I own both as the Complete Writer explains the philosophy behind it and describes the 3 stages. It also has a very helpful appendix that has a section of what comes after the first 4 years, troubleshooting, frequently asked questions and rescources. I have read this so many times and it has helped me to really understand the elemental aspect of the writing process that is overlooked in traditional writing programs. The actual workbooks do not provide that information however I do not for one second regret buying the workbooks (I have all 4 and used levels 1-3 thus far). The narrations are there for you, as well as the comprehension questions and sample answers. But most of all for the dictations because there is always a built in focus on a grammatical construct right there for you to review-love, love, love that. While it would have been very easy just to use the SOTW sections for narrations and the comp questions that come with the SOTW activity book), I did not trust myself to do the prep work for the dictations. Also, by doing the workbooks, the narrations excerps exposed us to literature (books we then wanted to read and got from the library) and poems and some cultural literacy things maybe I would not have exposed him to.

I have just reviewed TWTM and they say that the best set of workbooks for transforming the rules of reading into rules for writing is Spelling Workout.

I keep checking. I just don't know if I should start Rod and Staff 5 or wait for ALL.

I like Zaner Bloser 2C. There is no fluff, it is get in and get out. How to write the letter is simply shown with a desciption of the stroke(s) involved. I always demonstrated it first on the dry erase board which took a minute. Then there is a page where they trace it a few times then copy it a few, also how to connect it to other letters and the copy a few words or short sentence. It was a breeze.

If you do not want to spend any money a organized way to teach it is by breaking the country into regions, ie. New England States, mid Atlantic states, etc. I used the free maps from enchantedlearning.com. I also used cardstock and had my child make memory game cards for each state and capital in a region. We would play the memory specific to a region until they were learned and then combine a few regions. He also had to learn to spell all the states and capital too and I used spelling city.com for this. Another free rescource.

I'm burned out too as I've done it thru E with oldest and finished A with youngest. I've looked at AAS and watched a you tube video of a mom teaching it to her squirmy daughter. (I have a wiggly willie myself). I plan to just adapt SW since I already own it (and spent way too much money on curricula) I'll use the dry erase board and magnectic tiles to incorporate him writing the words and spelling them out with the tiles like I say the AAS. I do love the idea of teaching the phonograms-I wonder why TWTM is so on board with SW.

I wish our UMS here would do WWE. I gave our academic dean SWB materials but will not give up Shurley. My solution was not to sign up for language arts there and teach FLL and WWE at home I have taught levels 1-3 over the last two years at home. From my perspective, the UMS teachers need to read from the hard back cover book beginning on page 3 Susan's article "Why Writing Programs Fail" and then the section immediately following regarding the three stages-specifically years 1-2 if those are the years they are teaching. The copywork and (dictation in WWE 2) are to be supervised while the child is actually writing in order to have the child immediately stop and correct the mistake. This may be challenging in the classroom due to the ratio, plus that is not just how its done in traditional education-the teachers need to understand SWB philosophy-the purpose is to have the child write it correctly the first time, storing in his mind and muscle memory the correct look and feel of properly written English. Another BIG reason for it to be supervised as it is being done is to seize the teachable moment and reinforce the grammatical concept based on that error, i.e. remember, all sentences begin with a capital letter or Paul is a proper noun so it gets a capital letter. I do not know how this can be done effectively in a classroom but I do have an idea for narrations done in the group setting . After the teacher reads the selction in class she asks each child a comprehension question (the teacher needs to understand she needs to make sure the children answer her in a coherant complete sentence. If a child in class answers in a fragment, the teacher needs to rephrase it in a complete sentence and have the child repeat it). Then using an overhead she can ask a volunteer to narrate the one thing they remember from the passage. She can then model how to write the sentence correctly on the overhead before they do the copywork, talking about the grammatical conventions as she write sentences begin with capital letter, end in punctuation mark, etc. She could tell the children she will make some mistakes and challenge them to find them, etc. Good Luck-I have loved teaching it one on one, I hope it works out.

:bigear:

If I were doing a one year overview of world history in 4th grade I would use The Usborne Internet Linked encylopedia of World History for my spine. I would use the table of contents to determine how many weeks of the year I would devote to each of the 4 time periods (prehistoric world, ancient world, medival world, and the last 500 years). I would use books and educational videos from the library or other sources such as Discovery Streaming to supplement as well as using some of the internet links provided.

