help me with writing for my 8 year old

[Lots of boys]

My son is super writing phobic. If I ask him to write a sentence he panics. We are currently using WWE 2 and it is going o.k. but he struggles with the dictation. We are also using WWW 2 just to try to get a little more writing in each day. Looking forward to next year (he will be in 4th) I would like to wontinue with WWE3 but am looking for something else that helps him learn to write paragraphs (probably just one at at time). What writing programs would you recommend for a very writing phobic boy?

[5LittleMonkeys]

I would use IEW methods.

 

I love WWE for teaching a child how to regognize and verbalize the main theme/topic/idea of a passage, however some children still struggle to get that idea wrangled into a cohesive original sentence and then get it onto paper. IEW, in the beginning units, eliminates the need for a completely original sentence through it's use of borrowing key words ( notes ) from a sentence to build upon.

 

Now, in the beginning it will seem like your child is producing work one step above plagiarism, however this early work is not indicative of the final product. As the child builds confidence and starts creating an arsenal of stylistic techniques they will move away from using key words for every sentence to creating outlines based on the main, most important, or most interesting facts in a passage of longer length, and later from many different resources. They then use that outline to write from.

 

If you could manage it time wise I would continue WWE to the end of 3 while you work through IEW methods at your child's pace, and then you could move into WWS when you feel he was ready. Possibly 6th grade.

 

[LindaOz]

Earlier this year I just gave my ds copywork to do each day. In fact, to start with I just let him choose what he would like to write (copy). He chose to copy the instructions on how to make a wooden plane. Ok, so, that wouldn't have been my choice but I let him go with it. He wrote some of it each day. Sometimes I would give him something else to copy as well. Doing this alone helped his writing immensely. He now does dictation with ease and writes his own narrations. Maybe the consistent copywork would give your ds some extra confidence too. You could always introduce a little dictation by giving him a sentence that he had copied the day before.

 

Just some thoughts.

[SilverMoon]

My current fourth grader is working on paragraphs, one at a time, in Rod and Staff's English 4. It's primarily a grammar book, with a few writing lessons in each chapter.

 

Progressive Composition Lessons book 1 would also do the trick. It gives example paragraphs, has them break it down by having them answer questions about it in order, then writing down their answers to those questions in complete sentences. It's a vintage textbook, free for the printing on GoogleBooks.