Scheduling WWS 2

[Goldilocks]

My DS 14 is working on WWS 2 this year. We schedule about an hour per day for completing writing, but some of the assignments seem really long. I would really like him to stay on track and complete the book this year, but it is a lot of work.

 

What has been your experience? 

[Woodland Mist Academy]

I give my daughter extra time for the writing assignments. I keep close tabs on her to make sure she is on task, though. Last year she was sneaking in other writing during that time. She needs extra time even when she is focused on the assignments, just not nearly as much time as she was taking last year. Lesson learned. ;)

 

My daughter will take longer than a year to do the book. Not only do I give extra time for assignments, but when she has important outside writing to do, such as applications or speeches, we use writing time for those for a few days.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Ds11.9 is using this after completing WWS 1 and IEW SWI B in two years. When one day has too much, I tell him to split it into two days. I do not want to frustrate him or make this too long at one sitting. We will probably take 1.5 school years to finish this level.

[lewelma]

DS did the first 3 days all on Monday so that he had all week to write and edit.

 

Ruth in NZ

[JadeOrchidSong]

DS did the first 3 days all on Monday so that he had all week to write and edit.

 

Ruth in NZ

He is such a fast learner and worker. How long does Monday take? I can't imagine. Every student is different.

[lewelma]

Well, I just went and got WWS2 out, and it is not exactly the same as the beta version that I was referring to.  Plus, I think my memory must be shaky.

 

DS typically put 1.5 hours to WWS2 5 days a week.  I believe that he tried to do days 1-3 on Monday and Tuesday (so 2 days not 1).  Which gave him 3 days to write and edit his compositions, because he did not do any of the copia work.  Also if ever day 1 was read a story, he did that Sunday night.

 

HTH,

 

Ruth in NZ

[Goldilocks]

Thanks for those details. I think I am underestimating the time that this program takes.

[PeterPan]

I cut out things from WWS2 that duplicated what we had done in other ways or with other programs.  (The copia especially was redundant.)  I then went through the book, generally on Sunday nights, highlighting the instructions in the lessons, using a different color for each day/chunk of work.  So if I thought she could do say day 1 and day 2 in ~40 mental minutes (not counting dawdling, distractions, meltdowns, and other reality), then that all got one color, say orange.  If I looked at day 3 and thought it needed 2 days, then I divided that into two colors as I highlighted (blue, pink).  And so on.  

 

I skipped whole weeks.  I really got radical with it.  As you say, it just really depends on the student.  I felt like done imperfectly was better than not done.  And we got through it that way, which to me was success.  She's a faster, more comfortable writer as a result.  

 

As for time, I'd say, yes, her chunks sometimes took her much longer.  I didn't sit there timing them.  When I go through her stuff for any subject, I sort of use mental estimates of 20 minutes or 40 minutes.  I can't help that some things take longer, turn out to be hard (for her), or that she's having a bad day or whatever.  At this point in our lives I'm trying to be a little less NICE if that makes sense.  I guess decide if that's the appropriate stretch for your dc.  For my dc, it was timely and a good stretch.  I know other people who work consistently 20 minutes or whatever a day and that's just how they roll.  And they get good results doing it!  My dd does better with a bit more concrete end and a deadline to push for.  Some things really are hard for her, so having that concrete expectation, an inflexible deadline, helps.

 

Oh, I think I only planned WWS four days a week.  I doubt I was expecting 5 days a week at that load.  That way she had a day for fudge.  That's what I do any time the workload is heavy like that.  If it's so heavy that she CAN'T physically handle doubling up, then I'm not likely to plan it for a full five days a week.  If I do (say for math), then it's with the assumption that I'm cool with her carrying it over to the weekend.  I'm cool with weekend homework, and it actually helps us transition back into Monday better.  It's just I don't want too much on the weekend, just one or two small things.  So anything heavy like writing is typically going to be 4 days a week to make sure it can actually get done in her reality.  

[Penelope]

For WWS1, some of the weeks required more time.

 

For WWS2, though ds has pretty much taken the week given in the the guide. Some of the weeks do take much more time than others. But we take breaks from WWS, so after 4-6 weeks of it, we stop for a week or two and focus on writing in history or science using the WWS skills, or even just do more freewriting or narrations.

[MrsH]

We plan to take 2 years with it. Much of the reading feels too hard to her, so we're working on vocab and comprehension strategies.