I've never done MM but if it doesn't have manipulatives, I wouldn't do it at the concrete stage. How long a lesson takes really depends on the child, I think. I've taught B twice and it did take us longer as I had wiggly willies but again there are 107 lessons to do in a standard 180 school year. Some lessons include games as part of the lessons . I tended to stop periodically doing lessons just to do math games instead for a few days or so to cement strategies and facts, then pick up again with the lessons.

What about idea mapping, topic sentences, expository writing, book reports, character analysis, etc. Am I missing something? Also, how important is it that the kid has to memorize the sentence they are copying? I think my kids would HATE that part of it, and would completely rebel if I refused to prompt them as they were dictating. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated? Thanks! Susan Wise Bauer will explain what you are missing. Take 5 minutes and read her 3 page article "Why Writing Programs Fail". I don't know how to link it but just google the title and you'll find a sample of the hard copy of her book, The Complete Writer:Writing with Ease and you can read it on page 3. The child does not have to memorize the sentence, they just need to learn the skill of holding and visualizing what they are about to write in their head before they write it. You are allowed to prompt them. After repeating the sentence(s) if they get stuck you can suggest they start from the beginning as sometimes that is all they need to jog their memory or you can give them an individual word when they get stuck-just not repeat the entire selection. Here is a quote from her book "During the first four years, it is essential that students be allowed instead (of original writing) to concentrate on mastering the process: getting ideas into words, (through narration), and getting those words down on paper (through copywork in grades1-2 and dictation in 2-4)".

Since she is in first grade I cannot encourage you more strongly than to bite the bullet and commit to 30 minutes a day of you teaching your dc RS B. There are only 107 lessons. Set a timer for 30 minutes a day and you'll finish the text. (I have taught levels A-E). RS B will bring about a conceptual understanding of place value to the thousands place, and specifically teaches manipulation strategies to mentally solve 2 diget problems (here is basic stategy for single digit- why 8=7=15 because taking 2 from 7 to give it to the 8 makes 10 and 5 or 7 = 5 and 2 and 8=5 and 3 the fives make a 10 and the 2 and 3 make the 5, 10=5 =15. I would even go as far as to say that RS C should be taught before moving to another less teacher intensive probgram. IMO, at that young age, they really need to be instructed-no self directed learning at that age-esp. in Math. If you just cannot spare the time-look at Kahn Academy.

I taught both my boys to read using OPGTR. It is definately doable in a year for a 2nd grader who has basic letter sounds, blends etc. There are only 226 lessons, the first 26 easily skipped as they deal with the individual consonant sounds. Some of the lessons will probably be easy enough to combine or uou may even be able to skip some, if for example you find she already knows ai says the long a and can read those words-skip it.

Forgot that. We finished Spelling Workout A last year so we will move to Spelling workout B. Just forgot to include that-good eye.

Thanks so much, Your background helps to alleviate my concern that he is missing any more formal phonics instruction. I read to him an hour a day from great writers and use the suggested authors in TWTM and I have him read to me non-phonectically controlled books from the easy reader section of the library on a daily basis. I've tried to do chapter books (Magic Tree house) a few months back but he seemed to get fatigued decoding so I stopped that to go back to easy reader books until he is ready. It is possible I had him read too long at a session so I'll try to keep it at 10 minutes.

Is this enough-FLL2, WWE2, reading from real books everyday while reviewing all the rules he learned from OPGTTR and ZB grade 2-cursive. It seems like kids who go elsewhere for school have these special phonic programs like the Wilson Reading System or someother where they do all these activities and worksheets on phonics through 3rd grade. I'd love to hear from some professionals out there. I taught my oldest boy who tested high in reading with a lexile score of 750-850 in 3rd grade and we finished OPGTR in first grade. Does the OPGTTR cover everything there is to learn for phonological coding or am I missing something? I don't want them suffering the 4th grade slump.

one idea, Trace those numbers and cut them out on sandpaper. Have him feel the numbers. You could make it fun. Have him wear a blindfold and see if he can identify the number through tracing it with his fingers.

:bigear: I plan to start WWS with my rising 5th grader after doing WWE 2 and 3. I expect him to be able to move right into WWS without doing all the narrations in WWE4 however I do plan to do from the hardcover book the sample narration exercises from WWE4 for weeks 1-10, 11-18, 19-27 and weeks 28-35. This would be 8 narration exercises but at least he would experience the progression. I suspect he will not miss a beat moving so quickly through it and if he does I will spend a few more weeks on narration. Also WWS begins with a few narration exercises as well. Just as an aside, Since SWB recommends in TWTM that dictation continue 2 times a week in 5th grade so I plan to use the dictation exercises from WWE4 since I own the book and WWS does not provide any dictation.

