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Looking for a New English/Language Arts Curiculum


KaliShanti
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Hi everyone! 

 

I'm looking for input from moms whose kids might be similar to my son.

 

He is 7, turning 8 in April. He is finishing up BJU's English grade 4 this year. He understands all the grammar parts to the curriculum, rarely getting any of the workbook incorrect. Bit he struggles with writing. If left to himself, he writes decently, but trying to make him write a structured essay is like pulling teeth. So I don't think we will continue BJU as it is half grammar, half writing. Plus it seems like each level of English with them goes over the same grammar rules, and my son doesn't need repetition in these areas much. 

 

More about him. His spelling level is about 8th grade level, reading high school level, vocabulary is decent- maybe upper elementary to middle school.

 

I'd like a Language Arts curriculum that doesn't repeat the same grammar rules every year, but maybe help struggling writers. I have three younger kids, too, one that homeschools on a normal K level, a 3 year old and a baby. So it needs to be something that won't take a ton of MY time teaching daily. 

 

Thoughts???

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Have you looked into any of the Writing With Ease programs? My eldest dd sounds similar to your son in terms of grammar, spelling, and reading capacity, and WWE2 was a pretty good fit for her at that age. It may seem like a step backwards (copywork, dictation), but it was really helpful for building her stamina and ability to write logically. We used WWE to level 3, and then switched to Writing & Rhetoric.

 

We're enjoying Writing & Rhetoric, and are currently partway through the third book. The fourth book introduces a simple essay format, and I'm absolutely fine with that pacing. I think that even accelerated 8 year-olds may not be ready to produce structured essays, and that's okay.

 

HTH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My son hated writing quite a lot up to fifth grade. It wasn't that he did not have ideas, but more that he could have cared less about writing them down. Lots of teeth pulling. This year (fifth grade) something has really shifted. Though writing is very much not the first thing he chooses to do, much less teeth pulling. He is perfectly happy setting up the entire essay himskef. Now the only friction occurs at the "follow your plan and write" level. It is still not ideal, but it is miles from fourth grade. Do not dispair! This might just be a situation of the brain and planets aligning for some kids.

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  • 3 months later...

Your son sounds a lot like mine.  We've been doing Abeka, supplementing with other various workbooks (parts of speech, sentence diagramming, etc.) and next year, I am planning on switching to MCT Grammar Town.  We used Writing with Skill beginning in February and it's helped with writing, but not exactly what I want for his "base" curriculum next year.  Depending on how Grammar Town goes, we might use WWS along with it, but for the moment, I don't plan on it.

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