Using WWE with a 3rd or 4th grader? What will your total LA program look like?

[Amy loves Bud]

For us this is where I'm at:

 

3rd grader:

 

WWE as written for 3rd grade

FLL3 minus copywork/dictations

Spelling Power

Reading some assigned literature correlating with history daily

Reading some free choice literature daily

Handwriting practice

 

 

 

For my 5th grader who will just be turning 10 in August and has strong negative feelings about writing:

 

WWE as written for 4th grade, but I we will only do each recommended level for half the suggested number of weeks, leaving us with a 16 week quick run through WWE 4th grade

 

For weeks 17 through the end of the school year he'll use WT2 or CW Aesop B.

 

For the first 16 weeks, we will read Kingfisher's Ill. History of the World together for history and orally do outlining as described in TWTM 5th grade. For weeks 17 on, he will begin writing the one point outlines, and preparing one page summaries from them.

 

Growing with Grammar 5

Spelling Power

Handwriting practice

Reading daily from history related literature and free choice literature

 

 

So how does your LA look for these ages, and do you have thoughts on how I'm handling it?

[Sasharowan]

For 3rd grade,my dd will be doing GWG3, WT1, and individualized spelling and reading. I have ordered WWE for my ds in 2nd, but I had already ordered WT1 for dd and it looks to be a good fit for her, so unless WWE is extremely better or WT1 doesn't work like it should, I'll go with what is planned. Besides, I already have WT1.

[stephanie]

For us this is where I'm at:

 

3rd grader:

 

WWE as written for 3rd grade

FLL3 minus copywork/dictations

Spelling Power

Reading some assigned literature correlating with history daily

Reading some free choice literature daily

Handwriting practice

 

 

 

For my 5th grader who will just be turning 10 in August and has strong negative feelings about writing:

 

WWE as written for 4th grade, but I we will only do each recommended level for half the suggested number of weeks, leaving us with a 16 week quick run through WWE 4th grade

 

For weeks 17 through the end of the school year he'll use WT2 or CW Aesop B.

 

For the first 16 weeks, we will read Kingfisher's Ill. History of the World together for history and orally do outlining as described in TWTM 5th grade. For weeks 17 on, he will begin writing the one point outlines, and preparing one page summaries from them.

 

Growing with Grammar 5

Spelling Power

Handwriting practice

Reading daily from history related literature and free choice literature

 

 

So how does your LA look for these ages, and do you have thoughts on how I'm handling it?

 

3rd grader dd:

PLL with WWE

SS

HWT cursive

Daily reading

Harp and Laurel Wreath Poetry

 

4th grader:

Ill with WWE

HWT

SS

daily reading

Harp and Laurel Wreath Poetry

 

We did WT 1 last year,and we enjoyed it. We are doing WWE because I've been anticipating it. I think you will enjoy WT!

[Amy loves Bud]

 

We did WT 1 last year,and we enjoyed it. We are doing WWE because I've been anticipating it. I think you will enjoy WT!

 

Stephanie,

 

We also did WT 1. That's why we will go into WT2 after the first half of the year. I just want to back up a bit before we go on and really establish the basics with Luke since he is so reluctant to write. His WT1 projects were just fine, but they were a struggle. I want him to get a better handle on the 3 step process SWB describes before we move on.

 

Have you been using PLL and ILL all along? My son really disliked them (along with the FLL books) so we moved over to GWG which has been great. My daughter enjoys all the poetry and such and that style is a much better fit for her.

[jg_puppy]

For us this is where I'm at:

 

3rd grader:

 

WWE as written for 3rd grade

FLL3 minus copywork/dictations

Spelling Power

Reading some assigned literature correlating with history daily

Reading some free choice literature daily

Handwriting practice

 

 

I am probably going to use WWE level 2 (dd is behind in writing.)

FLL3 - We started this week and I really like it.

spelling - Hannah's Word Attack (my choice) and Spectrum spelling workbook (my dd's choice). I have Simply Spelling and Megawords, but I will probably not use either of these until next year.

Cursive - Right now we using some pages from Learning pages and then will move to using A reason for

Reading - Elson reader book 3. Will probably finish by Christmas and then move to Pathway reader book 4.

She will also be reading a lot in history. I think that is all we have right now.

 

Jan

[LanaTron]

3rd grader:

WWE, probably level 2

FLL 2, grammar only

HWOT

IEW's poetry memorization

ETC 5, 6 (I consider this spelling)

finishing Phonics Pathways

Pathway Readers

 

 

And upon reading WWE today, I think both my 5th grader and 7th grader will benefit from working on level 3 and 4, respectively, so here are theirs, too:

 

5th grader/7th grader:

WWE 3/4

GWG 5/Hake Grammar 7

Typing Instructor Deluxe

IEW poetry memorization

Megawords 2

Reading to go with SOTW 4

PP lit guides

 

I don't know if I will have them working on a seperate writing curriculum or just WWE. They will be doing outlining per SOTW 4 activity book, too.

[Another Lynn]

For us this is where I'm at:

 

3rd grader:

 

WWE as written for 3rd grade

FLL3 minus copywork/dictations

Spelling Power

Reading some assigned literature correlating with history daily

Reading some free choice literature daily

Handwriting practice

 

 

 

So how does your LA look for these ages, and do you have thoughts on how I'm handling it?

