Writing program suggesitons?

[MandJsMama]

Hello! I need a writing program for my 9 yo son. He is a very strong reader and does very well with GWG and WWE. We will continue with those but I would like something that helps him put his own thoughts to the paper and help him organize his thoughts into paragraphs, letters, short stories, etc.

 

Writing Strands? IEW? I really don't know. I'm not looking for grammar or copywork since we have those covered but something to move him to the next stage?

 

Any suggestions for him?

 

Thanks!!!

[oraetstudia]

We did one book of Writing Strands a couple of years ago. It seemed just fine to me and my son seemed to like it fine, but a lot of people on here are not happy with it. I'm not sure why exactly.

 

This past year we did a combination of Imitation in Writing: Greek Heroes and MCT Paragraph Town for my 11 year old. He really enjoyed Imitation in Writing, which had him outlining and retelling myths in his own words. I had one quibble with the book that they tended to use half Greek names and half Roman, but that's fairly minor. My son's on the confident end of the writing spectrum, but I don't think the Imitation in Writing book would be a challenge for a less confident writer. MCT was more for a confident writer and parent, because the assignments are pretty open-ended. I'm not usually that confident, but it hasn't been too hard to figure out how to help my son narrow down the open-endedness to something more specific.

 

For next year, I plan to use MCT Essay Voyage and WriteShop with him.

[MandJsMama]

Thank you! I'll start looking into those. I'll try to do a forum search to see if I can find more opinions on Writing Strands and what people didn't like about it. It seems to be what we are looking for - write about your friend, write about your favorite book, etc. But I can see how it might not offer enough instruction or guidance to the parents.

[In2why]

I am another fan of Writing Strands. I have all of the levels and it is simple, written to the child so that the lessons are somewhat independent, until they share their writing. I also like that there is a set up critique for the kids to measure their progress. I have only used 2 levels so far, and we don't have any complaints. It was also a suggesting in the original WTM book before WWE was written, if that helps for review purposes.

 

I also really admire what IEW is about, but not enough to spend that kind of money on a writing program. Instead I watched some of their presentations on their website, and for my older, I got the supplements for writing with the Ancients. In the guides and they have others, you get the dress up info and "cheat sheets" to make writing stronger. But if money was no object, I would probably buy IEW for myself to watch and incorporate, and then still use Writing Strands for the kids basic writing program.

[atozmom]

I saw that you use GWG, did you see their new writing series? Winning with Writing. There has been a thread about it here.

[MandJsMama]

Thanks! I did see about the WWW program and, honestly, those weird dotted/slashed lines freaked me out. Why couldn't they just put in regular lines? When I looked at it, I thought that maybe it was too much like WWE but it is on my list to look at again more closely. We like GWG and I feel my son has learned a lot from that program.

 

Thanks for the review of Writing Strands!

[warneral]

Thanks! I did see about the WWW program and, honestly, those weird dotted/slashed lines freaked me out. Why couldn't they just put in regular lines? When I looked at it, I thought that maybe it was too much like WWE but it is on my list to look at again more closely. We like GWG and I feel my son has learned a lot from that program.

 

Thanks for the review of Writing Strands!

 

They are regular writing lines. The samples were just goofy.

[MandJsMama]

I saw that about the writing lines so now I don't know what to do!! :confused: