Language Arts and Living Books: Pathways 2.0 from Kendall Hunt
We follow a delight-directed, living books, unit study method of learning in our homeschool. This works well for my daughters’ learning styles and I appreciate being able to do many lessons together in spite of age differences. It’s great to see them making connections across the major subject areas, like history and language arts.
We also believe it’s important to learn with biographies, not just textbooks.
I generally put together my own unit studies from resources I pick and choose, but I looked forward to trying out Pathways 2.0 from Kendall Hunt Publishing as soon as I heard about it. Living books, language arts, and history are rolled into one with this program. It’s all ready to go with an easy to use Teacher Daily Lesson Guide that pairs with a companion book.
Pathways 2.0 Language Arts
Pathways 2.0 is a themed unit approach to language arts for grades 1-8. The units are:
- Heroes
- My World
- Living Things
- Walking With God
- Friends and Family
- Environment
- Personal Feelings
- Yesterday
- Social Issues
Pathways 2.0 emphasizes the love of reading and writing, which is something we really enjoy in our homeschool as a family of creatives. You can read all about the features of each theme in this description.
Kendall Hunt publishes curriculum with a Christian worldview, specifically Seventh Day Adventist. While we’re not a part of that denomination, I did not find anything that conflicted with my non-denominational Christian beliefs. I appreciate the character-building worldview that is integral to Pathways 2.0.
Although each unit can stand alone as it did here for us, combined they make a full year’s worth of study for each grade. The Teacher Daily Lesson Guide covers five days per week, but we did not follow that exactly. It’s no problem to adjust the schedule to your own homeschool routine.
Pathways 2.0 was written for a classroom setting, but is easily adaptable to homeschooling. The principles addressed are:
- Reading Instruction that fosters inquiry and a deeper student involvement in learning
- Spiritual Growth that helps students make good choices in life as well as in reading content
- Reading Motivation that helps students develop a lifelong passion for reading
- Writing and Expression that grows from reading and learning and helps create meaning for students
- Selective Topics that support and encourage writing practice for different purposes and audiences
- Reading Comprehension that grows from systematic instruction and learning strategies that students apply to literature and content subjects
- Phonics Skills that are developed through a sequential program of phonics that includes systematic, daily practice
- Spelling Instruction that is systematic, coordinated with phonics instruction, and addresses the specific developmental level of each student
- Assessment that not only provides teachers and parents with information and tools about student development, but helps students assess their own growth
- Classroom Management that includes whole-class, small group, and individual student activities.
Pathways 2.0 Grade 3: Heroes
We had the opportunity to take a look at Grade 3, Heroes. Our lessons were based on the book Fly High! The Story of Bessie Coleman by Louise Borden and Mary Kay Kroeger. Both of my daughters (8 and 10) worked on this together.
About the book:
When Bessie Coleman was a child, she wanted to be in school—not in the cotton fields of Texas, helping her family earn money. Bessie did everything she could do to learn under the most challenging of circumstances. At the end of each day in the fields, she checked the foreman’s numbers to make sure his math was correct. This was just the beginning for Bessie, and through her hard work and dedication, she became the first African American woman to hold a pilot’s license. She died in a plane crash in 1926 while testing her new aircraft. Her pioneering role was an inspiration to early pilots and to African American and Native American communities.
We were excited to learn more about Bessie Coleman since we recently did a unit study on Amelia Earhart. Women in flight are a great topic for unit studies!
The illustrations by Teresa Flavin are beautiful and draw readers into the story of Bessie Coleman’s life.
Pathways 2.0 Favorite Features
- Several of the grades focus on women in history — like Queen Bess, astronaut Ellen Ochoa, and of course Bessie Coleman. Since I’m raising three daughters, I always appreciate including positive women role models to study in our history lessons.
- Pathways 2.0 brought back some good memories of using Kendall Hunt’s Kindergarten Stepping Stones program just a few short years ago. The layout is similar and the way reading and writing are encouraged makes it so much fun for us.
- Open and go format makes it easy to teach. No guesswork or extensive prep time for homeschool moms.
- Quality literature-based lessons (i.e. living books) lead to great discussions beyond just language arts.
Connect with Kendall Hunt
Learn more about literature-based language arts with Pathways 2.0 on the Kendall Hunt website and the Pathways 2.0 brochure.
Find Kendall Hunt on Facebook and Twitter.
You can read my previous Kendall Hunt reviews:
Pathways: Faith-Based Reading and Language Arts
Faith-Based Learning with Kindergarten Stepping Stones
By Design: Faith-Based Elementary Science
Critical Thinking, Social Studies, and the Election Process
- Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt with free printable - December 18, 2024
- Customizing Your Homeschool Curriculum For Special Needs Students - December 11, 2024
- Keeping Christ in Christmas: A Review of Finding Jesus - November 29, 2024