Too much writing?

[stm4him]

We have started our first week of school and we are only doing a few subjects but I can already see that when we add writing in next week it will probably be too much writing for them (at least in their eyes). This week for history they make two notebook pages a day (four days a week) about their timeline cards or history sentence. They have to copy only the title of the card and the date or Bible reference and then each is required to write a 2-3 sentence narration. They also draw a picture for each. Then they do a science card 1-2 days a week basically the same way but I do not require any narration b/c they are copying a question and an answer in addition to the card title and phrase and date and picture. Total this takes about an hour and a half. The other days of the week for science they are either doing a worksheet with very little writing about their weekly experiment, doing a short lesson which has some writing and drawing pertaining to their memory work (homeschool curriculum co.) or doing nature study which has fill in the blanks and a drawing. The other day of the week they will do a fine arts packet instead of history. So I'm still thinking that is 1/2 hour for science on those days and 1 hour for history or fine arts.

 

So already they are doing that much writing. I don't think that is too far off from WTM recommendations for 2nd and 3rd grade and they actually enjoy this so far.

 

The problem is that my 2nd grader is learning cursive so he will have to do one page of cursive a day (LOE) and my oldest will be doing Classically Cursive. So that is handwriting practice. Then for composition I had planned to do IEW's Fables, Fairy Tales, and Myths (or whatever its called) some days of the year and have them write either a journal entry or a letter or thank you note other days of the year. So that leaves them with:

 

-1 page of handwriting

-3 notebooking pages (history or fine arts and science)

-1 IEW assignment, letter, or journal entry

 

That doesn't include the writing they do on their math pages or the writing they do for LOE (phonics/spelling/grammar) or their literature guides in the afternoon or their other workbooks like Latin, Greek, and thinking skills (though there is usually not that much writing in those).

 

Now when I look at Veritas for example they are doing that much work except for Science, but I don't have my kids write for Bible. That is all discussion and reading for us. Veritas says 45 minutes each for Bible and History, both of which involve a worksheet or two each so I think that is about the same as what I'm doing for science and history. And I know they also do IEW and Classically Cursive and literature guides and the grammar part of Shirley. So I don't think I'm too far off of what they require. But it just seems like I'm in for a rebellion here.

 

I'm all for lots of writing b/c I think it is sad when the physical part of writing gets in the way of good content and I agree with Laurie Dettweiler (VP) that the best way to avoid this is to build their muscles up so they are able to do lots of writing. Leigh Bortins writes about kids in another country (I think it was Jamaica) who sat for an hour each day and copied long passages of Scripture in cursive and did it well! So should I just not worry about it and make them do it or is this too much to require? If so, what should I cut?

 

Thanks!

[stm4him]

bump

[mom2boys030507]

If they are comfortable with what you are requiring now then add in the other things slowly. Start with the just doing the cursive practice for a few weeks. Then add in IEW.

 

My kids write a fare amount and I start the year with slightly less writing then the previous spring and add to it fairly quickly but slow down when the kids are reaching their perceived limit of writing.

[ErinE]

If they are comfortable with what you are requiring now then add in the other things slowly. Start with the just doing the cursive practice for a few weeks. Then add in IEW.

 

My kids write a fare amount and I start the year with slightly less writing then the previous spring and add to it fairly quickly but slow down when the kids are reaching their perceived limit of writing.

 

I agree. Slowly add in greater amounts of writing.

[MAIMOM]

I agree. Slowly add in greater amounts of writing.

 

:lurk5::bigear: Been looking at the writing for my kids this year too.

[Colleen in NS]

In my mind, I separate "handwriting practice" from "composition practice." And then they practice handwriting in things such as filling in workbooks, writing spelling words, diagraming sentences, etc.. They practice composition when they write narrations or take sentence dictation.

 

If you can divide up all the work into those categories, it might help you to decide how much of each to do. I'd pick one good composition program and one good handwriting program, do lessons in those several times a week, and then practice those skills "across the curriculum" as you see fit.

 

I believe it's best to do a bit of handwriting and composition practice each day, and to be choosy about how you go about this. I'm not a fan of "the more pencil-pushing, the better." I am a fan of daily bits of practice of particular skills on excellent material.

[LindaOz]

I'm all for writing. My kids do a lot of writing. However, it sounds like they are already doing writing. Just because it's not writing that is set out via a 'writing program' doesn't mean that it's not of value :001_smile: . They are composing when they write their notebooking pages and that is great. Like you say, they are already having handwriting practice, and notebooking pages give them composition practice. I'd say stick with what you're doing. :001_smile:

 

FWIW, my 2nd grader does a handwriting page 3x a week and freewriting 2x. He also does the writing required in his phonics and language workbook each day. He does notebooking/journal pages during the week for history and sometimes science. This is plenty for him but enough to keep him moving forward. We don't use any other writing program.

Edited September 6, 2012 by LindaOz