mymommy1 Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 I'm looking to gently expand LA in our home. I have an almost 9 year old third grader who has had a hard time with handwriting, but he is beginning to take off. Also, I have a Ker boy. We have done CM narration from the beginning, but not much writing or grammar except writing letters and making up stories. I want to do copywork, copywork application, notebooking for science/history, and some writing practice/instruction/creative writing. Which of the Brave Writer products do you recommend? I've downloaded samples of The Arrow, Jot It Down!, and Partnership in Writing. The Arrow, while what I'm looking for, didn't seem worth the price. I think I can replicate that from our read-alouds. I'm looking for guidance in schedules; appropriate activities for grade levels; grammar or literary topics to discuss; ideas for projects, poems, etc. Would TWJ be a better investment than Jot It Down! or Partnership in Writing? What about No More "I'm Done!"? Something else? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidlit Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 TWJ explains the whole "Bravewriter lifestyle." In my opinion, it's difficult to get the whole philosophy unless you read that. I am currently working through two different books with my two daughters and using The Arrow with each of them. We do it once a week (ish) as a "Fun Friday" addition to our normal WWE/FLL/MCT work. While my daughters would probably disagree that it belongs on FUN Friday, it is a totally different approach to writing than WWE. I like it, but I doubt I'll buy another edition of The Arrow because it's overkill with everything else I'm using, and I'm having a hard time fitting it all in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 TWJ is clearly the main BW product, but (and I say this with the greatest affection!), it meanders in places and throws out so many things that I think it's overwhelming to many people. I would say, especially since you said that you want help with schedules and implementation, that you should start with Partnership Writing. PW has schedules and is very user friendly. Then, if you like it, you might get Jot It Down for your K'er and TWJ to read through. TWJ has so much in it and is so useful, but I think most people should dip in their toes with PW first. I agree about The Arrow. It's good... but maybe overpriced. Also, while I have now bought several of them, somehow they never work out to be our read alouds at the right time. It's really not that hard to choose your own dictations/copyworks and do discussion around the book yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidlit Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Farrar, can you elaborate on what PW actually looks like in your home? I didn't realize that it's actually an organized schedule. What are the assignments like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Farrar, can you elaborate on what PW actually looks like in your home? I didn't realize that it's actually an organized schedule. What are the assignments like? PW is maybe 30 pages long or so. The first half, for anyone who is a BW person, is mostly old hat. There's a short explanation of each of the different BW elements and how they look specifically for the PW stage of writing. So it's like, how do do Poetry Tea, why you should do oral narration, etc. etc. Then there's a part in the middle - just a couple of pages - about putting it all together and there is a schedule. The schedule is just a routine. It's not that different from the suggested schedules in TWJ, but it's specific to this set of projects and this writing stage. It includes a day for The Arrow specifically, but it would be easy to do your own copywork/dictation for that day. We do not follow that particular routine. We do a different routine - for example, trying to do poetry tea on Tuesdays would be madness for us because of other scheduled activities. And I find that something like freewriting can easily happen on a day with something else. Also, while she has scheduled the projects on specific days, the projects are all so different! We've done such different things with them in terms of time usage as a result. The second half of PW has 10 projects all laid out - each project is organized into the work you will do for each of the four weeks of the month. I think you can see what they all basically are from the preview on the BW website. They're all fun things. One was secret code writing and another was making a big personal timeline. One was a lapbook about a myth, another is a catalog for an historical time period (like, what would you sell if you had a mail order catalog for Ancient Egyptians?). We're working right now on the imaginary place one. We often tweak the projects. For example, with secret codes, we did all the stuff in there and then went and got books about codes from the library and did more stuff. For this imaginary place one, I forget what the final product is supposed to be because two weeks into it, it became clear that my boys were going to turn theirs into atlases like the atlas we were referring to as we worked on the maps - with little write ups about their countries and so forth. They're enjoying it. Hands down, I think PW is the most usable, affordably priced product from BW. I think a lot of families could really enjoy it - including people who aren't doing BW fully. For example, there are a lot of families who are using WWE/FLL who I think feel their language arts program is very good and working for them but not all that inspiring or fun and this would be something they could add on that's manageable and laid out - just one writing project a month. And ignore the first part. Or read it and take some things and ignore the schedules. I do still think people can get a lot from just reading TWJ as well. But I've seen so many people say they got it, they read it, they liked it (or liked some things about it).... and then they couldn't figure out to do anything with it. And PW is much simpler to just use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamindy Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Thanks for your review, Farrar. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluedarling Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 We are also using Bravewriter Partnership writing for my 8yo. Its a gentle program...and adaptable. You could do as much writing on the projects as you see appropriate....a struggling writer might just put the homonym words in their homonym book, where a more advanced writer might use sentences or a story. We've found all the projects we've done so far quite adaptable to a variety of abilities. The homonym book was hard for me to see as a month-long project for my child, but the imaginary continent could have been a 2-month project if I thought I could hold her interest on it long enough. I wish PW had been around for my older kids who were struggling writers. That said, next year I will probably move my advanced child to something more challenging, but I don't regret using it this year. Its been fun! We use some Arrow alongside it, but I agree its quite expensive for what it is. I got the Arrow units at discount through HBC, so it wasn't so bad. Anyway, I think PW would be perfect for a newly writing 9yo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbabe Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Hands down, I think PW is the most usable, affordably priced product from BW. I think a lot of families could really enjoy it - including people who aren't doing BW fully. For example, there are a lot of families who are using WWE/FLL who I think feel their language arts program is very good and working for them but not all that inspiring or fun and this would be something they could add on that's manageable and laid out - just one writing project a month. And ignore the first part. Or read it and take some things and ignore the schedules. I do still think people can