Writing level before WWE?

[Jerico]

I'm curious if my son should be able to form every letter, an capitals, before beginning writing with ease. Or is that included in the beginning.

 

He does know most of his letters, but needs work on a few. Should we focus on that before starting wwe level 1?

[Jerico]

I'm not sure how much sense I am making...

 

How proficient should he be in writing his letters before starting level 1 of writing with ease?

[momma2three]

Edited: oops, I was thinking of First Language Lessons. Don't know about WWE.

[Wabi Sabi]

We spent a whole semester working on handwriting before starting WWE. I think WWE would've been too difficult for my ds otherwise.

[FairProspects]

They need to be able to write a sentence and know all capital and lower case letter formation. I put both my boys through HWOT K & 1st grade before starting WWE. WWE starts right out with full sentence copywork. Granted, the first few sentences are short, but they ramp up pretty quickly.

[Five More Minutes]

I would think that they need to be reading sentences and be able to form all letters (lower and uppercase) with the occasional reminder of where a letter starts or how it faces.

 

As the pp mentioned, the copywork immediately starts out as sentences. I used the copywork to teach that a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with punctuation, and that words have spaces between them. For the first dozen or so weeks of WWE, I would sit right beside my dd and guide her through writing every. single. word. "Sentences begin with a capital letter. The next letter can be small. Don't forget the space between words. Remember where you start the letter g." It was challenging enough for her without also having to worry about teaching letter formation.

[Jerico]

Great. Thank you. We will focus on letter formation for the next several weeks.

 

I'm finding it hard to line up with a curriculum, wanting to be caught up enough but not so its too redundant.

[boscopup]

I would definitely wait on WWE1 until your child can copy a sentence. WWE is not something you want to rush, and it's ok to start it "behind" other things. If you start it halfway through 1st grade or even in 2nd grade, that's perfectly fine.

 

None of my curriculum lines up with each other... We start a new level of each subject when we get there and don't worry about anything being started at the same time. :)

[Hedgehogs4]

WWE is definitely something that can be done on its own. My son started WWE 2 in late 3rd grade, finished WWE 3 in 5th and started WWS in 6th, and we will cover it over two years. He was the kind of boy who really physically struggled with writing, as in it was an exhausting endeavor for his little mitts to hold and move the pencil. He would much rather have been jumping, rolling, flipping, and bashing. Now he writes beautifully - is extremely articulate and has beautiful penmanship (when he takes his time!)

[JenniferLynn]

2 ways have worked for 2 of my kids. Oldest DD wasn't solid on handwriting when we started WWE1, but improved fast with me walking through just about every word as a pp described. By Week 8 or 10 she was doing copywork independently. With the next kid, handwriting has been more advanced and we then move more quickly through WWE1, often 1.5-2 "weeks" per calendar week. I've found WWE to be very flexible with slowing down or speeding up as fits the child and other schedules.

[kdownie]

I agree with everyone on both points... 1. Your son needs to be able to form all his letters well before starting WWE1. and 2. No worries if you are "behind" in this one. Good luck!

[El...]

Great question. Thanks! :bigear:

[LEK]

We have taken this entire first term of 1st grade to focus on letter formation and will be starting WWE1 after the easter break (term 2, calendar year schooling). I looked it over at the start of hte year and decided that our time would be best spent perfecting letter formation first rather than slowing down writing if issues in this area are still present