writing ?

[TXMomof4]

I've come to the realization that I've really not taught writing to my girls at all. Yes, they are young, but now that I've noticed this, I am not sure where to start.

 

We do *some* narration with history and science. We do quite a bit of copywork, usually a bible verse, a few sentences from a book we're reading, and their grammar rules every day. They do great with the copywork (aside from the penmanship).

 

So, where do you start with writing. Last week we dissected an owl pellet and I asked my oldest dd to write about it. What it looked like, what it felt like, what we found, and if she enjoyed it. You would have thought I asked her to write a book. There was just a deer in the headlights look on her face.

 

So we tried the old, "How do you make a peanut butter sandwich?" routine and we had a great time. However, she still didn't write in complete sentences, but then I've never taught her how to write complete sentences.

 

I've never really looked at writing curriculum before. We've used FLL/LLATL (red book). But I need some direction here. Any ideas?

 

Thanks!

[dalynnrmc]

How old are the children?

 

I'm looking as well; someone pointed me to Letter of the Week that has a page for journal ideas for each day of the year.

 

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread as well; my oldest (the one I'm looking to do more writing, from basics) is 9.

[Closeacademy]

I have use the book Composition in the Classical Tradition by D'Angelo as my guide for writing. It is progymnasmata (writing exercises). What we do here:

 

K-2nd Copywork, and we talk about nouns, verbs, subject, punctuation, complete sentences, and sentence types. First Language Lessons is a great guide on how to do this.

 

2nd--Composition of narrations from Aesop's Fables. Basically, I read a fable on Monday, on Tuesday we go over the who, what, when, where, why, and/or how of the story. Then she orally composes the story in her own words which I write down and she uses as copywork.

 

3rd--Types of narrative writing with Old Testament stories as a starting off point. We learn how to outline a story then write a narrative from the outline. We write stories from a specific point of view, we write a narrative in 3rd person, we write a narrative as if if was told as gossip, we write a narrative that is all in questions. Basically, we concentrate on the narrative form.

 

4th--Descriptive writing is the focus and we are looking at either habitats or different parts of the world being our jumping off point as to what we are writing about.

 

And it goes from there. Writing Tales looks like it is a great program and so does Classical Writing. A lot of people like IEW but I found their website to be confusing and they were not any sort of help at their booth at convention. Susan Wise Bauer also has a writing curriculum coming out and it should be good.

 

Me--I am trying to keep our school spending down so I created our own program. :001_smile:

[Sue G in PA]

If you've used FLL w/ success and they have done basic narrations, but are having trouble. WWE looks like a good program. Check out the samples on http://www.peacehillpress.com My plan is to use it w/ my rising 2nd grader and a little w/ my 3rd grader. It focuses on copywork, dictation, narration, etc. HTH

[Beth in Central TX]

I use Classical Writing program starting in 3rd grade.

 

Here's a description of CW: http://home.att.net/~MikeJaqua/TheBooks.html

and a schedule: http://home.att.net/~mikejaqua/whichbookstobuy.html

[ELaurie]

I second this suggestion, based upon SWB's glowing reputation ; ), and the sample pages at the PHP site.

 

And BTW, you have been teaching writing; copy work, narrations, grammar and spelling are all foundational skills that prepare your child for writing : )