Would you please share your thoughts on Writing Tales 1?

[BlessedMom]

I would love to hear your experiences with Writing Tales 1.

Pros? Cons?

 

If you did not like WT is there something you found that you did like?

 

Thanks!

[RootAnn]

I am about 9 "lessons" through WT1. So far, I like it. I need to rework it (but haven't yet) to make it into a 4-day week instead of five. (Someone else sent me a WT2 schedule for a 4-day week, but I haven't seen one for WT1. If anyone already did this, please chime in because I'd love to not do this myself.)

 

My kid likes it and seems to be learning things, but still hates any "writing" portion - which happens once during the first week (of the two-week cycle) and twice during the second week. I think it is helpful and interesting at her stage. She's a young fourth grader who has always hated to write.

 

FWIW, we hope to go to Classical Writing at some point - either after WT1 or after WT2.

[Mallory]

We did all of WT1 and are about 6 weeks into WT2.

 

I think there are two main ways to go with elementary writing- the creative writing, what I did this summer, journal keeping way-- and the narration, retelling narratives way.

 

If you want some kind of creative writing then any of the narration based writing programs probably aren't going to make you happy. In this category I put WT, WWE, and CW. These are all pretty similar- they are going to have a short fable or passage and your child will rewrite it. They might add some "creative touches" (like names or change the animals), but if you want your child's assignmentsto be something like describe a day on the moon, or write a newspaper article about his birthday party, or describe a trip to the park- then you won't like any of those curriculums.

 

Niether of my boys was ready for WT1 in 3rd grade, and my current 4th grader still hasn't started WT, he is still using WWE, because there is just too much other stuff (grammar, spelling, vocabulary) in WT and he really needs more practice just getting 2 or 3 sentances down on paper. We also plan on going to CW Homer after WT and 6th grade is more than early enough for Homer.

 

We WT four days a week also.

Day 1- do day 1 and 2

Day 2- do day 3 and 4

Day 3- write half the story

Day 4- write the other half the story

 

We do a similar thing the second week, because my son never wants to add any creative details so we just have to write the story over once. Sometimes we might talk about some of the suggestions, but we don't write them down. The creative changes day was added to keep some kids interested and having fun, but if it doesn't intrest your kid it isn't needed.

[PeterPan]

Love, love, love WT!! It does an especially good job of teaching *you* how to teach and think through the writing. After WT2 you can go into CW Homer, no problem, and you'll already have your rhythm for how you and your dc like to do the writing. The models are engaging, the games fun, and it's just very well done. CW uses longer models and leans toward being more archaic, more stiff, more dry, blech.

[BlessedMom]

Thank you RootAnn, Mallory, and OhElizabeth, you have been very helpful!

[Sweetest]

I guess I'll be the dissenting opinion. We did WT1 last year (4th grade) and it was the most painful part of our year. My dd is a bright girl with great spelling/writing skills but she hated re-writing the stories... she just thought that was silly. So WT and the re-writing method did not work for us. I also found the grammar too easy for her... That being said, if you really want to do an imitation program, I do think this is a nice gentle introduction to the method, it just wasn't the right method for us :tongue_smilie:

 

I found WWE and realized that this is the kind of program I have been looking for all along, I love that it is teaching my daughter how to summarize main points/details and keep ideas in her head long enough to get them on paper. We are doing WWE3 this year and loving it!

[Whereneverever]

:bigear:

[BlessedMom]

Jennifer, thank you for sharing your thoughts about WT1. I really appreciate hearing a different point of view.

[PeterPan]

BTW, I wouldn't disagree with anything Jennifer said. I did WT1 with my dd in 2nd and WT2 in 3rd. We were doing Shurley 4 during WT2. We've done WTM methods of writing all along and do them in addition to progymnasta writing. Jennifer's dd was probably ready for WT2, which is MUCH more meaty than WT1. Also, I think sometimes people make too much of this rewriting thing. For the class I taught, the kids often included fun/creative additions, even in the first telling. You could tell them not to, but they were highly creative and just had it overflowing. :) Also, I only had them write one draft by hand. We edited that draft and had them type their final. We saved all the printouts and made them wonderful books at the end of the year!

 

I think it's important to flex the method and make it your own. That's what makes WT so much better than CW; you start to see ways to take some liberties and flex it to fit your dc. It's OK to let them get more creative. It's OK to skip all that writing by hand. It's OK to do the grammar analysis orally or ditch the spelling. You need to use the curriculum and not let it use you. And it's also ok to speed it up and do one model a week with an older or very capable dc. Flex it. The bones are very good!

[Sweetest]

OhElizabeth - I think it was more about the method than the level for us, I think we would have had the same problems with WT2. We didn't usually do second drafts either, I would just have DD type up her second draft with any necessary corrections (she loved doing the typing part!) When I said she didn't like re-writing, I meant she didn't like having to retell the story in her own words - the first time through :) I agree it is a good solid program, but the process was just not a good fit for us!