Logic of English Essentials - TOS Review

I love reading and consider reading to be an essential skill. Reading has been a big focus of Miss K's learning. Miss K and I have been spending the past few weeks working on reading skills while reviewing Essentials 2nd Edition from Logic of English.

Logic of English combines the science of reading with the joy of learning. The goal of Logic of English is to enable all people to read proficiently. This is designed to teach reading, writing, spelling, phonics and grammar in a logical manner. Logic of English is designed for all ages, abilities and learning styles.

Before receiving Logic of English I had heard a friend talk about this program. I was curious about the program. Reading is one of Miss K's strong skills but this is a still that we are continuing to develop. I was also at the point of wanting to work more on writing and spelling and I am always interested in what I can do to help with phonics.

For this review I received the following:

Essentials Teacher's Manual
Essentials Student workbook
Spelling Journal
Basic Phonogram Flash Cards
Spelling Rule Flash Cards
Grammar Rule Flash Cards
Advanced Phonogram Flash Cards
Phonogram Game Cards
Phonogram Game Tiles
Phonogram & Spelling Rule Quick Reference Chart
Spelling Analysis Card

I also received The Essentials Reader, The Essentials Reader Student Activity Book and The Essentials Reader Teacher's Guide as downloads. I printed the student activity book and wished I had printed all of them but some of that is my love for having a paper copy.

I was eager to receive this and I was tracking it waiting for it to arrive. I unpacked the box and began reading the Teacher's Guide. I do suggest that you have some time to just read and begin to understand the methods of teaching and also a bit of time to organise all the cards.

Essentials is designed for learners 7+. The first thing that Miss K and I did together was a Placement Test. Based on the results of the placement test there are pre-lessons that are to be done before beginning the lessons. I found this helpful as there were a few gaps that we just needed to review and learn. The placement test also determines which level to teach.

Logic of English teaches and uses terms that I did not learn until I was in grad school words like phoneme, phonograms, and morphemes. That is how English is broken down and how you find the logic.

The teacher's guide has a bit of a script for you to follow but also has information there for you to understand and be able to teach. There are teacher tips throughout the lesson. The lesson is divided into five days. I did find that I had to adjust that a bit just for us to keep Miss K engaged and working through the lesson. She is a slower student and we needed that. There are suggested games to play and activities. There are clear directions as to when to use the student workbook.

Grammar is taught right from lesson 1. I like the integrated approach. I wish we had used this a few years ago so we would learn grammar as we learn to read.

The Essentials Reader is designed to supplement for the older student struggling to read. It is scheduled to be done on day 4. This includes pre-reading, post-reading, and handwriting. Lesson 1 included a number of tongue twisters which required careful pronunciation of each phonogram. There is basically one lesson in here for each lesson in Essentials.

The first part of Lesson 1 was a review and teaching of phonograms. Miss K knows most of her sounds but has a few trouble sounds. This gave me an opportunity to work with her on those sounds. It was a bit of combining speech therapy with reading.

Just in the few weeks have we have used this I can see an improvement in spelling. Today Miss K said, "I know how to spell book" and she wrote it on her list of things to do. I am eager to see how much her spelling improves as we continue through the book.

I love when there are glimpses of how the child is learning. The other day Miss K was talking and said, "fast" and then she paused and sounded out each phonogram. She understood. This is helping her to slow down a bit in her speech which needs to happen.

Examples of Miss K's spelling.

Overall I have been very impressed with Logic of English Essentials for Miss K, a special needs learner. I felt that she was improving, she was confident, and progressing. There were some adaptions that were needed, slowing down a bit, circling rather than underlining, and adding a bit more review. Essentials is great for a special needs learner.

I am thankful for the opportunity we had to use this. I am excited to see how this has helped Miss K to progress.


Beth