Question for those using CAP's W&R

[lea1]

I really like the looks of this and want to use it with my two sons (recently turned 8YOs - end of Sept and early Nov).  They have finished WW1 and WW2 and also FLL1 and FLL2 however, from reading multiple threads about W&R, I don't think they would be quite ready to do Fable yet.

 

They did the dictation in WWE2 fine, although one of them had trouble with remembering many of the passages, especially the longer ones.  They are pretty good with narration also.  They are not solid on doing their own writing.  I have been following WWE2's instructions and writing it for them and then dictating a sentence or two back to them.  I have written their history narrations for them also.  (I'm not quite sure how to transition to having them write their own.  Suggestions are welcome.)  One son has had trouble with writing, is in OT for it and is improving but the other is quite capable, I just have not been sure how to go about transitioning.

 

As for grammar, when we were going over the end-of-book review lessons in FLL2, they were not able to easily pick out some parts of speech, although they knew the definitions and had memorized the lists.  FLL has not covered subject and predicate yet nor the various sentence phrases.

 

So, my question is what do I need to do to get them ready to do CAP's W&R?  I just purchased Killgallon's two books for elementary (sentences and story grammar).  I was in the process of considering a purchase of IEW's DVD course for teachers and also the A level course for students.  Now I'm not so sure about this direction. 

 

Any advice on what I should use to get my two sons ramped up and ready for W&R?

[Soror]

We just finished Book 1, the grammar is very basic noun, verbs, adjectives. The work w/ this is more so they can do sentence play, ie, "Can you think of a noun to replace this one?, "Can you think of an adjective that has a similar meaning?" Something like Mad Libs or such would be a good prep perhaps if they cannot do that. My son went into WR1 after having finished WWE2 and just a little bit of WWE3, he had not really done his any independent writing and it has went well. I've scribed some, he's wrote some and he's typed some as well to get past his' difficulties w/ the physical act of writing.  

 

 I'd suggest jumping into the sample and seeing how it goes and where you need to work. I think a big help for ds is the fact that we've done so many read alouds and he's done a fair amount of reading on his own now as well, so he has in his head what good writing sounds like. I think exposure to good lit is very beneficial.

[lea1]

Thanks for the response soror.  We have done lots of reading aloud and the boys read a lot also so hopefully that will help.  I think I may just go ahead with the 3 week sample and see how it goes.

[boscopup]

You can break things up and give them more time to write, if it's too much writing at first. I have sometimes done that with CAP in the early lessons, and did it with IEW last year. At 8, my son couldn't quite write a whole 7-8 sentence paragraph in one sitting, but he could do it over 2 days. Now at 9, he can do it in one day. Some of the CAP stories can get kind of long, so I just give extra time as needed. I'm not in a hurry. And with a 3rd grader, you have plenty of time. :)

 

The 3 week sample is fairly indicative of the rest of the book. If they can handle that, they'll be fine. Be flexible.

 

Also, I tend to split each lesson into 3-ish days. The first day, we do the first fable and oral narration, then the questions afterward, and the copywork (in cursive). The next day, we'll do dictation and whatever is after that except for the big writing thing at the end. Then the 3rd day, he begins the big writing thing. If he needs more time, that's fine. Occasionally, there is a big writing thing and then a smaller writing thing again, and I'll split those up on different days, of course.

 

The dictation is easier than WWE3 dictation, and they don't have to hold it all in their heads - it's ok to go sentence-by-sentence.

[lea1]

You can break things up and give them more time to write, if it's too much writing at first. I have sometimes done that with CAP in the early lessons, and did it with IEW last year. At 8, my son couldn't quite write a whole 7-8 sentence paragraph in one sitting, but he could do it over 2 days. Now at 9, he can do it in one day. Some of the CAP stories can get kind of long, so I just give extra time as needed. I'm not in a hurry. And with a 3rd grader, you have plenty of time. :)

 

The 3 week sample is fairly indicative of the rest of the book. If they can handle that, they'll be fine. Be flexible.

 

Also, I tend to split each lesson into 3-ish days. The first day, we do the first fable and oral narration, then the questions afterward, and the copywork (in cursive). The next day, we'll do dictation and whatever is after that except for the big writing thing at the end. Then the 3rd day, he begins the big writing thing. If he needs more time, that's fine. Occasionally, there is a big writing thing and then a smaller writing thing again, and I'll split those up on different days, of course.

 

The dictation is easier than WWE3 dictation, and they don't have to hold it all in their heads - it's ok to go sentence-by-sentence.

 

Thanks for explaining how you schedule it.  I will definitely have to take it slow with them and I am perfectly fine with that.  It is very helpful to hear how someone else has handled it.  I think we will take breaks between W&R lessons to do Killgallon sentences and WWE3.

 

[boscopup]

Thanks for explaining how you schedule it. I will definitely have to take it slow with them and I am perfectly fine with that. It is very helpful to hear how someone else has handled it. I think we will take breaks between W&R lessons to do Killgallon sentences and WWE3.

 

That's exactly what we're doing also. :D We just started Killgallon, and we've been using WWE3 (narration only).

[lea1]

That's exactly what we're doing also. :D We just started Killgallon, and we've been using WWE3 (narration only).

 

Have you been using this approach for very long?  Long enough to see results?  How are you scheduling them together?

[boscopup]

Have you been using this approach for very long?  Long enough to see results?  How are you scheduling them together?

 

No, we've only done Killgallon for like a week! :lol:

 

Honestly, we do "writing" every day, and I pick what I'm in the mood to do. :tongue_smilie: I am seeing improvement in his writing ability, but not sure that it's any specific program or combo of programs. I think it's just his age and developmental ability, plus the fact that he's writing often.

 

[Soror]

We've scheduled WR and WWE3 similarly to boscopup. It seems we can usually get a lesson of WR done in about 3 days and we've been doing WWE Narration on the extra day(we school 4x a week). I believe we will continue like this until we finish WR1(this spring) and then jump into Killgallon and/or EPS Paragraph book. I'm trying to keep our writing to about 20-45 minutes or so and if we end up w/ extra time we just do more. This week WR only took 2 days so we did WWE3 Wed and Thursday, Wed we did one narration and Thursday we did 2 as we finished really quickly.