Literary Mom Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 My soon-to-be 4th grader has gone through all the elementary levels of SW (Spelling Workout), the first 2.5 years of FLL, and various handwriting programs (her printing and cursive are excellent), so I just switched her to CLE LA 3 (Christian Light Education Language Arts) since it combined all three subjects, but it seems like busy work to me. I chose it because their math has worked great for us, but I'm not sure I like the same formulaic method applied to language arts. I'm a writer and a big picture person (whereas my daughter is more into facts and details - science is her favorite subject), and we do narrations for SOTW, which either go swimmingly or atrociously (not her writing, but me trying to get her to synthesize the material into big ideas), but this is the extent of the writing training I'm currently doing with her. She does write creatively on her own and is gifted at that IF it's a subject she likes, for example, today she wrote a real estate ad for a hummingbird's nest in her Apologia notebook - it was very well worded and descriptive. Not like what I get from her when we do narrations! All this to say...since she has so much of the technical part of language arts down and it comes pretty naturally, might it be a good idea to just use WWE (Writing With Ease) or another writing program (or even one that combines other elements of LA)? Of course this forces me to be more involved (I currently have both girls doing LA workbook stuff for the first 30-45 minutes of school, so I don't have to jump right in at 8:30, and because I have to be so involved for all the other subjects). So if I take away this "busy work" time, I might be shooting myself in the foot, esp. since my son will be coming into K and need time with me when the girls are doing other stuff. Can you tell I'm a little freaked out about juggling three ages? :tongue_smilie: (see my other thread on combining WTM and MFW on the K-8 forum) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2smartones Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 Have you looked at Writing Strands? It's not a graded curriculum. You pick it up wherever she's ready. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embassy Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 If your daughter is doing well and enjoying the CLE LA I would stick with it. I might consider adding a writing program to it. If I understand correctly they offer fewer lessons so you can add in some writing instruction. I just started my son on Jump In and he loves it. He also enjoys CLE LA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allearia Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 We love Writing Tales. It has some grammar as applies to the stories but it is pretty light and we usually go through it very quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 There's a LOT more to grammar than is covered in FLL 1-3 and CLE 3. All the more advanced phrases and clauses are very important to being a good writer. If you basically like CLE but find the 3rd grade LU's too easy, I would skip ahead to the 4th or 5th grade ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 This may sound crazy, but it worked for both my kids. We simply NEVER EVER used a writing program. They did creative writing on their own, and for school they did copy work, dictations and narrations until they were teens and tackling essays. I also did very little formal language arts -- FLL, WWE and such were not around when I had young elementary kids. Yes, we did some workbooks, but it was mostly reading, playing word games, diagramming sentences from what we were reading, and just enjoying books together. The result is that both my kids write fluently in any subject matter. They each have a unique voice as writing was never reduced to a formula. It takes a leap of faith that maturity along with an innate giftedness in language and writing will be sufficient in developing a strong writer. But it saves the drudgery of workbooks and "busy work" programs. And, if you look at it from the perspective of a mom of a 19yo -- I'd MUCH rather look back on the advertisement for a hummingbird nest than I would on a worksheet with dry writing prompts. Those inspired bits of work will do more to develop skills and cement knowledge than busywork-workbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbed0849 Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 Have you looked into IEW? Mine are not quite ready for it yet. So, no personal experience. I am waiting to get to use it. It looks great for just writing. Maybe someone out there has actually used it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quad Shot Academy Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 I wouldn't drop a formal LA curriculum. I would skip up 1 or 2 levels. Maybe for writing, for now, you could require her to write something, anything everyday and see where her creativity takes her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down_the_Rabbit_Hole Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 My son (when he was in 4th) enjoyed Wordsmith Apprentice. He gave me some very memorable writing pieces that year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Literary Mom Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 This may sound crazy, but it worked for both my kids. We simply NEVER EVER used a writing program. They did creative writing on their own, and for school they did copy work, dictations and narrations until they were teens and tackling essays. I also did very little formal language arts -- FLL, WWE and such were not around when I had young elementary kids. Yes, we did some workbooks, but it was mostly reading, playing word games, diagramming sentences from what we were reading, and just enjoying books together. The result is that both my kids write fluently in any subject matter. They each have a unique voice as writing was never reduced to a formula. It takes a leap of faith that maturity along with an innate giftedness in language and writing will be sufficient in developing a strong writer. But it saves the drudgery of workbooks and "busy work" programs. And, if you look at it from the perspective of a mom of a 19yo -- I'd MUCH rather look back on the advertisement for a hummingbird nest than I would on a worksheet with dry writing prompts. Those inspired bits of work will do more to develop skills and cement knowledge than busywork-workbooks. This is the way I tend to think - maybe because I'm a writer and grammar on its own was always dry to me, but I had no problem crafting clear sentences and compositions. Thanks for the view from farther down the road :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Literary Mom Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 Thanks for all the input. I'll be looking into these other programs. I don't think we'll use CLE LA after this, at least not for my oldest. The spelling is too easy for her, the non-grammar stuff is rather tedious and mostly what she already knows, so only the grammar is right at her level, therefore it wouldn't work to put her ahead, because she'd miss some grammar she hasn't gone over yet. I really liked the idea of an all-in-one, but this doesn't seem to be it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quad Shot Academy Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 , so only the grammar is right at her level, therefore it wouldn't work to put her ahead, because she'd miss some grammar she hasn't gone over yet. I really liked the idea of an all-in-one, but this doesn't seem to be it. I don't know anything about CLE, but most grammar programs pretty much repeat the same concepts over and over, year after year. My fav. program is R&S, done mostly orally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Literary Mom Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 I've looked at R&S, but I think if I'm going to return to teaching grammar aloud (which I'm trying to transition out of because of managing multiple students), it would be FLL. That worked well for us up until this year. I wrote on the other thread (I cross posted this on the K-8 board) that I might try alternating between FLL and WWE. It's just that both require more parent involvement, and I'm trying to cut back on that with my oldest so I can spend more time instructing my younger ones, and save the other time for content areas (history and science). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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