Kim C
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Posts posted by Kim C
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We are only on Day 3. My daughter seems to be having A LOT of trouble picking out the 5 to 6 sentences out of the story. Plus, the book says to narrate it back first, then write it.
Well, I have had to prompt her with the questions that are given in the TM. And, when she went to tell me the story outloud, it sounded good. But she got frustrated when she went to write the combined 3 sentences. She forgot what she said. So instead, she just writes the 3 sentences and doesn't bother to day it outloud.
Is that ok? Is it a neccesity for her to tell me the three sentences outloud prior to writing it?
And how can I get her to determine what are the most important sentences for her to write out of the story without me prompting her?
I think it's OK for her to write without first telling you the sentences aloud. I think you have to adjust the curriculum to fit your child. For some kids, summarizing aloud first helps them, but it may not help your daughter. It might help to talk to her about why she chose to just write 3 sentences and skip telling them to you first.
Being able to pick out the most important sentences without prompts from you will come with experience. My ds 11 and I started WWS a couple of weeks ago and the first week was quite stressful. He did not have much experience with narrations, so it was hard for him and stressful for both of us. Did your daughter do WWE? We did not so I bought WWE 3 so we can practice narrations so it will become easier for him.
Kim
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And define making plans any way you please. :)
If you are working with a planned out curriculum do you just buy the next year's set and use what's working every year? Obviously, if it's not working you would find something else to fit your family, but if what you're using now works, do you just buy the next year or do you "shop" around? WDYD? ETA: by shop around I mean look into other resources or curriculums.
I'm so new and curious about what other families do each year.
I usually start planning for fall in January or February. Each year I re-evaluate what we have been using for the current year. I look to see what else is out there and if there is something that might work better for us next year. I usually do not start buying until June or July.
Kim
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He did it!!!!!!!!!!! It's done! Woot! By far, his hardest assignment yet. I am so proud of him!!!!
:party:
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Most of those assignments took my son 3 hours to write over 2 days. He was in 6th grade. By doing days 1 and 2 in a single day and using Friday for editing, we were able to pace out the work better than as written.
I also listen to an oral version before sending my son off to write. That way I can identify major difficulties in the planning stage.
We are currently doing the final assignment of WWS1 while concurrently beta testing week 1 of WWS2! This is quite a chunk of time, but we got behind because of the science fair. :tongue_smilie:
Ruth in NZ
I like the idea of listening to an oral version before my son starts writing. That would definitely make the editing less painful for him. This is going to be a stressful year.
Kim
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My two older kids are natural spellers, so we never pushed a spelling program. I tried AAS when dd12 was younger, but it seemed to be overkill for a natural speller. She's mostly done copywork and dictation. We never had a problem with spelling. Until now:glare:.
Is this a common puberty thing? How do I fix this problem? (And if you have any tips on how to fix the attitude of a 12yo girl, I'm all ears)
It could be puberty 'brain fog'. My ds 11 sometimes just forgets how to do math problems that he has been able to do for years. A friend of mine told me years ago that the middle school years are painful because kids often forget how to do things they've always known how to do, but that it gets better.
I have no suggestions on the attitude problem, though I am listening since I am starting the attitude battle with my ds.
Kim
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I was so horrified with my ds(11)'s summary skills in that first week that I bought WWE3 and we spent 4 weeks doing all the summaries in the text. So I know how you feel!
There were weeks (especially the descriptions) where I had to become much more involved. I wrote a VERY extensive post about it here: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=348864&page=12 (post 114), and a small addition on post 56 on http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=325945&page=6
Ruth in NZ
Why did you drop back to WWE3 instead of WWE4? I have not looked at them so I was thinking of dropping back one 'level' and purchasing WWE4 to work on his summarizing skills.
Thanks for referencing your other posts. I always enjoy your detailed posts and find them quite helpful. I think I will have to take a more hands-on guiding approach for a while, until he gets better at non-creative writing.
Kim
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My DS is also 11 and he just finished Week 2, Day 3. My son has similar tendencies - he enjoys creative writing and he finds summarizing difficult.
You know that part in the Instructor's Text called "Customizing the Course?" I decided to adapt the assignments. I let his summaries be longer than what SWB recommended. They are not ridiculously long, they don't ramble, and they don't contain run-on sentences. They are just longer than the directions.
When he did the Challenge Exercise (Week 1 Day 4), I had him mentally break the story into scenes.
What is the first scene? In the forest. OK, write two or three sentences. What is the next scene? At the inn. OK, write another couple of sentences. And so on.
I could have given up and gone back to WWE, but I decided not to. And he just sailed through the first three outlining exercises. We will keep going, and he can also keep working on summarizing. We have a subscription to Newsademic and I am going to assign him some summarizing from there.
ETA: I am also using a Carson Dellosa Summarizing workbook for grades 5-6. I think that it is helpful.
HTH.
I thought about dropping back and doing WWE, but I'm not quite ready. I want to give him more time to adjust. I'll check out the summarizing workbook. That might be just what we need. Thanks!
Kim
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Thanks. He writes a lot of dialogue already, and creates characters all the time. I do think if i got it, i would have to read aloud the instructions if they are anything like WWS.