get a lot from just reading TWJ as well. But I've seen so many people say they got it, they read it, they liked it (or liked some things about it).... and then they couldn't figure out to do anything with it. And PW is much simpler to just use. . I totally agree with Ferrar. PW gives a nice, brief and concise overview of the Bravewriter lifestyle. It's a much better introduction to it than TWJ. If you decide you like it then reading TWJ would give you a more complete understanding of where the program will take you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymommy1 Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 Thanks for the help, everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 I think TWJ is just one of those great resources to read as you try to pin down your homeschool style. Expensive, but worth it in my mind. I don't use any other BW product, but feel like our LA is BW "inspired". For copywork, I find all my own from our read alouds... this is pretty easy, especially if you hold a pencil in your hand as your read and just put a little mark next to any line you find particularly interesting or moving or well-written. If you read on a kindle, you can use the highlight feature to compile copywork as you read. I usually then type it up and save it in a word document, and print out a week's worth at a time, which means copywork may be from the book we read two weeks ago. This never seems to bother anyone. :-) We do our own "thing" for self-generated writing, which is based on BW, SWB ideas, and other random kernels of knowledge I've gathered over the last two years. Looks like this: - ds chooses a topic - We talk about it (essentially, an oral narration) - ds chooses 3-5 ideas he'd like to write about, I jot these down on whiteboard (usually a key word or phrase) - He comes up with a sentence for the first idea and orally dictates it to me. I then dictate it back to him, while he writes it down. Repeat for other ideas. - I rewrite with correct spelling if necessary... which it always is! Next day... - Writer's conference... should we add topic sentence? Are ideas clear? Any details to add? We draw arrows, write in margins, etc. - I write out a clean final copy. Next day... - He uses my clean copy as model for copywork. - He illustrates. It's working for us! (possibly) Next day... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymommy1 Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 That's great. That's what I needed. I have a degree in English and feel fairly competent teaching writing at least through middle school (early teens), but I get sidetracked with workbooks and programs. I just need an outline like you have there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrganicMom Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 PW is maybe 30 pages long or so. The first half, for anyone who is a BW person, is mostly old hat. There's a short explanation of each of the different BW elements and how they look specifically for the PW stage of writing. So it's like, how do do Poetry Tea, why you should do oral narration, etc. etc. Then there's a part in the middle - just a couple of pages - about putting it all together and there is a schedule. The schedule is just a routine. It's not that different from the suggested schedules in TWJ, but it's specific to this set of projects and this writing stage. It includes a day for The Arrow specifically, but it would be easy to do your own copywork/dictation for that day. We do not follow that particular routine. We do a different routine - for example, trying to do poetry tea on Tuesdays would be madness for us because of other scheduled activities. And I find that something like freewriting can easily happen on a day with something else. Also, while she has scheduled the projects on specific days, the projects are all so different! We've done such different things with them in terms of time usage as a result. The second half of PW has 10 projects all laid out - each project is organized into the work you will do for each of the four weeks of the month. I think you can see what they all basically are from the preview on the BW website. They're all fun things. One was secret code writing and another was making a big personal timeline. One was a lapbook about a myth, another is a catalog for an historical time period (like, what would you sell if you had a mail order catalog for Ancient Egyptians?). We're working right now on the imaginary place one. We often tweak the projects. For example, with secret codes, we did all the stuff in there and then went and got books about codes from the library and did more stuff. For this imaginary place one, I forget what the final product is supposed to be because two weeks into it, it became clear that my boys were going to turn theirs into atlases like the atlas we were referring to as we worked on the maps - with little write ups about their countries and so forth. They're enjoying it. Hands down, I think PW is the most usable, affordably priced product from BW. I think a lot of families could really enjoy it - including people who aren't doing BW fully. For example, there are a lot of families who are using WWE/FLL who I think feel their language arts program is very good and working for them but not all that inspiring or fun and this would be something they could add on that's manageable and laid out - just one writing project a month. And ignore the first part. Or read it and take some things and ignore the schedules. I do still think people can get a lot from just reading TWJ as well. But I've seen so many people say they got it, they read it, they liked it (or liked some things about it).... and then they couldn't figure out to do anything with it. And PW is much simpler to just use. thank you for this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexi Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 I think TWJ is just one of those great resources to read as you try to pin down your homeschool style. Expensive, but worth it in my mind. I don't use any other BW product, but feel like our LA is BW "inspired". For copywork, I find all my own from our read alouds... this is pretty easy, especially if you hold a pencil in your hand as your read and just put a little mark next to any line you find particularly interesting or moving or well-written. If you read on a kindle, you can use the highlight feature to compile copywork as you read. I usually then type it up and save it in a word document, and print out a week's worth at a time, which means copywork may be from the book we read two weeks ago. This never seems to bother anyone. :-) We do our own "thing" for self-generated writing, which is based on BW, SWB ideas, and other random kernels of knowledge I've gathered over the last two years. Looks like this: - ds chooses a topic - We talk about it (essentially, an oral narration) - ds chooses 3-5 ideas he'd like to write about, I jot these down on whiteboard (usually a key word or phrase) - He comes up with a sentence for the first idea and orally dictates it to me. I then dictate it back to him, while he writes it down. Repeat for other ideas. - I rewrite with correct spelling if necessary... which it always is! Next day... - Writer's conference... should we add topic sentence? Are ideas clear? Any details to add? We draw arrows, write in margins, etc. - I write out a clean final copy. Next day... - He uses my clean copy as model for copywork. - He illustrates. It's working for us! (possibly) Next day... Love this! Thanks for sharing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom@shiloh Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 There are some good suggestions here: http://www.design-your-homeschool.com/language-arts-lesson-plans-the-hobbit.html If you search on that site, there is a list of a 10 day sequence to use for using any book as a LA program. It is very similar to the BW method. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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