy to use. The PDF files were easy to download. Each Part is 180 pages. The lessons are in a Daily format. I printed so many lessons for each week. I genuinely loved the layout, and the girls were getting copy work practice and language arts skills all in one lesson. There were lessons centered around poetry and essential sentence writing skills. Using this classical approach was not a possibility that I had thought of previously.

Each lesson only takes 10 – 15 minutes to complete. Perfect length for kids with shorter attention spans. Lydia and Caty both really enjoyed the amount of nature and animal pictures included in this classic format. The simple black and white format was not distracting and kept sensory issues down.

Skills they have worked on include letter writing, singular/plural, dialog, sentence creation, contractions, picture search, and even narration. The format on each page was easy to understand and there was plenty of space on each page for the girls to write. I really did like the PDF format since I could reprint any materials that they needed extra help on.

The price and quality of the content on Primary Language Lessons – Part 1 and Primary Language Lessons – Part 2 is wonderful. I have been incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to use this program and recommend it to others when they are searching. We will be advancing to Intermediate Language Lessons.

-Product review by Renita Kuehner, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, January 2019