emmsmama Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 If you could only buy one, which would you buy? Are the instructions very clear in the guide on how to implement the program and choose narration/dictation/copywork selections? Are there instructions in the workbooks that make the guide redundant? I'm debating using this program at all with my kiddos, but if I do I'm leaning toward only buying the guide or only buying the workbooks, so I'd love feedback from those who have used the program. Thanks :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orthodox6 Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I bought both because I, too, was unfamiliar with the series. I am using the workbook, only. The guide, I have placed on the shelf, in case I ever end up needing it. So far, there appears to be no need to supplement the workbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisabees Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 In Rainbow Resources' review, it is mentioned that the guide is not necessary. I just ordered the workbook. It's not here yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelly in the Country Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I have never seen the workbooks. I use the guide only. I find the instructions for choosing narrations and copywork passages to be very clear. I can see how a workbook would be a time saver, but the most attractive aspect of WWE that drew me to it was that I could tie it in to what we were already reading/learning about in history and literature. I just gathered all of our copywork this weekend using the free trial version of Startwrite's software to make homemade worksheets. I am very pleased with WWE. My ds loves doing narrations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radish4ever Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 This is a very useful thread! I had the same question. :) I want to get my DD started on this within the next year :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annabel Lee Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I have never seen the workbooks. I use the guide only. I find the instructions for choosing narrations and copywork passages to be very clear. I can see how a workbook would be a time saver, but the most attractive aspect of WWE that drew me to it was that I could tie it in to what we were already reading/learning about in history and literature. I just gathered all of our copywork this weekend using the free trial version of Startwrite's software to make homemade worksheets. I am very pleased with WWE. My ds loves doing narrations. Shelly, do you match up passages from your own books with the grammar suggestions in WWE? Isn't it hard to find the specific elements WWE is looking for sometimes? I really want to do this, but am afraid it would take FOR-EV-ER to find a passage with all the certain criteria listed in WWE from history or science books. How much time do you have to spend planning this out? (Thanks in advance!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorbackmama Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 If I had to only choose one, it would be the guide. Yes, it is very detailed in how to choose selections. That said, I found the workbook for level 1 very helpful. Level 2 hasn't been as helpful because I prefer the kids' copywork/dictation to actually be punctuated correctly, and some of the selections that were chosen aren't. Ack! LOL! Once we're done with the level 2 workbook, I'll probably sell it and just use selections from their history/science. We'll be starting level 3 before the level 3 workbook is out, so I'm very glad I have the guide! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in SC Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I bought the guide first and found it very time consuming to come up with passages and copywork that met the specifications. I ended up buying WWE 2 and found it very useful. It even turned my 2nd grader onto some new books. Both are nice so you can see where you are going but if I had to choose, I'd choose the workbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I use only the guide. It has sample copywork and narration passages for approximately every 5th week. It tells you what to look for in copywork passages for the rest of the weeks. I plan two weeks at a time, and it takes me approximately 10/15 minutes to find copywork and narration passages and write out the copywork. I find that using the guide saves me a ton of money and it also allows me to choose copywork and narration passages that are relevant to my kids and what we are studying, which is what SWB suggests in TWTM. I think WWE is super-easy to implement without the workbooks. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Shelly, do you match up passages from your own books with the grammar suggestions in WWE? Isn't it hard to find the specific elements WWE is looking for sometimes? I really want to do this, but am afraid it would take FOR-EV-ER to find a passage with all the certain criteria listed in WWE from history or science books. How much time do you have to spend planning this out? (Thanks in advance!) I'm not Shelly, but yes, I do match up passages from our books to the copywork criteria. I don't for the narration passages, because I find that it doesn't matter whether our narration selection has an abbreviation of a term of respect (Dr., Mrs., etc.). What I am going for in narration is simply for my dd to be able to summarize the main point. The copywork is what reinforces the grammar concept. I don't find it hard at all to find copywork to reinforce the grammar concept. Once or twice I have tweaked a passage from a book so that it did conform to the grammar. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelly in the Country Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 (edited) Shelly, do you match up passages from your own books with the grammar suggestions in WWE? Isn't it hard to find the specific elements WWE is looking for sometimes? I really want to do this, but am afraid it would take FOR-EV-ER to find a passage with all the certain criteria listed in WWE from history or science books. How much time do you have to spend planning this out? (Thanks in advance!) Yes, I also match up the passages I choose for copywork from the grammar that is taught in WWE. Of course, I am only using level 1 right now so many of them aren't dealing with grammar per se. One week was just finding passages that mentioned seasons (fall,winter, spring, summer), or the names of cities or states. I don't feel the need to pick passages that we are reading RIGHT now for these. Sometimes that is just not possible. There are only so many passages that specifically include the name of a city or state, or mention a title of respect like Mrs. or Mr. I do use the books we will be reading over the course of this year though. It's the narration that I am taking directly from what we are currently reading, and in SWB's directions in the guide she just says to choose a passage of a certain length to narrate, not to look for any elements from the grammar lesson. She is very specific and clear about what to choose each week for the copywork and since we already have a houseful of books I find it pretty easy to find the copywork passages meeting the criteria. There is no hunting around for the narration. I just read part of what we are reading anyway and then ask questions. The narration is super easy. I view the search for copywork as a treasure hunt :001_smile:. I just spent my weekend playing around with Startwrite software and it took me about 5 hours to find and organize all the copywork I will need for WWE1. It's all printed out, labeled by week and filed away in a file folder. HTH! I should add that I really like hunting for the copywork, too. I guess if one found such an activity tedious, the workbook might be the way to go. Edited July 28, 2009 by Shelly in the Country Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I