Writing help... We are in TEARS!

[Jan in SC]

Help my 7yo ds is having trouble writing. Anything! At. All! Ok- I take that back. He will do copywork, but I can barely read it.

 

I am having him acessed through our local district and the literacy coach has me feeling like a failure. She says he should be able to keep a journal and at this age it should have complete thoughts with beginnings, middles and ends. I am so frustrated!

 

I pulled him out of school in the middle of first, started kindergarten again, this time with phonics and I have finally seen some productive reading.

 

Any ideas?? Should he really be writing all day? Is this a sign of a learning issue?

 

Thanks,

Janet

[BakersDozen]

I have a 7yos and I can assure you that keeping a journal with complete thoughts would be impossible for him. He's bright but writing is just not his strongest point right now and I am not at all worried because he's only 7, and he's a boy - he'd prefer to be out climbing our tree than writing his thoughts down. :) We'll begin writing next year and use just the most simple things: cue words to make a sentence, etc. Nothing big. I'm sorry you were made to feel like a failure.

[TracyR]

Absolutely not . Neither one of my girls were writing in journals at that age . And still at age 10 my oldest still doesn't have a beginning , middle and end to her stories half of the time .

I recommend trying either SWB's Writing with Ease ( which won't be out until May though ) , or Writing Tales 1 .

My 2nd daughter is 8 now and is just starting to get the idea of writing . But neither of them at age 7 were ' writing persay . Only doing copywork .

I don't think your child has a learning issue at all . other then maybe just learning differently or just isn't ready . I wouldn't go through your school district . I don't think any of the B&M kids are any further then what your 7yr old child is doing . My friend's sister's daughter who goes and mom just pulled her out was barely reading at all and they were going to pass her to the next grade and could hardly write a word let alone a sentence or even in a journal . So really they have no room to talk .

[Sue G in PA]

He is a typical 7yo boy! My almost 7yo would have MUCH trouble w/ that journal. Focus on legible copywork. Period. Then, move to simple dictation. He's young. Original writing can come much, much later (3rd grade or higher). Take a deep breath, ignore that "specialist" and just focus on the basics!

[kaylk in tx]

i taught 4th grade for 11 years in ps.... i had plenty of 4th graders who couldn't write a beginning, middle, and end to anything! now by the end of the year, most of them could. but that was with very intensive writing instruction, (because there was a state writing test and we had to torture the children) not informal journaling! i gave up journaling because most of the kids hated it and wouldn't write more than a sentence or two.

 

what this is a sign of is a young boy who has just figured out reading and she's comparing him to children who figured out reading a year ago. not fair at all. and even kids who have figured out reading will vary widely in their writing skills. she is holding up the "gold standard" that the teachers are to shoot for and making it sound like the minimum requirement! if she pulls that again, i'd bluntly ask her if 100% of the K/1st graders at that school are writing to that standard.

 

since his writing is pretty illegible, try something like callirobics (prewriting stroke practice, there's one for print and one for cursive). search online for montessori practical activities that will strengthen his small muscles in his hands (things like tweezering, cutting with scissors, transferring liquids with eyedroppers, playdough). for his copywork, write it lightly yourself and have him trace it.

 

what are you having him assessed for? i'm actually surprised that the school's literacy coach would be involved in testing for LDs. usually that's done by the special ed teachers or educational diagnostician.

 

HTH and if you have any more ?s just ask!

[MIch elle]

He is a typical 7yo boy! My almost 7yo would have MUCH trouble w/ that journal. Focus on legible copywork. Period. Then, move to simple dictation. He's young. Original writing can come much, much later (3rd grade or higher). Take a deep breath, ignore that "specialist" and just focus on the basics!

 

:iagree: w/Sue

[LisaNY]

He is so young yet. At this age, I was doing LOTS of narration with my dd's. It is by far the best introduction to writing for young children. Take him through some of his favorite books, and have him retell the story in his own words, while YOU write, or type it. Then, you can have him read his own story. This is SUCH good practice in learning how a story is structured. Doing this will also build for him a storehouse of knowledge that he can draw from later on. Delve into some of the Ruth Beechick or Charlotte Mason resources. They will give you lots of advice on narration.

 

I am a big proponent of imitative writing.

 

Also, SWB's "Writing Without Fear" CD is excellent - I highly recommend it. :001_smile:

[Donna T.]

The coach is wrong. That reminds me of the pediatrician who jumped down my throat because my five year old wasn't able to tie his own shoes! I don't know where they come up with these things. Just focus on copywork and give him some time. He'll be fine.

[jmgconner]

I taught first grade in public schools, and your son sounds perfectly fine! The specialist is dead wrong.

