Thanks ladies, I really like the look of writing and rhetoric.

My 3rd grader is doing IEW SWI A and WWE 3. She's doing great with these, she seems to have a good "feel" for writing. They don't really seem to challenge her, but since they are effective I really don't want to drop them either. Can you point me to something we could use a a supplement, just for fun or some challenging extra writing. She finishes the narrations & dictations in wwe pretty quickly and wants to do something else. Thanks, Julie

I can't compare R&S with Shurley or MCT. We switched this year from First Language Lessons to R&S, and I don't know if R&S is harder, but it is very different for us. My kids were having a harder time retaining R&S compared with FLL. We started the year doing R&S 3 and 5 and I felt like the lessons were not explained as clearly as FLL. We are back with FLL. For my kiddos I think it's the language they use explain the lesson.

This is perfect! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was confused, I was doing this wrong, I was lumping them together by sound. Not sure where I got that idea, but now it is much more clear. You are wonderfully kind for helping me.

I'm not sure I wrote that very clear. So here's my example. I dictate the sound | K | hard "K" and there are 4 phonogram to make that sound- k, c, ch, ck. What are the "hints" I give when she asks which one? ch & ck both can come at end of the word, both 2 letter. So is there a list that has all the hints that we are supposed to give & that group together all phonograms that have the same sound? I hope that was clearer than first post.

I'm backing up a little bit with my 8 year old and doing more time with "reverse" dictation. Where I give the sound and she writes the phonogram. When I dictate the sound |sh| naturally she asks which one? Is there a list somewhere that gives the sound and then the ways to describe which sound I am looking for them to dictate. I'm seem to always forget some, so I'm going to make a list, but don't want to reinvent the wheel if this already exists somewhere? I have the 4th & 5th edition and can't find in either. Does a comprehensive list like this exist? Thank you!

My 5th grader is doing wwe 4 and he can't do the whole dictation. Honestly, I can't do the whole dictation after listening only twice. Some of these are HARD. We do it in parts & I repeat as many times as he needs. He is getting better, but it's slow & steady progress. Sometimes I make it a French dictation, from Bravewriter . Which is writing out the sentences and leaving multiple blank spaces which, my son needs to fill in after I dictate sentence. This gives him confidence in his ability to do dictation.

My son, also 10 is doing saxon 65 and I would agree. My son rushes for 2 reasons, too easy or I've assigned too many problems (just the thought of too many problems overwhelms him & he rushes to be done). We do just 1 or 2 problems if it's easy/review material that he knows. And something i learned here from all the saxon users- never have him do all problem set. If it's new we do the practice set & I pick just a few from problem set.

I have 2000-2001 edition, but the "syllabus in style" section starts on page 15 in my version. I'll message you my email because I'm not on here a lot right now.

My son also uses R&S English 5 fairly independently. he comes to me with occaisional questions. He did FLL 3 last year and it has been a very smooth transition.

We went from FLL 3 into R&S 5. And it was the perfect fit, just enough review, without being overkill.

I own the handbook that is linked above, "nuts and bolts guide to WRTR" and it does have some useful information. But, have to agree that reading through the WRTR several times, just as suggested, is the most useful. Stick with it, it was so worth it for me. My son who has struggled for years with spelling, is a different student now. And it has helped my more natural speller too. It's worth the time!! :)

I bought a set when mine seemed really interested in them. But, like others have said, they grew bored of them. I would just borrow from the library.

When my kids want to drop a book early, because its boring, I try reading the next 2-3 chapters aloud. Sometimes this gets them into it. Sometimes they still find it boring & I let them drop it. And sometimes we keep it as a read aloud. But usually we end up finishing the book. If its just not enjoyable at all, we drop it. I think it's ok at a young age to drop books. When they get older, there will be assigned reading that they need to finish.

Thank you! $.62 for my Mac, love it!!

My 5th grader does WWE 4 (3-4x a week) sometimes we combine 2 lessons. So this is narration/dictation. Copywork 2x week- We use bible verses, poetry, passages from our literature, for this age he does a pretty good sized paragraph. We do Bravewriter on Fridays- write poetry, nature journal, or fine art journaling. In November we will add Bravewriter Arrow. In Jan we will begin IEW and alternate it with WWE.

We use money. Single dollar bills and tens. When we get 11 dollars in the ones place, we trade 10 in for the ten dollar bill and put it in the tens place.

We are using WWE & IEW SWI A, it's been a great combination for "loves to write" 3rd grade daughter & "reluctant to write" 5th grade son. My son is loving writing, for the first time ever.

We never used the cd, my kids quickly tired of the magnet tiles (they do take a little more time) and we switched to just writing on the dry erase board. I really liked the box & dividers, but I think you could make your own for much less money.

Just wanting to share that my third grader is also still working on her multiplication facts. (In fact, my fifth grader is just now, this fall, very solid with his times table). And we just started subject/predicate/diagramming last week, using Rod & Staff. And its looking like we will need to review it a little bit more. So, it sounds like she is right on track :)

Thank you, I will be sure to check it out.

Yes, this is what we do, my kids hate the review at the beginning. So we do just the tests until they get to new material or to something that actually needs review.

Yes, we do them all. My son likes them too. And as others have said the material will come up in the review problems and tests.

This is what I'm doing and I'm new to IEW. My children are 10 & 8. We are continuing with WWE and doing some IEW for a change of pace throughout the year. My kids get a little bored with just wwe through the year, but I believe in the program & know it works so we are going to continue. I plan to introduce IEW slowly and do more through the year when we take breaks from wwe. So far, I have only watched the first 2 dvd's and I have learned so much. I have learned enough from the first 2 dvds to teach a few of the beginning concepts. He (Andrew) wants you to teach it slow, one technique at a time. So it's really ok if you do not watch all the dvd's before you start. I could have had my kids do IEW at the co-op, but I really wanted them to be able to use the program across the curriculum. I really wanted to be able to teach them at home and learn with them. I was so intimidated and anxious about teaching writing, so far IEW has really empowered me and taken away a lot my fears about teaching writing. I have much more confidence, I'm ready to just dive in. Could you enroll him in the class while you watch the TWSS dvds at home, then you would be learning it along with them. My worry about outsourcing it was, what do I do once the co-op class is over? How do I implement it at home? How do I help them now at home? I'm sure some more experienced IEW users will jump in. But just wanted to share my experience so far.

The best thing I did w/ my son, very similar to yours, was to cut back on the writing when he was struggling. We did wwe and when I learned to trust it & that it was enough, we both started to relax about writing. We spaced out wwe through the day like pp suggested. We did a lot of things orally. Now that he is maturing (5th) grade he is really blossoming. He writes for fun now, so I' ve started some things like IEW and Bravewriter. I learned through trial & error that giving more, just didn't seem to help. Time was all he needed. Lori has some awesome tips.