Nancy Ann Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 My son has always struggled with language arts. He was a late talker, read late, trouble putting thoughts on paper etc... gradually we have worked through this. He is finishing up 5th grade and I am looking at language arts for 6th grade. He is reading above grade level now, he is still a slower reader, he seems to comprehend what he/we read well. We are working through Sonlight Core E. We have lots of great discussions about our literature and history and his science. He can write fairly well, I work through the pre writing phase with him, we create outlines or brainstorming using graphic organizers than he writes it all our for himself. For 6th grade I really want to fine tune his writing and go deeper with his oral narrations. With his writing it's been very topical and simple, but for us that's a huge improvement from not being able to put anything on paper to him being able to fill up a whole sheet. For narrations it's been very simple observational type stuff. Any of the serious discussions come from me and I feel like I am just telling him. I really feel like I need to step this up a bit for next year 6th grade and not sure how to go about it. My plan was to do Hake Grammar and Writing. It seems great quality and we like Saxon materials for language arts. Very impressed with their phonics and so this seems a good choice, but not sure if the writing will help me get the substance I am wanting. Maybe Writing with Skill but than I am stuck without grammar? Any help is welcome! Thanks a bunch for listening! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarynB Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 I'd recommend Hake Grammar without the writing portion, in conjunction with WWS. The grammar component of Hake is the bulk of the program. It's what makes up the student textbook. The writing portion of Hake (which we chose not to use because I think it is not very good) is limited to the Hake student workbook. If you look at prices, the workbook is around 5 bucks or less, and it is a very minor and easily omitted portion of the Hake program. Each level of Hake has around 120 grammar lessons, so if you do one lesson 3 days per week, you can finish it in a 180 day school year without doing it every day. The lessons take my DS about 15 to 20 minutes each. That leaves a lot of time for you to spend on WWS, which is very much worth it, or so I've been told. :coolgleamA: Also, if you haven't considered writing materials from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW), I recommend taking a look at that too. The Student Writing Intensive B did wonders for my DS who I felt wasn't quite ready for WWS last year. Lots of info here on the boards about IEW as well. Here's a thread where I posted about IEW in posts #6 & #8. IEW is pricey, but I'll spend money to get a quality writing program and scrimp other places if I have to. Also, they have a LIFETIME unlimited return policy (even if you use it and don't like it) and re-sale prices are very good on the used market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erica in OR Posted June 1, 2013 Share Posted June 1, 2013 If you do decide to start Writing with Skill, I'd highly encourage you to not be afraid to take it slow. We used it for the first time this year and it was pretty intense. An excellent program though. We made it to week 21 and will finish up next year. Erica in OR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 If you do decide to start Writing with Skill, I'd highly encourage you to not be afraid to take it slow. We used it for the first time this year and it was pretty intense. An excellent program though. We made it to week 21 and will finish up next year. Erica in OR I *completely* agree with this. We did the first 10 weeks at the end of 4th grade, and weeks 11-26 during 5th grade, and we'll finish up in the first half of 6th. I got a little burned out on it for awhile, and was flirting with doing something else, but after looking around I know that I still want her to build these specific skills, and that this is the presentation that works best for me, and I can adapt it as needed to dd. The big epiphany was that it works better for us to learn the skill in WWS, then apply it to our own content, rather than just powering through the program as written. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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