Thank for the response! So as the child progresses each drawing is separate? I thought it was to be ONE drawing of the world?

For those who use Mapping the World With Art, what size paper do you use? I'm confused about where on the page to start? I assume there are multiple pages we will need to tape? Am I missing where these directions are? Also, do you read the history portion and then draw? For example, does Map Drawing 1 coordinate with reading 1: The Very Earliest Maps? Guide me please! I feel like I'm missing something. Thanks!

Thank you! Soooo helpful! I have All Things Fun and Fascinating in a RR cart. Can you tell me what it's like? Do I need any other IEW guides with it or is it self explanatory? What else would you recommend from IEW that will help me but not lock me into their stilted structure? Thanks again!

That link looks great. Will print it out. I know I can do my own, but I like the lay out of the WWE and was really hoping to like the readings. They seem to just get worse and worse for us. For 1 and 2 i bought and my son read nearly every book they excerpted. I look forward to the complete works of W&R but why soooo much fable?

Interesting! Why did you find W&R is written for the classroom? Just because of the end assignment? As for scribing, I do. Oh I do. He can answer the 3 questions she gives to guide the student to write a narration. And then we have 3 sentences which he works very hard to construct. But I feel like he has answered questions and not really, independently, narrated. Does that make sense? Maybe he's a brilliant narrator but I just don't know it? I'm confused! Also, he doesn't like WWE 3 and I don't blame him. The readings are BORING. Paul Revere, magicians, sheepdogs. There's less literature and more details. Overwhelming ones. And I find the instructions confusing. Does she not want the kid to go back to the reading or can he? I let him but I guess I'm confused what is best to show he has truly mastered narrating. Sorry for babbling. I want to love WWE 3. I want to know we are doing this "right." And I just don't know.

Thank you for taking the time to write this. Definitely food for thought. Will look at the curriculum again. Hopefully the epiphany of what to choose hits soon. :)

I have an 8 year old 3rd grader finishing WWE 3. He's bright, loves the idea and act of writing for himself, has amazing dictation skills but from WWE 1-3 struggled with narration. He never has anything to say. He is a perfectionist and won't narrate anything less than perfect, often taking an hour while he searches for the best adjectives, transitions, varying his words. It can take FOREVER. Mostly it's blank stares and daydreaming, with the occasional brilliant thought chucked in or nothing at all except for "I don't know what to say." Often, he spends so much time contemplating semi-colons and colons that he loses touch with the topic. It's driving me insane. I want to trust the classical process and continue with the narration and dictation approach and think maybe something a bit richer like W&R will help. But then I think maybe he needs his hand held and to be outlined to death. I hate the idea of all the videos he and I have to watch with IEW. But maybe that's what he *needs*? So do I trust the process and do the Progrym or do IEW?

When you're reading to her, try to have her face you. My son is a visual learner and that really helped him to take in the information.

I have a third grader doing WWE 3. How do you tackle the child who understands the reading, can correctly answer a majority if not all of the questions but still has nothing to say when it comes time for narration. He simply "doesn't know what to write." He has a phenomenal grasp of writing mechanics: use of semi-colons, commas, parentheses, quotation marks. (Doing great with FLL 4.) He's meticulous in his word choice and often a perfectionist. Dictation is a breeze. Memory is fantastic. We have had this problem since the beginning and I can't say narration has ever gotten easier for him. He seems overwhelmed by the limit of sentences and the need to condense his thoughts and so he can't do it at all. And if I tell him to forget the limit and "just write" (we are finding if he writes his own, the thoughts flow better) or "just speak" he can't do that either. I feel like I need to reset this for him somehow. He doesn't want to drop the curriculum, I've offered. He wants to do it but just "can't." Looking for some helpful hints, something to bring on the aha moment for both of us. I feel like someone must have a secret for me to unlock the constipated narrator.

So this is an impossible feat to teach on my own? I would need to teach myself first. I'm using youtube videos. I guess that won't cut it. Is this a curriculum? Rather is there a curriculum? Or is it just a skill?

My 7 year old is successfully doing Singapore math 3 (standards edition). For some reason the curriculum buying bug has hit and I was considering incorporating the Soroban abacus and curriculum for enrichment. Is this crazy? Anybody have experience with doing both? Or have experience with doing Soroban?

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Makes total sense! I think consistency is key. If you found what works, stick with it! And you are very right that eventually they find their own style. :)

Thank you! I actually forgot to check the teacher's manual. Will do that now. Regarding copywork, what I mean is there is a Character Italic Cursive book but it directs a kid to copy without guiding on the connection of the letters. We are not ready for that. We still need the slow direction and instruction. I almost wish there was just a cursive book so I didn't feel remiss ignoring half a book. :) Why did you decide to switch to traditional cursive? I also like the clear letter forms it teaches and the crystal clear and legible cursive that GD offers.

Thank you! My gut tells me to let him write as he wants and luckily it is cursive, which is my goal. It seems GD is not used as much as other handwriting curricula so I don't get much feedback. It throws me that there is no GD exclusive cursive book, one that actually guides, doesn't just offer copywork, so it feels like we need to do the whole book. But I guess not! As for regular cursive, he can pretty much read it already. I guess it just takes some getting used to. :)