4th grade dd Aspie with writing g composition issues

[Guest mgood86]

I am homeschooling my dd in k12 mglva since last October and we struggle with composition and any kind of writing. Does anyone have any ideas I could use to get her writing without me having to do the work for her. She is extremely overwhelmed with all of the reports she has to write now. She has eight reports her composition and literature classes are requiring. So stressed and not knowing where to go. Please help.

[bluedarling]

Hmmm....I dropped a similar program when my oldest was young for that reason.  I took dictation then had him copy it (took him all week and many many tears to copy the page!), and they told me it wasn't good enough.  If the program isn't willing to make accommodations, it may be a poor placement.   My aspie was jr. high age before he could write anything.  When he was in public school they told us he'd never be able to write (and he's slow, but actually quite good, now!)  I don't know how much was age/maturity and how much the things we were doing to try to help helped, but we used Diane Crafts Writing 8 exercises (and it seemed to reduce some of the stress from writing...though he still types most things.)  He was about 5th grade before he was ready to start learning to type, but your daughter might be ready (girls are sometimes ready earlier.)  Typing was very helpful (especially with auto-correct for spelling!)  He also completed vision therapy in that timeframe, which probably factored in as well.  Its all a long process, though, and not something that will get your child writing reports this year...maybe in a couple years.  Your child is most likely not ready to write those reports, and when she is ready to write, you wouldn't start with a report...you'd start with something small and easy!  Your childs IEP should stipulate reduced writing requirements, and the teacher should make adjustments to what is required (perhaps allowing dictation.)  Otherwise, you may need to school "outside the box."

[Guest mgood86]

Thank you for responding. I will talk with the school about it then. I looked at her future assignments and they are asking for at least four more essays/book reports. By the end of the school year we both will be beyond stressed out. I will look into the writing exercises. I have discussed with my husband about not continuing with this program if they are so essay/book report oriented. Personally, I feel learning life lessons in core subjects is more important for her than needing to know how to write an essay properly. As an adult where have I ever needed to use the ability to write an essay properly in my typical life? No where. So why should I make her struggle and feel tortured to learn this? So perhaps homeschooling out of the box is what we need. We just have limited money and I feel at a loss where to find good curriculum without spending a lot of money. Not to mention the fear of buying a course only to find she can't work with it. Thank you again.

[bluedarling]

Hmmm....trying to think about how you could school out of the box on the cheap (and bumping hoping you'll get more responses!)

....work on typing (dance mat typing from BBC), use Rod and Staff grammar and do orally (some cost, but minimal) and writing-8 exercises for penmanship, and depending on reading level you may or may not need a program for that (no suggestions there...we mostly skipped that.)  For math maybe use CLE (some cost) or there is a free curriculum (search archives here...I don't recall what it was...I never used it.)  We used MathUSee with a lot of success, but its not exactly cheap. For social studies and science lots of documentaries with oral narration and books from the library (go interest led here if you feel inclined or look up grade level topics and find resources for those.)  Add in time in any special interests....wish I had spent more time there on electronics kits and music (for my son), but substitute whatever interests your child has or might like.  Take off the writing stress for now, and when you think she's ready to start pursuing it, that was one area I felt willing to spend money outsourcing....the outside teacher got so much more writing out of my child than I ever would have. (A friend actually taught my boys to write for free chatting online, but not everyone will have such a nice friend!)  The following year an outside instructor was very helpful (but my child was high school age by then!)  Free/cheap options generally require a bit more work from you in planning, but it can be done.  k12 was a disaster for 2 of the 3 children I tried it with (and writing was an issue for all 3 of them...the only reason it worked with one was because he tested out of doing any real work, and didn't learn a thing...that happened to be my oldest (aspie.))   For social studies in 4th, you could work on memorizing states using online games?  I got a $1 scholastic download for books that go along with state studies, and we read aloud a novel each week for the region we're studying, they also trace the region (but these are not dysgraphic kids...tracing would have been hard for them)...and memorization may be difficult as well.  It would make a nice last quarter study, though, if you aren't going to make it with K12.