How much actual writing do you require of your 2nd grader?

[michaeljenn]

I am a bit anxious that I am not assigning enough writing for my 2nd grader. Being in a homeschool setting allows many things to be completed orally, but I am wondering if that is actually a bad thing??!! I know for a fact that the public school requires much more writing because they have to, since it is not one on one teaching. I don't want to create laziness in my daughter, and I really want her to learn to work hard! As of right now, she usually only writes a few sentences a day, and then writes a few words in her R&S Spelling. R&S English is done orally, but I am wondering if I should require her to put pen to paper for at least half of the lesson. We also do R&S Reading along with the workbooks. The workbooks are quite intense, but I love the work in it. We generally do this orally as well... at this point in the program, they are wanting her to write complete sentences for her answers, which is usually for only 3-4 questions. The rest is short word, or multiple choice. As for math, we use TT so there is NO writing there! LOL I just don't want to shortchange my daughter because I "feel bad" for making her hand hurt because she has to write more answers... Sometimes I feel like she doesn't try as hard when we do things orally??

 

So my new possible plan is..

 

Rod and Staff Reading.. complete workbook on her own after we discuss what she read..

Rod and Staff English.. go over lesson together and work half of the problems orally, then half of the problems need to thought out by her and written in a notebook.

Rod and Staff Spelling.. this is not much at all and she normally writes it anyway

WWE.. This requires 1 copywork and 2 dicatations a week.

 

As for History.. I normally have her write a quick narrations at the end of the week.

 

 

Thoughts?

[StartingOver]

My soon is required to do copy work, dictation for WWE, and AAS. He writes out his Latin translations. He writes for math. Narrations for science, history, and WWE most days. Spelling words. He does a lot of writing.

 

My daughter writes her spelling words, math, and copy work, just starting the first two very recently.

[Guest]

We do about the same amount, I never think it is enough. I "upped" his writing at the semester (started making him write more in R&S English, and a bit more copywork), but I still would like to add more, especially since we have changed from R&S to FLL since then. We have been working on attitude and getting work done, though. That's been going a little better, so I may add a bit more. Not sure what, though.

[Coffeemama]

I feel the same way with my DD8. She was a "late" writer with weak handwriting (left -handed). When I compare her speed and neatness with the other girls in her Brownie troop, i am am disappointed. Since i know the other girls have to do a lot more writing every day in school, i can't help but think my daughter's writing would be better if the volume was increased.

 

What has kept me from pushing too hard (besides the tears;) ) is when i really look at what my DD is writing i see that she has decent sentence structure, excellent word choice and grammar, and ok spelling. So I'm happy with that.

 

As far as amount: she does AAS spelling 3 to 4 times per week which usually is about a dozen words and two sentences.

She is in an IEW class I teach at co-op, which usually involves writing down brainstorming words on Monday, vocab words Tuesday, and a paragraph on Wednesday. Some weeks I scribe half of the paragraph for her. Instead of re-writing her edited paragraph, she prefers to type it. She writes in her Vocabulary Workshop book, but tends to write one word answers instead of complete sentences. I havent pushed it up to now, but I have already warned her, that she will need to write complete sentence answers in third grade. She is also required to write a couple of sentences for history each week. I really wish I could get her to write a paragraph narration. She certainly has the info in her head, but HATES the physical act of writing and I am not choosing that battle right now.

 

Forgot to add: she also does fill-in-the-blank type writing in her GWG

She also "writes" stories for fun on the computer a few times a week. But i tend not to count that since its typed.

[ByGrace3]

I also wonder if we are doing enough. She does WWE copywork and dictations. I still scribe her narrations or her but am thinking we will start working towards her doing that. She does AAS which is about 30 words and maybe 12-15 sentences a week (guessing here), plus the writing station -- about 4-6 sentences. She does an occasional dictation in FLL, and writes in math.

[chepyl]

He does the equivalent of a paragraph or two a day. Sometimes more, sometimes less. We are doing R&S as a stand alone grammar and writimg program. He is actually in the third grade book and there is no composition until the 5th unit.

 

He writes 4-8 pages of math, dictation or a spelling workbook on a rotating schedule. He writes for Latin and Bible and history once a week.

 

He spends his free time watching Khan Academy and writing notes, or writing notes to his friends. He has excellent penmanship when the writing is kept to a smaller amount.

 

[8filltheheart]

The only writing I have ever required of my second graders is copywork(normally a few sentences), spelling words, and math. Everything else is done orally. Fwiw, none of them have had issues transitioning to more writing as they have gotten older.

 

Another fwiw, I completely ignore ps standards and sequences. My standards are higher and we get there by a completely different path. My kids out-perform their peers when they are older, so massive amts of primary and elementary writing do not automatically translate to higher amts of learning or good writing skills. Quality over quantity, directed purpose over output have proved to be good educational methods for us.

[Julie Smith]

A lot less than you.

[momtoamiracle]

The only writing I have ever required of my second graders is copywork(normally a few sentences), spelling words, and math. Everything else is done orally. Fwiw, none of them have had issues transitioning to more writing as they have gotten older.

 

Another fwiw, I completely ignore ps standards and sequences. My standards are higher and we get there by a completely different path. My kids out-perform their peers when they are older, so massive amts of primary and elementary writing do not automatically translate to higher amts of learning or good writing skills. Quality over quantity, directed purpose over output have proved to be good educational methods for us.

 

 

Thank you for this pat! I wonder if I'm harming my son by not having him write enough, but I do see that he has really good mental math skills, so that makes me feel good. I'm hoping that quality over quantity will pove true in his case.