 

Your 3rd grader looks very similar to my 4th grader. The biggest exception being we will do some streamlined version of Spell to Write and Read instead of Spelling Power. I have skimmed most of WWE - I *think* he's ready for level 4. I also have CW Aesop A - so I still need to decide between these two. My biggest concern is doing WWE level 4 (or 3 for that matter) without the help of the workbook. Are you going to plan all your sources and assignments ahead of look for them each week - I don't have a lot of confidence that this will get done or that I'll be happy with my selections.

 

Any thoughts on implementing?

[Amy loves Bud]

Well, first of all you had your baby on the 4th of July! Congratulations! Did I miss the announcement? Do you have a name? We had a lot of fun celebrating Romy's first birthdya on the 4th with fireworks and all. How exciting!

 

On to business: I do plan on pulling my sources out as I go along - from history and literature mainly. I've struggled with this in the past, but with the model chapters in the book, I now have a better idea of how long and complicated they should be. Of course, this year you will have a newborn and a toddler, so I think if I were in your shoes I'd try to figure out how to pull together resources ahead - maybe do six weeks at a time, so they are done ahead, but you don't have to do a marathon session of pulling together a whole year's worth.

 

OTOH, Aesop looks very good and if you have the workbooks for that, it's easier to pull out selections for copywork and all.

 

Congratulations on the new baby!

[stephanie]

Stephanie,

 

We also did WT 1. That's why we will go into WT2 after the first half of the year. I just want to back up a bit before we go on and really establish the basics with Luke since he is so reluctant to write. His WT1 projects were just fine, but they were a struggle. I want him to get a better handle on the 3 step process SWB describes before we move on.

 

Have you been using PLL and ILL all along? My son really disliked them (along with the FLL books) so we moved over to GWG which has been great. My daughter enjoys all the poetry and such and that style is a much better fit for her.

 

Amy, this will be our first year to use PLL/ILL. We've been using R&S,and were looking for a change of style a bit. My dc love an informal approach to learning so it will be a nice break from R&S which is so rigorous.

[Another Lynn]

Well, first of all you had your baby on the 4th of July! Congratulations! Did I miss the announcement? Do you have a name? We had a lot of fun celebrating Romy's first birthdya on the 4th with fireworks and all. How exciting!

 

On to business: I do plan on pulling my sources out as I go along - from history and literature mainly. I've struggled with this in the past, but with the model chapters in the book, I now have a better idea of how long and complicated they should be. Of course, this year you will have a newborn and a toddler, so I think if I were in your shoes I'd try to figure out how to pull together resources ahead - maybe do six weeks at a time, so they are done ahead, but you don't have to do a marathon session of pulling together a whole year's worth.

 

OTOH, Aesop looks very good and if you have the workbooks for that, it's easier to pull out selections for copywork and all.

 

Congratulations on the new baby!

 

Thank you! Saw your post on my thread in general too - thanks!

 

You have read my mind exactly regarding WWE vs. CW - A. I do like the simplicity of WWE - less to integrate if I can just come up with resources I like in a timely manner. I'll have to mull it over for a couple weeks and then look at both again when I've had more sleep ;) Thanks!

[Sahamamama]

3rd grader:

 

WWE as written for 3rd grade

FLL3 minus copywork/dictations

Spelling Power

Reading some assigned literature correlating with history daily

Reading some free choice literature daily

Handwriting practice

 

Just two thoughts that popped out at me:

 

1. Will you have room in here for "reading" to include poetry, fiction, historical fiction, biography, and some how-to books, or will their reading be primarily history-related non-fiction?

 

2. Will you have room in here for lots of read alouds -- not all independent reading, nor even read alouds of all "serious stuff," but just some sofa-time spent snuggling up with books that really engage them and capture their imaginations?

 

(I hope this post comes across the right way, I've been working on it for a while now, and can't seem to get it to sound "gentle" enough. These are just the thoughts that came to me while reading your curricular listings).

:confused: I hope this helps, Amy.

[Amy loves Bud]

Just two thoughts that popped out at me:

 

1. Will you have room in here for "reading" to include poetry, fiction, historical fiction, biography, and some how-to books, or will their reading be primarily history-related non-fiction?

 

Yes, we've got daily reading as I mentioned - literature (fiction) linked to history, plus free choice reading. Our Friday history time is primarily reading non-fiction and biography related to the period.

 

2. Will you have room in here for lots of read alouds -- not all independent reading, nor even read alouds of all "serious stuff," but just some sofa-time spent snuggling up with books that really engage them and capture their imaginations?

 

Yes, our lunch hour is typically our read aloud time. There's usually a fair amount of reading aloud in the evenings around here, too.

 

(I hope this post comes across the right way, I've been working on it for a while now, and can't seem to get it to sound "gentle" enough. These are just the thoughts that came to me while reading your curricular listings).

:confused: I hope this helps, Amy.

 

You were very gentle and kind about it! Really, we tend toward more snuggle up read aloud and I can be a bit lax about having them do the reading themselves. Our problem is probably more the other direction than you would think!

 

Your thoughts are very helpful. Sometimes it is easy to get into checking off the list and in doing so forget the big picture and it is always good to be reminded!