Writing curriculum, or just let her go?

[Dmmetler]

I've limited writing this year to mostly learning HOW to physically write, starting to learn cursive, and copywork, with DD (young 6 yr old) doing narrations orally. However, she seems to have been bitten by a creative writing bug.

 

This is what she just handed me. I can't scan it because it's on a piece of paper bigger than my scanner. I've tried to replicate her spelling/punctuation.

 

(This is a story about a unicorn warrior I made up.)

RainbowStar was picking flowers for her mane, but sunndely a dragon apperd.

RainbowStar used her magic to kill the dragon and she went back to her rainbow hut and everything was fine.

 

 

-----

This is a child who, even a few weeks ago, was likely to get frustrated if a worksheet asked her to write a few words!

 

So...where do I go from here?

[Satori]

:bigear:

So far this year I've been focusing on grammar and spelling for my little writer. Most of the writing programs I've checked out are either for reluctant writers, are too easy, or require advanced grammar. Thus, we've been learning grammar very aggressively in hopes we could start using a more advanced writing program soon.

[Crimson Wife]

If you can find a copy of Writing in Narrative's Writing Man booklet, my kids all liked that in the primary grades.

[Kate CA]

I've limited writing this year to mostly learning HOW to physically write, starting to learn cursive, and copywork, with DD (young 6 yr old) doing narrations orally. However, she seems to have been bitten by a creative writing bug.

 

This is what she just handed me. I can't scan it because it's on a piece of paper bigger than my scanner. I've tried to replicate her spelling/punctuation.

 

(This is a story about a unicorn warrior I made up.)

RainbowStar was picking flowers for her mane, but sunndely a dragon apperd.

RainbowStar used her magic to kill the dragon and she went back to her rainbow hut and everything was fine.

 

 

-----

This is a child who, even a few weeks ago, was likely to get frustrated if a worksheet asked her to write a few words!

 

So...where do I go from here?

 

I would absolutely just let her go at this age and give her a little notebook in which to keep her creative bursts. I would consider WWE for next year. It is an excellent program.

[TracyP]

Did you happen to catch 8filltheheart's post on how she teaches writing? It is #33-34 on this thread. It made SO MUCH sense to me and has finally given me a direction to go with my dd. It is not age based but ability based. I knew we were ready to move forward but I had no idea what to do. Right now we are learning the parts of speech via copywork. This has been sooo easy. We will just continue to move step by step at her own pace.

 

In the meantime I am really happy to have at least been doing copywork. Her writing has really improved over the last year w/o any instruction. I know my dd's personality well enough to know that I could kill her enthusiasm really quick if I turned her creative writing into a "have to." (this may not be the case for you, IDK) I guess my point is that *I* don't see the need for a creative writing program. Journaling has been a huge hit. All I did was let her catch me journaling one day and she was begging for a journal of her own. I may put a bug in her ear from time to time but just letting her go has worked fine. Of course, she is only 7 so I'm not exactly the voice of experience by any means, this is just what is working so far.