[4th Grade writing and Grammar]

Oh my goodness!  Lori, thank you.  I'm taking a look at Evan Moore now.  I actually like FLL, so I'm going to knuckle down with that.  I think the Evan Moore will address my big concern.  And I'll switch boards.  Really appreciate your feedback.

 

[4th Grade writing and Grammar]

Anyone else, please chime in re fourth grade writing program.

 

[4th Grade writing and Grammar]

Hello Peter Pan!  I wonder if you could give me some more advice.  It is now the end of October, so I'm several months into the school year with my fourth grade twins.  For English language we have WWE Level 3, FLL Level 4, Take 5 Editing (thank you for that recommendation - my kids love it), Spelling Power, and Killgallon's Sentence Composing.  Of all these, my favorite is Killgallon, so I give it a more time.  The Take 5 is no big deal and a great way to start the day.  Spelling is easy to knock out.  But . . . I never seem to get to WWE, which should happen four times a week, and the FLL is getting short shrift as well.  In addition, my two haven't produced any creative writing or non-fiction this year beyond the exercises involved in these text books.  My understanding is that SWB advises against having kids write stories and essays until they actually know how to write.  Well, I've taken her to heart on this, but now I'm second guessing the advice.  I've got this nagging feeling that I'm derelict in my duty.  Any advice on prioritizing this?  Many thanks in advance.

[4th Grade writing and Grammar]

Peter Pan, I so appreciate your advice.  I've had a good look at Killgallon and the Take 5 Minutes editing and I have ordered them both.  My children do not yet know how to type.  I will start them on that this year, but I would like to make sure that their handwriting doesn't suffer from negligence.  Do you have thoughts on balancing this?  

 

[4th Grade writing and Grammar]

Further to my post, here is a narration my daughter did last November when she was 8.  It is not concise, but it will give a sense of her abilities to anyone willing to offer me advice.  My son's narration on the same book is a full page longer than hers and has even more detail in the way of names etc.   

Julius Caesar by Rachel Firth.  Narration for comprehension by my daughter (age 😎.  November 1, 2019.  Dictated to me.  I typed this word for word.

Julius Caesar was born in an important noble and modest family in Rome.  He really wanted power.  He came across a young woman named Cornelia.  She was rich.  Then her father died.  After that, a general named Sulla got a lot of power.  He listed his enemies that he was going to kill on a big paper.  Caesar’s uncle was a bitter enemy to Sulla and so was Cornelia’s father.  One night Sulla came to Caesar’s house and said to him “Show me that you are loyal to me by divorcing Cornelia.”  Caesar said “No way!  She’s my wife and I love her!”  Sulla said “then you’ll have to be killed,” and the next day he put Caesar on his list.  In the middle of the night, Caesar fled from Rome.  Then finally he was pardoned, but he still didn’t trust Sulla,  not even to be with Cornelia, so he stayed away from Rome.

Then one day, Caesar decided he would go to Rhodes to the most famous speaker in the world, but on the way, pirates captured him.  However, he was treating the pirates more like they were the captives.    When the pirates were paid, and he was freed, he said to them “I will come back and I will execute the LOT of you!”  

Then he went to war in Gaul.  Gaul captured!  Then he went to Germany.  He didn’t even have to fight.  From the sight of him, the Germans fled from the town.  Then he went to go fight Britain.  He did not have so much success there, but he still had glory because he was the first Roman general to set foot on British territory.  

Back in Rome, the senators were telling Pompey, a powerful general, that he should not be on Caesar’s side.  Pompey finally agreed.  They made him consul.  Pompey told Caesar to come back across the Rubicon to Rome otherwise he would be considered a traitor.  Caesar knew if he came back alone, then he would be executed as soon as he reached the gates, and if he brought his army, then that meant to Pompey that he meant war.  Tired and weary from battle, Caesar decided to come back across the Rubicon with his troops.  At the sight of Caesar’s army, even though Pompey had more men, he fled to Greece.  Caesar was hot on his heels already.  Caesar arrived at Alexandria.  Meanwhile the king knew of this creature, Julius Caesar.  He was scared of Caesar and decided to have Pompey killed, so Caesar walked in, and to his surprise, he found a bucket with Pompey’s ring and head inside.  He was sort of sad that they killed Pompey, but life was easier. 

Caesar made himself comfortable in the palace in a little apartment.   A slave came in and unrolled a rug and out rolled a beautiful woman.  It was the queen.  She and her brother were rivals.   They both wanted to rule by themself.  Since she was very pretty, Caesar promised to help her.  He arranged a meeting.  When her brother came in, he found that she was already there.  Then, later, her brother was so scared of Caesar, he jumped into the water and tried to swim to a ferry boat that was departing that afternoon.  On the way, he drowned and died.  The palace was all to Cleopatra, the queen.

Caesar had very good times with her, but then he left.  

One morning, he woke up very early and his wife was pacing the floor.  She said “Pleeeease don’t go today.  I’ve had a terrible dream that you were stabbed 24 times.  Oh, please don’t go.”  Caesar said “I’ll be fiiiiine,” and he left.  And, to his surprise, he was stabbed 24 times.  His last words were “Et tu, Brute,” which means “And you, Brutus?” who was his good friend.  Good day.

[4th Grade writing and Grammar]

I would appreciate some advice on my writing and grammar curricula.  I have rising 4th grade boy/girl twins, both of whom are avid readers.  (They are big fans of the Rick Riordan books.)   Last year was our first year of homeschool.  For Grammar we used FLL Level 3 and for writing we used WWE Level 2.  They did well with these, but only got about half way through both, thanks my lax scheduling.  They also did a fair bit of writing in their workbooks for Story of The World.  My question is which levels of those curricula should I purchase for this year?  I'm afraid that what we are doing is too elementary for them.  Were I to augment the writing program just a little, do you have any recommendations?  I plan to return them to their private school in 5th grade because the teacher for that level is stellar and I don't want them to miss his year.  However, I'm worried that they will find themselves unprepared to take notes on his art history lectures and to write outside the context of a workbook.  Thanks in advance for your input.

[New to HS. Please recommend spelling programs.]

Thank you both so much. I will check out these options.  I’ve posted this concern in the wrong forum so will rest with these two recommendations.  Susan, really like your testing method. Thanks for the tips. 

[New to HS. Please recommend spelling programs.]

I will be homeschooling my eight year old boy/girl twins next year who will be in third grade.  Both children now read at a 4th grade level, but just this morning, my son asked me how to spell "when."  None of his attempts included an h.  As a clue, I told him to think of the words what, where, why and which.   He's smart but was slow to twig to this one, which surprised me.   I've been reading the WTM book.  "Spelling Workout" seems like a good choice.   My question:  Should I begin with Spelling Workout A (first-grade level)?  If I begin with Spelling Workout C (third-grade level), will they have missed important material?  Thanks in advance.