kristinannie Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 OK, this is obviously a board that loves SWB and JW. :lol: I didn't have time to look at these products during the HS convention. I barely had time for the exhibit hall since there were so many great speakers and I am new to this and had a lot to learn!!!!! Anyway, can anyone tell me more about these. I have seen their examples online, but I would like to know about how it works day to day. How long does it take, how varied are things, do kids enjoy it, do they learn a lot? I would love to hear from people who like these products and those who don't. I would also love to hear other suggestions! I am planning on doing classical mixed with a lot of CM so I don't want to just do a bunch of workbooks for every subject. Thanks a lot for your input. I have a year to decide about these, but I just like to plan things out a little! :bigear::bigear::bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agst1967 Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 :bigear: Hoping to hear this as well!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 I'm listening in as well....I'm thinking of using them with my upcoming 2nd grader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 Well, I will try to answer your question, or what I think your question is. I have used FLL 1-4 and WWE 2-4. When my elder ds started 1st grade, WWE did not exist. If it had, I would have used it. We started in first grade with FLL. It is very easy to use and pretty much scripted. You open the book and do the next exercise. I did it three or four times a week. I cannot remember now. I have the original FLL and it had some extra or supplemental writing work and I never did those with my kid. I was using a handwriting program and that seemed like enough writing for my 6 year old. We did FLL1 in first, FLL2 in second etc. When older DS was in third grade WWE came out. I continued on with FLL3 and added in WWE 2. My ds was one of those "my hand is gonna fall off' type of kids so I thought starting a year behind would be a good idea. It was perfect. So, three times a week we did FLL 3 and four times a week we did WWE2. WWE 1-4 is set up to be used 4 days a week. Again, it is almost totally scripted and dead easy to use. So, that is how we used it. Three days a week (maybe M, W, F) we do grammar and four days a week (we do M-TH) we do writing. My son is in 5th grade this year and we had to use a different grammar program but we are finishing up WWE4. Next year, we will go back to Peace Hill Press for grammar with Advanced Language Lessons and Writing with Skill. I have a second son who will be a first grader next year. I plan to follow the same schedule. We will do FLL 1 next year and start WWE1 in second grade. How long does it take: FLL in the first two years takes about 10 mins or less for a lesson. That increased in the older years. My son never complained. WWE was about the same. Some of that will depend on your child. If s/he is a very slow writer, the copywork might take a while. My son loved both programs. Loved them. He especially enjoys the writing program. He gets very happy when the selections are from a book he enjoys. There have been many times that he asked to read a book after reading an excerpt in WWE. Did he learn a lot? Yes. Without a doubt. FWIW, this kid actually jumped up and down and cheered when I told him that the program will be continuing on next year. How weird is that? My kid cheered about grammar. :001_huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 I just want to add, that if you go to the Peace Hill Press site (there is a direct link at the top of the forum pages) you can download a PDF with the entire table of contents and the introduction. FLL1 also has the first three lessons For WWE there can be some confusion. The Instructor's Guide covers all four years. The first couple chapters are available as a PDF at the PHP site and are well worth reading even if you don't use the program. The Instructor's Guide can be used to pull together an entire writing program for all 4 years. It gives a month by month overview of a 4 year writing program. it is great if you like to do stuff yourself. it provides a tremendous amount of guidance. I own it and return to it many times to review goals etc. The workbooks follow the overview given in the Instructor's Guide but they provide the copywork/narration/dictation material. There is one for every year. It is truly open and go. It even comes with student pages that can be copied and used for the student to use for writing. I never used the student pages, I just give my student a binder with blank paper. I wrote out the copywork on the paper in my easiest to copy handwriting. So for WWE you can use the Instructor's guide alone and you will only need to buy that one book and use it for all four years. It means you will pull out narration, copywork and dictation selections from books your child is reading or from history selections or things you happen to like. Or, you can use one workbook a year and use the selections the SWB and the other nice people chose. They have done all the work for you. No matter what you end up using, I think everyone should at least get the audio download from PHP 'A plan for teaching writing: the elementary years" I own all the writing audio lectures and have found them to be invaluable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blsmommy Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 We just switched to WWE 1 and FLL 1 after struggling through another program for most of the year. My son is in 1st grade and is very advanced in reading and spelling, but hates writing. He HATES it. He would complain about doing Language Arts even though he was strong in most of the areas. Now that we have switched, we are doing two lessons a day in each book to catch up a little-- and he begs to do more!! What!? Two big thumbs up from this family! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted April 11, 2011 Author Share Posted April 11, 2011 Red Squirrel, thanks for taking the time to write all of that out. I really appreciate it. I love that the lessons don't take forever and that kids that don't love writing (my DS) would do well with it. From what I gather, it is a really well thought out program and I love that. I don't want to waste a lot of time doing something that doesn't work really well. Does this cover handwriting then or would I still need to do that? Thanks so much for your post! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacus2 Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 My kids love it, too. I let them pick which copywork sentence (WWE1) to do and they both insist on the longer one every time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 Does this cover handwriting then or would I still need to do that? Thanks so much for your post! It is not a handwriting program. I used HWT for that. We used it through second grade for printing and then did two years of cursive. This year, fifth grade, is the first year we haven't studies handwriting. That is one reason why I won't have my first grader do WWE1 next year. I can tell he needs another year to just learn how to write. I also use spelling workout. We do one exercise a day, four days a week. That means we do one chapter a week, finishing one book a school year. One exercise takes very few mins. But, I don't make a big deal out of spelling. He can spell. I don't do tests or have him keep a notebook of rules. I do make him correct mistakes but I am not all about the spelling. Next year, 6th grade, will be our last year of spelling and then we transition to vocabulary study. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agst1967 Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 Thank you for all the great answers! I have wondering if we should use this next year and I am strongly leaning toward both programs!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamachanse Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Another FLL and WWE lover here. We started FLL1 with ds in first grade. We are using FLL2 this year and began WWE2 as well. I didn't feel he was personally ready for the writing last year but he experienced huge developmental leaps this year and was ready to go. They are possibly my favorite things to teach. :) We use HWT for handwriting as well. Although I do admit that the student pages from WWE were really the first lined paper he has been exposed to and his writing has never been neater. I also just added GWG to reinforce what we are learning in FLL...and because ds needed a little busy work so I could school my Ker. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 Another FLL and WWE lover here. We started FLL1 with ds in first grade. We are using FLL2 this year and began WWE2 as well. I didn't feel he was personally ready for the writing last year but he experienced huge developmental leaps this year and was ready to go. They are possibly my favorite things to teach. :) We use HWT for handwriting as well. Although I do admit that the student pages from WWE were really the first lined paper he has been exposed to and his writing has never been neater. I also just added GWG to reinforce what we are learning in FLL...and because ds needed a little busy work so I could school my Ker. ;) What is GWG? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Five More Minutes Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 What is GWG? Growing with Grammar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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