Yes, I think you would. The lessons are written to the student, but I think you would have to take a more active role in the lesson. It can't hurt to try. If you find he's not ready for it, you can put it aside for a while.
Kim
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Doyou think the Creative Writer would work for an accelerated 7 year old? Ds is almost done with wwe3 and he really needs a change.he lives creative writing. Thanks
It's hard to say. Some of the lessons might be a bit tough for him. Several of the lessons are about creating characters, writing dialouge, describing scenes. My son has always enjoyed creative writing, but he would not have enjoyed The Creative Writer when he was 7.
Kim
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I did it last year with my son and it was a challenge. He's more the type to shout "OMG, 5 to 6 sentences!?? Is she mad? Who can do that? It's impossible!" :rolleyes: Then he almost does it. Almost.
Anyway, hang in there. I think WWS was one of the hardest and best things we have ever done.
:001_smile: I think it will be really good for my ds once we get going. It's forcing him outside his comfort zone right now and I'm hoping that gets better with time.
Kim
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You are not alone; it has been stressful here as well. :D
My dd11 has just started with WWS, and your post is describing my dd's experience to a tee. My D also followed the rules and wrote 6 sentences, all major run-ons. She told me before I even looked at her work that she had to combine many sentences because she couldn't say all she needed to say in just 6 sentences. She was not at all happy when I had her redo the assignment.
I was starting to wonder if I should delay this program for another year, but she is in Week 3, and it is going much better.
All week I have tried to tell my son that it will get better as we go along and he gets more comfortable with this. After he did his assignment today I had him read SWB's example in the instructor's text to give him an idea of what is expected. I think that helped him some. At first he said, "Wow, she's good at this." :001_smile: It helped him to see how he could have better worded his narration.
Although I know it will be a struggle at times, I plan to work through this program. He needs to work on this type of writing and it will only get harder if I put it off. We will take breaks as needed, but I hope to finish this program over the next year.
I hope things continue to improve for you and your daughter.
Kim
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How is he liking The Creative Writer? I see that you are using it. We just started it last Friday. WWS can definitely be challenging for a creative writing type, but so good at giving them the skills they will need for expository writing, I think it's definitely worth trying to persist with it.
Are you using the rubric to offer feedback? I noticed that at the beginning I was being too critical - critiquing everything I saw wrong in the paper, rather than just focusing on the key skills identified in the rubric. I've tried to back off on that and pick maybe just one major thing to critique each time, rather than overwhelming her with feedback. We're even working on the spelling separately, so that I don't spend all of our writing time correcting spelling. Anyway, I don't know if that helps at all, but I do sympathize and just encourage you to try and persist with it! He may need to slow down and do some of the longer exercises over two days, we do that, too. :grouphug:
My son has really enjoyed The Creative Writer. I just ordered level 2 because level 1 has been such a hit.
I have tried to stick with the rubric. I have made sure the sentences are in chronological order and grammatically correct. I knew it would be a struggle going in, but I didn't expect tears every day. Thanks for the support! :)
Kim
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I'm sorry. Has he done WWE at all?
We just started this week as well. The first 2 lessons were a breeze. Today was a bit harder. It's non-fiction and he has a harder time summarizing non-fiction for some reason.
He wrote his summary and it's okay. One sentence doesn't make sense so I need to go over it with him.
We did not do WWE, which is part of the problem. I'm hoping it will get better as we go along.
Kim
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.....and it has been rather stressful. My ds 11 wants to be an author and he has a great start on a novel. He's great with creative writing, but when faced with the restrictions of the narrations in the first week of WWS, he panicked. He has always been a very reluctant writer because he's afraid he will not do it 'right'. He's a perfectionist and does not like mistakes, so having me pointing out his mistakes this week, even though it was done very gently, was painful for him.
He's a rule follower, so when the assignment was 'write 5 or 6 sentences summarizing the passage' he did his best to write 5 to 6 sentences.....even if that meant he had run-on sentences. He had a hard time deciding what was important, so he got creative with combining sentences in order to not exceed the 5 to 6 sentence goal.
All 4 lessons ended in tears because he could not stand to hear me go over his mistakes. I know this is due to the fact that he has done little writing in the past and it will get easier as we continue through the rest of the curriculum. Still, it was hard to see him so upset about the process.
If you got this far, thanks for reading. I just wanted to share with those who will understand. :001_unsure:
Kim
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I have firmly decided on math, language arts, a literature study, and science. Now if only I could settle on history!
Option 1: K12's Human Odyssey - I like this because it is like an advanced version of SOTW. There are three volumes covering prehistoric to modern times, and then they also have an American Odyssey that looks really good. IF we use this, and I stick with Elemental Science, I would have the next four years covered, AND I think it would give the kids an excellent foundation.
Option 2: Oxford University Press' World in Ancient Times, and World in Medieval/Early Modern Times. I do love these books, and how in-depth they are. I like the idea that we could focus on one cultural region for a while rather than jumping around. However, they only go through early modern times, and then I would have to find something else entirely! Now, someone did make a schedule for combining options 1 and 2, and I am considering that, but at the same time, that might be a lot to get through!