[grantmeawish]

In the beginning of 2nd grade, I didn't reqiure much writing. He would fill out his spelling notebook, do whatever task for fll and wwe, and I would write his narrations. Now we are in the second half of second grade, and I am requiring a LOT more writing. I find when he writes down his own narrations, he does a better job. He can visually see his thoughts on paper and correct them. We go over them afterwards too, to see what grammer changes or wording need to be changed or how to make it flow better. I only have him write one narration from a subject a day. He writes for math, but I write the problems for him. He hates the physical aspect of writing but he does it. Just because I require him to do so much writing, doesn't mean I think if another second grader isn't doing this much they aren't learning what they need. I just found for my son, this works better. Especially having him write the narrations.

[Holly]

My 2nd grade does a couple sentences copywork, 2-3 pages of ETC (only two if there's a lot of writing), and maybe another assignment with a bit of writing. I have been pushing him to write a bit more lately (like 3-4 copywork sentences), but I don't want to leave him frustrated. I often do some of his writing for notebooking pages or science reports...I'm more concerned with his ideas for that. The rest of our subjects are done orally.

 

How many kids detest writing? I'm guessing a large percentage. I'm afraid if I have them write more, they will grow to hate it. I'd rather them be a bit "behind" (according to the PS system) and love learning. There is plenty of time to build up their writing endurance.

[boscopup]

In 2nd grade, I did not have my son write as much as you are planning... Let's see, we did:

 

Math: He wrote it (when we switched to Singapore, there weren't that many problems anyway)

Spelling: R&S Spelling, written

Grammar: A little bit of written (FLL3) and later mostly oral (KISS Level 1)

Writing: WWE2

History/Science: worked up to drawing a picture and writing 1 or 2 sentences about a topic, maybe once every other week?

 

I think that's about it. I threw in some written R&S 3 in there as well, as I recall at the end of the 2nd grade year, he was able to write 6 sentences from R&S (the type where you fix punctuation or add in quotations, etc.) in a sitting. That was HUGE for him!

 

This year in 3rd grade, he is able to write a lot more, and I have gradually added more:

 

Math: still writing his own

Spelling: R&S Spelling 4, still written

Grammar: R&S English 4 - I go over the oral exercises with him, then assign half the written exercises (we ignore the other half - he doesn't need that much practice)

Writing: I try to have him writing one paragraph in some manner each week, be it an IEW paragraph, a R&S writing assignment, a written narration from history or science, or a letter to someone.

 

And not for school officially, but he's in the 4th grade Bible class at church now, and they have fill-in-the-blank worksheets to do to prepare for class, which is more writing - usually 2-3 pages of answering questions, some having a sentence type answer, but mostly being short answer of 1-3 words.

 

Can my son write as much as the public school kids? Absolutely not. I'm also ok with that. He has good quality writing, and his stamina is improving. If I wanted him to write pages and pages, the quality would suffer big time. He will be able to write the quantity necessary for high school and college by time he gets to those ages. He doesn't need to be able to write a research paper at age 8. I'd rather him be learning to write a good solid paragraph at this age. He is quite capable of doing that now.

[Mommy22alyns]

I started out fairly light for Sylvia and have increased her workload. She does:

 

Bible copywork (once a week)

R&S spelling (2 pages, twice a week)

CLE reading

R&S grammar - I try to make it around 10 sentences or less

WWE 2

 

And then of course math or a drawing page with a sentence or two from science.

[michaeljenn]

Thank you so much for all the replies! It really helps to see what others are doing!

 

I loved the post about ignoring the ps standards... so true, I sometimes forget.

 

I do plan to increase her writing a bit, but not as much as origionally planned. I will require more for next year though.

 

Thank you so much!!!

[SilverMoon]

You know her better than we ever could. I'd keep the writing volume gently pushing up against her personal comfort level, but make sure all that writing is worthwhile. Writing added just for the sake of more volume could easily become meaningless busywork.

 

My 2nd grade DD has never been one to struggle with writing or narrations, and she's "ahead" academically. If I listed her daily writing volume it would be at the high end of the spectrum on this thread. I try to keep the challenge level appropriate for her, and don't concern myself with anyone else's second grade standard. On the same token, her older three siblings would have struggled if I'd expected the same of them at her age. The oldest was very writing phobic; the second was just barely beginning to read; the third could have done it if pushed hard enough, but it would have made him hate it. The only change I would make now is not catering to the writing-phobic DC for as long as I did, but hindsight is clearer than foresight. :001_smile:

[WIS0320]

Writing:

 

Free write topic daily which consists of 3-5 sentences. I do not edit this work other than discussing it with her when she's finished. She's gone on to write 10 page stories when a topic has interested her!

 

Memoria Press Copywork

 

WWE 2

 

One mailed letter to a family member weekly - we do a draft, edit and then a final copy before sending.

 

Evan Moor Daily Language review every day

 

1x per week she writes a summary of the Memoria Press Literature of the week and illustrates it. Sort of a 2nd grade mini book report.

 

She does writing in other subjects as well, but the above are all actual writing components of L/A.

[Gentlemommy]

Dd struggles a lot with writing. The physical and spelling parts. So I don't have her do much, yet.

 

Daily-spelling 10-15 min. About 3 sentences and twenty words. We use A and P spelling and are aiming for one lesson over two days.

Math-she writes her answers, either two pages of Miquon or one of MEP

Grammar-copy 1-3 sentences and then various other activities...maybe an extra 5-10 words?

cursive-one sheet

 

And that's it. We haven't started a formal writing curriculum, because of her frustration with writing.

[ALB]

I did start assigning more writing with R&S grammar lately. We had been doing it all orally, but now I try to find what I think is the most beneficial exercise for her to write out. I only have her write the ones that need full sentences, so she never writes the answers if its just something like "find the verb in each sentence and copy it onto your paper." Right now we're in the section on paragraphs, and I consider these exercises very important to actually write out.