I have a rising 5th grade boy who did WWE 2 and 3. I plan to skip WWE4 and move right to WWS however since The Well Trained Mind recommends that during 5th grade, children continue to do dictation 2 times a week, I will use all the dictation in WWE4 while doing WWS. I reviewed the first 20 some weeks of WWS that was released and there does not appear to be dictation so this works great for us as WWE4 provides 2 dictation exercises a week. The first few weeks of WWS does narrations. If you continue with the dictation, maybe he can move right into WWS. You could always give him a few weeks more practice with narration before moving on to WWS. If you have WW4 see how well he can do the evaluation in week 36.

If you want to look at SWB's Advanced Language Lessons you can google it and find the first five chapters on PDF.

Here's my two cents. I would build his confidence with phonetically controlled little books that are graphically hilarious by Nora Gaydos-level 1 is short vowels so you may want to start at level 2 that comprise all the long vowels combinations. (These are so much better than the Bob Books which are black and white. Michael Gurian of the Gurian Institute in his book The Minds of Boys informs that boys need strong visuals in the learning environment-when doing "comprehension" refer to the actual picture for the child to look at (a feast for the eyes) when asking questions. These books come in a set of 10 and are short and systamatically focus on specific phonetic rules with sight words thrown in. There is built in reinforcement with 4 stickers for them to put in the front cover when each time he has read them. I taught my two sons to read using these with The Ordinary Parents Guide to teaching Reading. My 10 year old son is a strong and advid reader. My 7 year old son has finished all the levels 1-4 then two sets of Independent (10 little books on math subjects, 10 on science subjects) and he has finished OPGTTR. My 7 year old son does get fatigued from decoding real books so I feel it is better for him to review all the rules systamatically again by rereading the Nora Gaydos as opposed to forcing him to decode non-phonectically controlled books this summer.

Susan Wise Bauer has written Writing with Style (WWS) that follows writing with Ease AND Advanced Language Lessons (ALL)that follow after First Language Lessons written by her mother. While the first 5 chapters of ALL are available through PDF, my understanding is it will not be available for purchase until January. I do not know if they will release more chapters. WWS level 1 is available on PDF through weeks 24. I believe that is suppose to be available by fall. Pursuant to SWB there are 4 levels (years) of ALL and that formal grammar instruction ends when the formal study of rhetoric begins in high school (a good rhetoric study incorporates grammar). The first level of ALL begins in 5th grade. I do not know where to place your rising 8th grader but I bet if you go to Peace Hill press and email them they will tell you. WWS starts in 5th grade. I have a rising 5th grade boy who has finished level 3 of WWE and I plan to skip the narrations in WWE4 and move him directly into WWS which begins with narration for the first few weeks. SWB in TWTM says that 5th graders should continue with dictation 2 times a week so I plan to use the dictation in WWE4 while we do WWS which does not provide any dictation. (I previewed the 24 weeks and did not see any).

I just spoke with a RightStart tutor I found throught RS's website as I just finished level E with my son and wanted to do some other things to reinforce and practice everything he has learned before going to RS Intermediate (Hands on Geometry). She highly suggested I look at Edward Zaccaro's books. Also Kahn Academy (computer based program), the Keys to ... programs (i.e. Keys to Fractions, etc.) I have yet to look into any of these things but she says Dr. Cotter really likes the Edward Zaccaro materials. I thinK she said these give more real life math practice.

FLL3 and 4 has very little narration exercises; it is mostly pure grammar with diagraming and a continuation of poem memorization. If you do WWE it is not necessary to do the few narration excerices in FLL 3 or 4. Dictation continues 2 times a week in WWE 3 and 4 (TWTM says to continue to do dictation 2 times a week in 5th grade as well. I do not think this is provided in WWS when I looked through the 26 chapters provided recently). IMO supervised dictation is very important. It teaches the child to listen, to hold sentences in his mind before he writes them, to visualize the sentence and then put it down on paper while applying all the rules of punctuation and capitalization. The dictations always have a built in review of a specific grammatical conventions such as direct quotations, prepositional phrases, etc. My son, in 3rd and 4th wasn't required to do alot of writing outside of WWE so this was not overkill for us.