Option 3: To use the Core Knowledge sequence, at an increased rate (2 grades per year roughly). I like that this would cover both world and American history, but am not sure how the increased pace would work. I would want to start more or less at the beginning, rather than jumping into it "at grade level" because they would miss so much.
Option 4: Allow them to follow interests. The good side of this would be that they would have a vested interest in what they are learning. However, I worry about gaps and especially, follow-through. I had thought of using Option 1 once a week, and then allowing for other studies the rest of the week, which could be related to the weekly K12 reading, OR something else entirely.
We did options 1 & 2 last year for ancient history and really enjoyed it. At first I too thought that it might be too much, but it wasn't for us. We did history 4 days a week and it worked out well. We are doing the same this year for medieval.
Kim
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I'm working on lesson plan which have to give to teacher counselor for our local homeschool charter. Have Saxon Grammar and Writing 7th and Writing with Skill. We have to satisfy certain essay writing requirements:
autobiographical narrative,
descriptive narrative
Expository Essay
Persuasive composition
Response to lit - plot
Reading summaries
Fictional Narrative
Research report
Which I can see Saxon has lessons for. I'm not seeing it at all in WWS. I want to do WWS however. So would it be too much to do both the writing section from Saxon and WWS. At this point, would only be doing saxon writing portion two days a week. Son isn't a great essay writer at all.
For my DS 11, it would be too much to do both. He isn't a strong writer. I think I would only do the Saxon writing that covered things not covered in WWS.
Kim
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This set is very well-written for logic stage. It comes in 3 volumes (the link below is for volume 1 on Amazon; it is K12 Human Odyssey). Many people will also spend a year with Joy Hakim's History of US.
:iagree:
We love K12 Human Odyssey. We're just starting our second year using it.
Kim
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I am thinking about using Writing With Skill for my 6th grader. It would be a jump for him since he has been a reluctant writer due to his PS experience. I am wondering what to use for grammar with it. FLL4? I want something that includes diagramming. He seems to grasp grammar quickly, but does not have a lot of experience. Suggestions?
Hake/Saxon Grammar would be good. My ds 11 did very well with Saxon grammar after FLL. It has diagramming. It is spiral, just like the Saxon math program, so there's built in review. The Saxon homeschool kit has a writing component which you could just skip since you will be using WWS.
Kim
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http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?p=745379&highlight=physics#post745379 I think this link may pop up Janice's post, but all the responses in the thread are worth reading.
Enjoy! :)
Thanks! I really needed to read this.
Kim
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We still do read-alouds. My ds 11, who will be starting 7th grade next week, loves for me to read to him, for school and for fun. I do not see this ending any time soon. He reads very well, but enjoys me reading to him or listening to audio books while he builds Legos or colors.
Kim
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All about spelling does not ship their packages to European countries. So where else can I buy AAS level 1? Is it available in digital download format? What are the must need items to buy for level 1.
To my knowledge, it is not available in digital download. You can buy it from Rainbow Resource.
http://www.rainbowresource.com/searchspring.php?q=All+about+spelling
They will do international shipping.
To properly use the program, you need the teacher packet and the student packet for each level. The student packet contains word, sound, and key cards you use for each level. You could make your own, but that would take a lot of time.
The program is built around the use of letter tiles so you need those. They do not have to be magnetized, but I found that it was helpful because it allowed us to keep them on a board, in order, ready for use each time. It is helpful to have a box to store the cards in so you can keep them divided, but it doesn't have to be any fancy.
HTH,
Kim
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As of now:
Grammar: Analytical Grammar
Writing: WWS, The Creative Writer, Killgallon Sentence Composing
Vocabulary: Caesar's English I
Math: Jacobs Algebra, LOF Beg. Algebra
History: K12 Human Odyssey (Medieval), Oxford Press
Science: ACS Middle School Chemistry
Art at co-op
PE at YMCA
Kim
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We are a Christian family and participate in Classical Conversations. I was just looking through the upcoming memory work for this year, and I notice that some of the history sentences focus on non-Christian religious beliefs. I'm expecting this to lead to questions and want to be prepared to answer them. We have a copy of Window on the World which has some age-appropriate information about different belief systems. Is there anything else that you recommend--especially for the 4-7 year old age range?
We have used the Usborne Encyclopedia of World Religions Internet-linked. It several pages on each major religions, as well as information on less well-known religions. It covers the religious beliefs and practices of each religion and gives some history on the religion. It even covers ancient religions.
Kim
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Wondering what size white board/magnetic board others use for the AAS or AAR tiles? I read they recommend a 2x3 board, but was wondering what others have used? Wasn't sure if it's possible to use a smaller size (if others have sucuessfully used a smaller size)? and if so, what size?
Thanks!
We tried one that was a little smaller, probably 24inx18in, and it was a little small. A 2x3 would probably work a little better. Once we had all of the tiles on, the board was rather crowded and we the work space was a little tight.
Kim
Kids who need help...
in Logic Stage & Middle Grade Challenges
Posted
I go over the lessons with my son and stay nearby while he does the assigned problems. He does not stay focused if I leave the room.
Kim