What writing sequence for this child?

[sea_mommy]

I can already tell that my dd is going to be a different beast than my ds.  She is in K and is dictating stories and can narrate decently.

I have looked at the following programs:

​WWE (used with oldest)

​Writing Tales (used with oldest)

Treasured Conversations

Writing and Rhetoric

Memoria Press’ Classical Composition

??

Any suggestions on a good writing sequence for this child?  (I have to buy several years out, as we live overseas, so I am looking at buying for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade)

[SilverMoon]

I had/have one like that. :) In early elementary I focused on copywork. There were strong lessons in copywork even if she could make her own sentences comfortably. As she grew, writing books that gave her varied assignments worked FAR better than regular and predictable books. W&R worked really well, but she outgrew their publication schedule. I think she would have loved Treasured Conversations too.

 

WWE would have done her in. She -really- needs variety. Writing broken into tedious steps drove her batty too. (Igniting Your Writing, I'm looking at you. O_o)

[sea_mommy]

I had/have one like that. :) In early elementary I focused on copywork. There were strong lessons in copywork even if she could make her own sentences comfortably. As she grew, writing books that gave her varied assignments worked FAR better than regular and predictable books. W&R worked really well, but she outgrew their publication schedule. I think she would have loved Treasured Conversations too.

 

WWE would have done her in. She -really- needs variety. Writing broken into tedious steps drove her batty too. (Igniting Your Writing, I'm looking at you. O_o)

 

When did you start W&R?  Would you have used it all the way if it was already published?  If you could have used TC, what year would you have used it?

[PeterPan]

My dd was like that, a prolific narrator, and we used

 

-narrating fables from the Milo version of Aesop sold by SL

-IEW fables

-CW fables 

-WT1 and 2

-How to Report on Books (this is actually really fun!)

-Mrs. Renz 4th Grade Book Projects (love, love, love, love, totally free, google for it, she won Disney Teacher of the Year)

-writing prompts

-dictation from SWR and literature

-copywork

 

Really the other stuff came to her so easily (compared to my ds with SLDs, oy), that it left us room for more creative application. We did some short story writing prompt books. We did projects to bring writing creatively into our history. Have a little fun with it would be my advice. :)

[Raifta]

My DD is similar.  Honestly, for the early grades we did nothing formal for writing.  She just wrote.  She wrote short stories, she wrote news articles, she wrote advertisements, she wrote poems in different formats as a result of our poetry tea times and finding out about different formats.  

 

I couldn't stop her from writing. 

 

By third grade we started with formal programs but we used several - we used CAP's Writing & Rhetoric (we are still using it), we used MCT - did the whole program, the grammar, writing, poetry etc (still using that, have moved on to level 3) and starting in fourth grade we also used Bravewriter's Partnership Writing (now doing Faltering Ownership projects).  

 

Just to mix things up and because I felt it covered how to create a well-ordered paragraph and turn your point form notes into a paragraph, we also spent 6 months somewhere in grade 4 doing Treasured Conversations.

 

I felt that the writing programs in BW and MCT allowed for her to have fun and experiment within a certain structure whereas CAP and TC offered more explicit direction in some areas that I wanted to cover.

 

This might seem like a lot, but for her it wasn't; she has enjoyed all the different aspects we cover and still writes a lot on her own (she did NaNoWriMo last year and competed a 5000 word story and this year is aiming for a 10000 word story).

[SilverMoon]

When did you start W&R?  Would you have used it all the way if it was already published?  If you could have used TC, what year would you have used it?

 

Um. 2nd? 3rd? 4th? She's 8th now and my memory is foggy.  I would have used more if she hadn't blown past them. The lessons within the book are varied enough to hold her interest and each book has a slightly different flavor than the one before it. I can't say we would have stuck with just that and nothing else, but we would have used more of it. I recently pulled the first W&R book out for DD/4th and DD/8th nearly swooned at the memories. Today she says those were her most favorite writing books ever.

 

TC whenever they seem ready to tackle solid paragraphs. That varies. It wants a certain maturity though, so I'm not sure I'd use that one any lower than the recommendation (3rd-5th). DD/4th used parts of it in 3rd. (DD/4th doesn't struggle with writing, but she doesn't fill reams like her big sister did. DD/4th struggles with being a stubborn perfectionist...lol)

Edited November 17, 2017 by SilverMoon

[homemommy83]

I had/have one like that. :) In early elementary I focused on copywork. There were strong lessons in copywork even if she could make her own sentences comfortably. As she grew, writing books that gave her varied assignments worked FAR better than regular and predictable books. W&R worked really well, but she outgrew their publication schedule. I think she would have loved Treasured Conversations too.

 

WWE would have done her in. She -really- needs variety. Writing broken into tedious steps drove her batty too. (Igniting Your Writing, I'm looking at you. O_o)

I have been considering W&R for a semester each year for my "middles" and "youngers", and now I believe I just can't resist-lol.

[HomeAgain]

You might look at English Lessons Through Literature.  There's a huge emphasis on narration and copywork in the early years moving to written narration starting in the third book.