S/O from LA thread: Condense WWE?

[Mama2Three]

Hi there! I am before-schooling my DS who is a first grader. We recently started WWE 1 and are about 4 weeks into it. Although he needs prompts to answer in complete sentences, he is doing well with answering the questions, and doing the dictation and copywork.

 

Our before-school focus is on math and phonics, so sometimes WWE gets pushed to the backburner. This summer when we have more time for school, I had planned to double up on the lessons in order to move more quickly through it. But now I'm reading through the LA thread ("if I knew then what I know now..."), and I am wondering if doubling up on lessons would rush it too much. It seems like WWE moves pretty slowly, but maybe copywork and narration/dication in the same day would be too much? However, if we continue at our current pace, it will take over a year to complete WWE 1.

 

I thought I had this planned out and now I'm second guessing myself. Thoughts?

[arcara]

My 1st grader did WWE 1 this year. Some weeks we would get busy, so we would do a weeks' worth of lessons in 3 days instead of 4. We would combine the 1st narration and the 1st copywork on the same day. Combining any other days would have meant doubling up on writing which would've been a lot for my dd.

 

If your dc is really doing well, I would just skip a few weeks of lessons instead of combining. If he can do the end-of-book assessment, then you know he is ready to move on to WWE 2. There's nothing that says you have to complete every lesson. It would be the opposite for a child who can't pass the assessment. In that case, you would do extra lessons before moving on.

[LanaTron]

If your dc is really doing well, I would just skip a few weeks of lessons instead of combining. If he can do the end-of-book assessment, then you know he is ready to move on to WWE 2. There's nothing that says you have to complete every lesson. It would be the opposite for a child who can't pass the assessment. In that case, you would do extra lessons before moving on.

 

Move at whatever pace seem comfortable. you can always administer one of the end of level assesments to see if he should continue in level 1 (if you don't finish), or jump up to level 2.

 

I have a really good friend who just reminded me of that when I was stressing about not finishing our resources this year...they don't have to do every exercise in every book to make progress. Sometimes there are jumps in their abilities that have nothing to do with what they have covered, but more to do with their brain development.

[Melissa in CA]

Hmmm...and here I was thinking, what's the hurry? He's only in 1st grade. :confused: There is no rush. I would take it slow and steady. SWB has a method to her madness...I think if you do it her way, you'll have the best chance of success. Move through the books too quickly, get to a level your ds cannot do, and then what will you do?

 

It would be different if your ds were in 3rd grade beginning in Level 1, but he's so young yet. I see no reason to rush through it. Even if he ends up doing Level 4 in 5th grade...so what!? :001_huh: It's not as if it would be detrimental to his education.

 

My opinion of course. ;)

[LanaTron]

You are right, there is no rush. But it's good to tailor the work to the student's abilities, no matter what the age.

[Lovedtodeath]

Since WWE 1 is narration and copywork I almost always do two lessons in the same day.

 

When you get into WWE 2 with the dictation, I don't think that will work as easily.

[Melissa in CA]

But it's good to tailor the work to the student's abilities, no matter what the age.

 

Oh yes, I agree as well. The problem I see with rushing through WWE though is that the dictation gets quite difficult in level 4. If one is doing it by SWB standard of only reciting it 3x...before the child begins writing...and the child must then remember the passage and write it from memory, this is going to be very difficult for a younger child. In fact, my 12 yo would struggle with some of the passages in Level 4. Not to mention the longer narrations. ;)

[Mama2Three]

Thanks for the responses. Sounds like folks are in two camps on this one. Not yet sure what we'll do, but you've given me extra info to mull over -- thank you!! :)

[Mallory]

If you have the text then I think you should keep moving through the levels at whatever speed he needs.

 

So if he does week 1 great then you move to week 4 and if he aces that then you move to week 11 (I don't have the text right here, I might have the weeks wrong).

 

But the reverse is true too. I think there is a big step between Level 1 week 36 and level 2 week 1, so you might need to hang out at that level longer than then 4 or 5 weeks planned for it.

 

With my kids, who admitedly started late since they were already in 2nd and 3rd when WWE came out, we skip ahead when ever they have gotten thier step down. So far we haven't had to draw things out, but I would if we needed to.