[Jan in SC]

Thank you all so very much! I am doing narration the WTM way and he is doing great. When I told her what I was doing she became very annoyed. Oh well! I knew I should have just left the public school out of this!

 

Thanks again for the encouragement!

 

Janet

[Excelsior! Academy]

According to our public school, which 3 of my dc attended before homeschooling, 1st grade is when you start getting your thoughts on paper and second grade is when you start to make complete sentences, focus on punctuation, and capital letters. In our public school's first you weren't even required to spell. As long as a child got their thoughts down it was okay! So if you wrote, "krz r fn" for "cars are fun" you would not be corrected. Really! So I would think this "expert" is way off the mark. Is it possible for some 7yo to be at this level? Possibly. The majority? NO way!

[Twinmom]

I completely disagree with your literacy coach! I have a gifted almost 7 year old, and he couldn't write a journal every day! He's a very fast reader, but writing is a completely different skill. Both handwriting and actual composing come hard for him...his fine motor skills are just catching up (typical, I think, for boys!) and he doesn't have the maturity/focus to keep a journal. Geez, my 8 year old DD could barely do that! DS would far rather be running around outside at this age than communicating his thoughts on paper.

 

Try this exercise and it may give you a better idea of whether or not you have an issue. Read your DS a story, then have him tell it back to you while you write it down. (I do this at the computer so I don't have to slow my kiddos down!) If he can basically tell you what the story was about, uses complete sentences to do so, and you are satisfied that he understood it, he's probably just fine! IMO, writing is a completely different skill than reading. A kid has to master his basic fine motor skills AND be able to read well before he can write his own sentences! Give him time, he'll be just fine.

[Twinmom]

Just saw your post that you are narrating with DS...oh, yeah, if he's doing that, he is just fine!! :001_smile:

[my2kidsmom]

A journal at age 7...you've got to be kidding me. My dd is 9 and is still sloppy with her writing, but it has gotten better over the years. I wouldn't stress too much.

[Colleen in NS]

I am doing narration the WTM way and he is doing great. When I told her what I was doing she became very annoyed.

 

What in the world would she get so annoyed about??? Grrrrrr!!!!!

 

Someone else in this thread recommended SWB's writing CD - I second that! The things she talks about on it helped me soooooooooooo much over the past few years with helping my son get going with writing. All that copywork/dictation and narration are finally starting to pay off (nearing the end of 4th grade here).

 

And here are two articles SWB wrote for her new book WWE. The articles contain pretty much all the info. (plus some) in the writing CD.

 

http://www.peacehillpress.com/samplepdfs/03-why-writing-fails.pdf

 

http://www.peacehillpress.com/samplepdfs/04-three-stages.pdf

 

Stay encouraged, you can do this! :)

[Novafan]

I just want to lend support and let you know you are not alone.

 

My 7.5 year old DS is not a fan of writing right now. It's tough because you hear all of the "they should be doing this" and "in PS they are doing this" comments and that just doesn't help, does it?

 

I'm trying my very best to not stress my DS out about writing, yet I continue to encourage him to use the written word when he can. We do lots of letter writing (to friends and family) and I encourage him to write about anything he wants to. A few weeks ago I asked him to make signs for his bedroom, labeling things. That went over well. He thought it was cool to label items in his bedroom, and I was just happy to see him putting pencil to paper and trying to spell words on paper.

 

I have the same worries that you go, so I just wanted to let you know you were not alone.

[Reya]

I'd concentrate on making his handwriting legible and as painless and rapid as possible--THEN try to make him write as he composes. As long as you're working with him side-by-side to make his copywork neater (I know it's horribly tedious, but unfortunately, it won't get much better on its own), it sounds like you're doing just fine. Once you get his endurance, speed, and legibility up, you'll be home free if he's dictating coherent things to you already.

[Amy from WT]

Amen, amen, and amen! Some kids (cough, clear throat, BOYS, cough, cough) [no, just kidding, of course not all boys! :001_smile:] are just slower with their fine motor skills! If you insist on smashing them into that box that they're supposed to fit into along with all the other kids, then yes, many tears will result!

 

My son's handwriting came along SO much later than my daughters'. And he's SUCH a bright boy! This has NO bearing on intelligence! Go back and read that last sentence again. Thank you.

 

You received some wonderful advice in this thread. I especially liked the Callirobics advice - I've heard some great things about that. I'm not sure if HWT was mentioned - but if not, check that out too. BREATHE - that was a good one! Just a little bit of copywork a day - I liked that too. He'll come along at his own pace.

 

And teach him typing early!! :001_rolleyes:

[Jan in SC]

Once again, thank you all very much! I really feel better about it.

 

Janet