Writing... I feel like I've missed the boat

[JMDRAD]

My oldest dd will be going into 5th grade this fall. She reads a lot but I've not had her write any summaries. We are doing WWE year 4 but other than that, we have not done any writing. Have I messed her up by not writing or is WWE enough for now? If I really should be requiring summaries outside of WWE, where do I start? I've thought about getting literature guides but I'm not sure that's the answer either. I'm sort of at a loss here...

[weederberries]

Perhaps we are in the opposite boat. We only write history summaries. We stopped doing WWE because it felt like too much of the same since we were doing the SOTW narrations. It took a long time for us to move from narrating orally while I recorded and then copying it down in their own hands to writing something without me writing it first.

[elizabeth rose]

Does she do any narrations? I have my 4th grader choose from an envelope a narration starter. For example, one may say, describe 10 personality traits of the main character from your reading, or tell about the setting, The envelop has about 50 cards in it each with a different starter. For some reason this makes it exciting to her and gives her an idea about what to write. I try to do this for history and sometimes LA. She also writes short narrations for science. That's about it. I see you are doing Elemental science, does she do written narrations for that?

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

Does she do any other type of writing? I am thinking on the lines of Letters, how to paragraphs, descriptive paragraphs and so on...non literary type writing.

[Alte Veste Academy]

I have always done WWE with my kids and love it, but my they definitely benefitted from more writing starting around 3rd grade. Have you looked at IEW? We love it, especially as it allows us to write across the curriculum. I think it is a great lead-in to WWS, which is our next step.

[dbmamaz]

Bravewriter's Writers Jungle is a very friendly manual for teaching your kids to write - you might want to pick it up (usually half price at the homeschool buyer's coop) and read it - it will make you feel you are not behind and give you lots of writing ideas!

[JMDRAD]

WWE is pretty much all we do. She loves to write stories and poems but I don't grade those. She does them on her own. We do very little writing in science. I definitely could step it up there.

 

I've heard about Bravewriter but have always assumed it was just another program instead of doing WWE. I really like using WWE but I just wonder if it's enough. I'll check it out though.

[Trilliums]

My oldest dd will be going into 5th grade this fall. She reads a lot but I've not had her write any summaries. We are doing WWE year 4 but other than that, we have not done any writing. Have I messed her up by not writing or is WWE enough for now? If I really should be requiring summaries outside of WWE, where do I start? I've thought about getting literature guides but I'm not sure that's the answer either. I'm sort of at a loss here...

 

 

You haven't missed the boat and you haven't messed her up. :)

I don't think there is a narrow window of opportunity. If you engage in active discussions on a variety of topics you will help develop foundation skills for strong writing as she matures. My kids were very late writers but it has not hindered their ability to write competently and eloquently in the high school years.

[texasmama]

You're right on schedule. :) Try Writing with Skill next. It is the next step in writing.

[Colleen in NS]

My oldest dd will be going into 5th grade this fall. She reads a lot but I've not had her write any summaries. We are doing WWE year 4 but other than that, we have not done any writing. Have I messed her up by not writing or is WWE enough for now? If I really should be requiring summaries outside of WWE, where do I start? I've thought about getting literature guides but I'm not sure that's the answer either. I'm sort of at a loss here...

WWE is pretty much all we do. She loves to write stories and poems but I don't grade those. She does them on her own. We do very little writing in science. I definitely could step it up there.

 

Both of mine have gone through WWE 1-4, WWS 1, and are beta-testing WWS 2. I think WWE is plenty. If you do WWS after WWS, your daughter will encounter how to write about literature, so I wouldn't worry about getting literature guides. WWE and WWS are excellent training. The only thing I'd suggest is that you might have her practice what she has learned in WWE on her history/science/literature reading. Maybe once a week or twice a month, have her do a short narration from one of those readings. It's easy, she'll know how to do it, and it'll show her that the writing skills she is learning is relevant to her content learning.