own both (the guide is worth reading), but if I were to buy one I would buy the workbooks. I like that it makes the program open and go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krisp Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I own both, but right now I only use the workbooks. I don't like the large lines in the workbook, so I have my dd copy the copywork (we're finishing WWE1) in her wide ruled notebook. I agree with the others who say that it wouldn't be that hard to find your own narration/copywork, but I know me and I wouldn't get around to it. I'd much rather buy the workbooks and spend my planning time finding fun historical supplements (and mesh sonlight/veritas press/moh) than look up narrations. Kristin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmsmama Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 I use only the guide. It has sample copywork and narration passages for approximately every 5th week. It tells you what to look for in copywork passages for the rest of the weeks. I plan two weeks at a time, and it takes me approximately 10/15 minutes to find copywork and narration passages and write out the copywork. I find that using the guide saves me a ton of money and it also allows me to choose copywork and narration passages that are relevant to my kids and what we are studying, which is what SWB suggests in TWTM. I think WWE is super-easy to implement without the workbooks. Tara So it seems that as long as I have a bit of time to devote to finding passages for copywork, the guidebook should do just fine. I'm not always the best with pulling things together that aren't laid out for me, but if the instructions are clear, then it shouldn't be too hard to find copywork passages, and if the guidelines for narration aren't as specific, we can just do narration from the books we are already reading. I'm just thinking costwise, if it isn't too hard to pull it together myself, then approx. $25 for one book beats approx. $100 for 4 workbooks when it's all said and done. Also, if I use the program with dd, I might even be fine with not doing a 36 wk. program with her because she is going into 5th grade; so for the first and second book especially, I'd likely only need a small amount of copywork/narration in addition to the ones the book gives me for every 5th week or so, as someone else mentioned that it gave. With ds, I was planning on making it light as well because he is going into 2nd grade, but he does not like writing at all, so I don't think I'd want to go full force with the WWE program with him either. If I go with the workbooks, do they contain instructions or info. about the method in the front of the book, or is it just copywork/narration selections? What is in the guidebook that is missing from the workbook in terms of instruction/information? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ariasmommy Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I own both. I originally just bought the guide last year and used it to pull copywork and narrations from our history and literature. But I started feeling unsure I was doing it "right" and decided to purchase the workbooks to finish out Level 1 and continue into Level 2. But I'm not sure I like the workbooks - the lines are way too big, as others have mentioned, and I really liked using selections from the books we were actually reading. It just seems weird, for example, to have my dd copy a sentence from A Christmas Carol and then narrate from an excerpt of it, when she has no idea of the context. It is more "open and go" though. Anyway, all that to say that I guess you have to decide whether you want to coordinate WWE to your other studies, or if you would rather have the extra convenience and guidance of the workbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annabel Lee Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 So it seems that as long as I have a bit of time to devote to finding passages for copywork, the guidebook should do just fine. I'm not always the best with pulling things together that aren't laid out for me, but if the instructions are clear, then it shouldn't be too hard to find copywork passages, and if the guidelines for narration aren't as specific, we can just do narration from the books we are already reading. I'm just thinking costwise, if it isn't too hard to pull it together myself, then approx. $25 for one book beats approx. $100 for 4 workbooks when it's all said and done. Also, if I use the program with dd, I might even be fine with not doing a 36 wk. program with her because she is going into 5th grade; so for the first and second book especially, I'd likely only need a small amount of copywork/narration in addition to the ones the book gives me for every 5th week or so, as someone else mentioned that it gave. With ds, I was planning on making it light as well because he is going into 2nd grade, but he does not like writing at all, so I don't think I'd want to go full force with the WWE program with him either. If I go with the workbooks, do they contain instructions or info. about the method in the front of the book, or is it just copywork/narration selections? What is in the guidebook that is missing from the workbook in terms of instruction/information? I own both the guide and WWE1 & 2 workbooks, though you'd never know it my incessant WWE questions. :D The workbooks don't contain as much insight into the method or what grammar you're teaching w/ a certain piece of copywork. I bought the guide 1st, then for lack of confidence in finding appropriate passages and forming my own narration questions (I was new to the entire copywork/narration/dictation method) I bailed and got the workbooks. I like having the guide on the shelf too because it does lay out the long-term idea behind it all, and it lists exactly what to focus on for grammar (apparently that is just for the copywork, not for all passages for an entire week - Thank You Tara!). If I had to choose only one I'd choose the guide now that I realize the criteria for finding narration passages is looser than I thought. I could just hit myself with a 2-by-4 for that. :tongue_smilie: All this time I thought that the list of grammatical elements applied to the entire weeks' WWE work. I thought it all had to come from the same book. I'd choose the guide b/c I like to see the meaning behind the method. There are 36 pages before the beginning of Year 1 in the guide. Two of the sections that I know of are published online somewhere on the PHP site - Why Writing Programs Fail and The Three Stages. I like knowing what grammar from the sentence(s) to point out to my kiddos. I use the workbooks but refer to the guide to see what it is to point out to them that week. If it only takes one Saturday to plan the whole year (I've got a house brimming with books to choose from, too) I think I can do this. Thanks for all the help, Shelly, Tara, etc.! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtolgd Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I bought both, but if I were to buy just one, it would definately be the workbook. It's so convenient to have it all in one place! I really don't think I would do too well if I had to find my own passages to use each week. That's just me though! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herbalgirl Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I have both the guide and the workbook for level 1. Since we use HWOT, which has two-lined paper, and the workbook has three-lined, we're using the HWOT paper. The only thing that the workbook is handy for is to be "open and go" and possibly to interest your children in some literature that they may not have read yet. However, taking the small amt. of time to find copywork from your own reading and getting books you haven't read from the library will work out to be cheaper than getting the workbooks each level! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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