Help me decide between winning with writing, or writing with ease

[mommyto2]

I have a rising 2nd grader. She has done a little writing, but I want to use an actual writing curriculum for her. She tends to be intimidated of writing. She is a perfectionist and is smart enough to think that everything should come easy. She HATES getting things wrong. So I am also trying to decide if I should start her at level one, or two?

 

If I do with Writing with Ease do I need to get the Instructors manual or just the workbook? Thanks for any help!

[Mama2two]

I am not very familiar with Winnign with Writing, but form my understanding it is a more traditional writing program and very different from WWE. WWE focuses on narration and copywork in Level 1 and then adds in dictation in Level 2.

 

If you have the workbook for WWE you don't need the hardback book. The hardback book explains the process and then you pick your own passage for narration, copywork, etc... The workbook does it for you.

 

My kids really enjoy the narrating in WWE, but my 8 year old is struggling with the dictation in WWE. He has great recall but can't do the spelling so that slows him down asking for help.

 

Hope that helps!

[twinmami01]

We started on Winning With Writing 2 with my boys and they had little writing experience. We had completed Writing With Ease 1 and were halfway through WWE 2, but I wanted a more traditional writing curriculum. They started at level 2 with no problems.

[ErinE]

Winning with Writing is very similar to a public school writing program. Instruction builds up from writing sentences to learning about paragraph writing. The child learns about details, topic sentences, and writing voices. I think it would be a fit for a child who was no problem with the physical act of writing. If she hasn't done much writing before, I'd recommend starting at the first level. WWW is a good "mechanics" program, but I found I was teaching the mechanics in other subjects so we stopped using it.

 

For Writing With Ease, I purchased both the Instructor's Guide and WWE3. The Instructor's Guide is an overview of the four grammar stages. It gives a week-by-week guide to teach copywork, narration, and dictation without reading selections. The workbooks are leveled, with reading selections and additional instructions for each lesson. Again for a child who hasn't had much writing experience, I recommend the first or second level. There's placement tests on the Peace Hill Press website.

 

Over time, I began using the WWE IG more and more. My kids have reading selections every day, whether it's history, science or literature. I wanted them to summarize and narrate what they were learning. Eventually, I dropped the WWE3 workbook because I found writing was naturally occuring in our core subjects.

 

If you want a traditional writing program, WWW is a good selection. The workbooks are open and go and only require minimal guidance from the teacher. Writing With Ease spends more time requiring narration and summaries which fit more with my teaching views. If you opt for WWE, I highly recommend SWB's writing lectures.