Using a very traditional approach to teaching English, Seton's program is a thoroughly Catholic series of worktexts. I reviewed some but not all levels.
English for Young Catholics 1
An introduction to language arts, this book teaches sentences, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs. It also introduces creative writing, synonyms, homonyms, antonyms, rhyming, and contractions. An answer key is included at the back of the book. (not reviewed)
English for Young Catholics 2
In this second-grade book, a variety of exercises are used to teach alphabetizing, types of sentences, nouns, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, and adjectives. Among other skills covered are diagramming (introduced at the end of the book), contractions, letter writing, and story writing. Focus is primarily on grammar rather than composition.
English for Young Catholics 3
This level presents more instruction on composition than does the second-grade book, especially as it works on paragraph development. Using a variety of exercises, it reviews and expands coverage of nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, punctuation, capitalization, library/dictionary skills, and sentence diagramming. As in the earlier book, diagramming is presented in lessons at the end of the book. Illustrations are mostly black-and-white, mainly of saints and religious events in keeping with the thoroughly Catholic content of the book. (The content is actually so strong an education in Catholic history and thought that it might seem more important than the English skills being taught!) An answer key comes with the book.
English for Young Catholics 4
See the review of the third-grade level book in this series. The format is similar, with content more advanced in difficulty.
English for Young Catholics 5
Not reviewed.
English for Young Catholics 6
A minimal amount of instruction, often appearing in a box at the top of a lesson, is coupled with student exercises to provide plenty of practice with grammar concepts. Topics covered include all eight parts of speech, sentences, phrases, clauses, punctuation, capitalization, and letter writing. The usages of the various parts of speech are covered (e.g., pronouns used as predicate nominatives). Curiously, students at this level are required to write many sentences, but the only longer composition work is a brief lesson on letter writing at the very end. Also, diagramming is not included as it is in the younger level texts in this series. (Seton does include a section on diagramming in their Lesson Plans for students enrolled in their grade 6 correspondence course, but if you use this text apart from the correspondence course, you might also wish to use a supplemental book on diagramming or leave it till 7th grade where the focus is on diagramming.) While the content is very Catholic, that content doesn't weigh more heavily than English instruction as it seems to in the third-grade book. An answer key comes with the book.
English 7 for Young Catholics
The seventh-grade course concentrates on parts of speech and diagramming. The answer key is included in the book. (Not reviewed.)
English for Young Catholics 8
This eighth-grade book has a very traditional format; it presents the rule, offers some examples, then provides an exercise—e.g., fill-in-the-blank, circling the correct choice, writing sentences containing particular elements. It covers all eight parts of speech, phrases, clauses, and sentences. Diagramming examples are included at the back of the book. The book has some black-and-white illustrations and some spot color, and it comes with an answer key.
