CAP W&R

[Seeking Squirrels]

Three questions.

 

1. Is this at all religious?

 

2. Is this a reasonable curriculum for a 3rd grader with mild writing and expressive language delays? She can write, but she struggles with fine motor skills so it is taxing and takes her longer than average to get it down on paper. The expressive language delay is specifically with narration (doc thinks even selective mutism from anxiety) and is nearly recovered after anxiety meds and speech therapy.

 

She is doing okay right now in PS, if she comes home soon (likely) I want to make sure I continue pushing her to what she is capable of but I don't want to set us up for failure. So I don't want to weigh in the writing and language too heavily since she *IS* keeping up in school, but I do want to consider it so we don't pick something that is particularly advanced in those areas. 

 

3. If this one would be a bad fit, any recommendations instead?

[Ms.Ivy]

The books include some selections from ancient religious writings, such as Greek mythology and Hebrew/Christian scripture. You should be able to get an idea of the "religiousness" of the books from the samples on their website. It is not like Rod and Staff, for example, which might tell the student that Christians study grammar for this Christian reason. But it uses some scriptures as examples of literature.

 

I start my kids in the series in fourth grade, and we do a lot of it orally. We do all the "sentence play" and comprehension exercises aloud rather than writing answers. I think the exercises in the series are good for kids who don't talk a whole lot. I have a kid like that (she can't talk if she is stressed, and sometimes speaks very slowly) and while it is challenging for her to give an oral narration, it is exactly what she needs to practice. I stretched the first book out for a year with that kid because she is a bit dyslexic too. It is helping her a lot and she enjoys it.

[Seeking Squirrels]

Thank you.

 

DD actually talks A LOT. Non stop actually. But free speak. If there is a certain answer expected in any way, that's when she has trouble. She can make up a bedtime story just fine. But she can't tell you what just happened in the bedtime story I read. Or at least she couldn't before, she is doing so much better after only a few months of speech therapy and I'm sure the anxiety meds helped, too, since the doc thought that was probably the source. I like that much of it can be done orally. That way we can stretch just one of her problem areas at a time, rather than having to come up with AND physically write the sentence. 

[Guest]

WriteShop Primary or Junior would be a better choice I think because it is less writing at a time.

 

 

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[Seeking Squirrels]

WriteShop Primary or Junior would be a better choice I think because it is less writing at a time.

 

 

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I like the look of this, but I'm afraid it's too involved. We need less moving parts, especially for a subject that is so easy for us to want to set aside. I need open and go, nothing but paper and pencil to have ready. 

[Guest]

Sounds like you want WWE then.

[lexi]

I second WWE. I would possibly start with Level 1 for a gentle intro. It doesn't involve a ton of writing (it does have some copywork). My kids really enjoy it and the story excerpts.

 

W&R does have more writing but we do quite a bit orally. I sometimes do the writing for my kids as they dictate things to me. I wouldn't consider it to be overtly religious although it does have some proverbs and stories from different cultures and I think I remember a story or parable from the Bible in a lesson or two.

I feel like W&R is slightly more involved and parent intensive than WWE. The latter is more straightforward and simple. It's to the point and easy to use. I started with it for each of my kids and moved into W&R later.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

I feel she could do it, but it would stretch her a bit. I might wait until fourth grade instead. At the end of the book, you have to write your own fable. My son does better when I let him draft on the computer and then copy. We did some orally.

 

You might consider their grammar program to start with this year. WWE would help ease into things, but it is all narration and dictation. I wonder if MCT would be a good fit for her.

 

Since it is third grade, and many of these program say grade 3 or 4, I think you might have more success starting some of these programs in fourth grade. I'd take this year to establish good homeschool routines and focus on the components of a good sentence. For that, I think WWE would be good. But maybe look at more grammar this year to learn sentence structure well as a good foundation.

[Seeking Squirrels]

We tried WWE in 1st grade and it didn't go well. But maybe that's because for her, it was too soon. The output was just too much for her at that age. It took her five minutes to write one word in 1st. I pulled it out here and there through second, still the 1st grade book I had, since we'd only gotten to about week 11 in 1st. I don't remember how far we got doing it in second, but it wasn't a primary curriculum, so I didn't do it regularly. 

 

So would starting in WWE2 be a good fit?  

 

I've looked at MCT but I'm trying to limit the parent intensive curriculum and I was thinking this one was. Is it open and go without extra "stuff" to do? Can any parts of it be independent? I was going to get Language Smarts to cover grammar and have that in her independent folder to be worked on while I do school with my younger. 

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

MCT is definitely parent intensive. I do question WWE with some of the issues you mention. It's narration and dictation in level 2. What about something online like Khan Academy for language arts? Then you wouldn't have to worry as much about the physical act of writing. You can focus on sentence structure and then add some copywork for physical writing as she can handle it.

[Upennmama]

I would try WWE2, and maybe add in FLL1 or 2. Go at a slow pace and work on shorter amounts of copywork. Have her start with just a word or two and work her way up. 

[Seeking Squirrels]

Okay, so what about:

 

If she comes home at christmas break, we use the remainder of WWE1 and I cherry-pick lessons from FLL2 (which I already have) based off of what I know she knows or have seen her come home with from school. Then over the summer I can re-evaluate if we can manage MCT and hopefully go with that for 4th. 

 

And if she does not come home for the rest of this year, then I just leave it to the school and see if we can do MCT in the fall. 

 

I really do love MCT every time I look at it and I think it would be a good fit for DD. Math would be less parent-intensive since we've moved away from RS,  plus she's learned a lot of independent working skills from ps this year that we can apply to other areas, so maybe that would give us the chance to work in MCT. 

[TheAttachedMama]

nm

Edited December 4, 2016 by TheAttachedMama