Sarah0000 Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Share your experience with your advanced writers please. I feel like other subjects are easy to modify or simply accelerate through for a very young learner, but writing leaves me scratching my head. This coming school year will be my 3/4 year old's official preK year and I want to have something for writing/handwriting. Right now he only prints manuscript. He has a journal that he sometimes draws and writes in and will copy the words or ask for spelling help. He does not ever write words misspelled, he will ask if he doesn't know. I don't think I want to start any kind of formal spelling yet though, unless anyone knows of something very simple and not hands on. I'm open to a fun writing program as well, but not really grammar. As for handwriting, he never had any problems with proper formation, letter sizes, spacing, etc. His lines are a little wobbly, though that's improving quickly. He writes quickly and can write or trace about three pages (primary ruled) in a couple minutes before getting tired and bored. So, unless you experienced ladies have better suggestions, I think I would like a gentle open and go, not hands on program that has a little bit of everything related to writing, and designed primarily for the student to write themselves. So probably something CM inspired. He would get bored if it was the same thing every day. By the way, we'd probably only do it 1-2 times a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 It sounds like what you're doing is working fabulously. Why fix what isn't broken? :) Draw Then Write by Evan-Moor is the only thing I can think of with a creative bent that I'd use for that age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Oops. I let my early writer do as she pleased at that age. In K I introduced copywork from good literature. In 1st she started the vintage With Pencil and Pen book. Any composition curricula that works on the parts and pieces of writing have bored her to tears. She did well with Classical Writing Aesop and Writing & Rhetoric around 2nd-4th grade. What has worked best for her hands down has been the vintage texts. Maxwell and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Have you looked at Draw Write Now or Draw and Write through History? My DD loved them-they were copywork coupled with "learn to draw" activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Have you looked at Draw Write Now or Draw and Write through History? My DD loved them-they were copywork coupled with "learn to draw" activities. Draw Write Now is what we did at age 3/4. The drawing was a huge motivator:). You can tie the drawing/sentences in with a story (say for book 1) or more history if you like as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah0000 Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 He might be interested in Draw Write Now. I'm also going to see if he'll be interested in writing letters to his grandparents. Do early writers usually pick up cursive easily as well? I was thinking of teaching him that after a few months as well. I figured since handwriting comes so easily to him, why not? Bad idea? He can read isolated words in cursive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 He might be interested in Draw Write Now. I'm also going to see if he'll be interested in writing letters to his grandparents. Do early writers usually pick up cursive easily as well? I was thinking of teaching him that after a few months as well. I figured since handwriting comes so easily to him, why not? Bad idea? He can read isolated words in cursive. Mine did...but that child came out of the womb as a strange mix of craving fancy/sparkle/bling and wanting messy, dirty science. She immediately decided cursive was 'fancy' and it took about 3 days for her to learn cursive. I think it comes down to the desire to do it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah0000 Posted July 12, 2015 Author Share Posted July 12, 2015 So, he'll be turning four this year. Is it ok to do pretty much nothing still for handwriting? Maybe just one to two times a month doing some kind of handwriting project as it comes up? It seems like preK is when people start using curriculums at a steady pace for the three Rs. Why shouldn't a child who already knows the preK stuff be doing the same thing, but at his level instead? I hope that doesn't come across as combative. That's not my intention at all. I'm trying to understand the difference. It almost seems like folks are saying that an accelerated kid should be left to his own devices even though other kids of the same age are starting programs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 (edited) On 7/12/2015 at 7:38 AM, Sarah0000 said: Edited May 18 by SilverMoon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 So, he'll be turning four this year. Is it ok to do pretty much nothing still for handwriting? Maybe just one to two times a month doing some kind of handwriting project as it comes up? It seems like preK is when people start using curriculums at a steady pace for the three Rs. Why shouldn't a child who already knows the preK stuff be doing the same thing, but at his level instead? I hope that doesn't come across as combative. That's not my intention at all. I'm trying to understand the difference. It almost seems like folks are saying that an accelerated kid should be left to his own devices even though other kids of the same age are starting programs. I think it totally depends on your child and how you approach it. If your kiddo has a desire to write, go for it. And a curriculum can be as much, if not more, for YOU than them. *I* needed a curriculum to follow for several things, but that doesn't mean that I sat my 3/4/5 yo down and forced them to do every bit of every one. At that age you can follow a curriculum but modify it to make it more fun and age appropriate. We did a lot of writing in windows with special effects window markers for example. Curriculum does not have to equal dry/boring/forced work:) Myself and several posters mentioned Draw Write Now, and the books are a lot of fun. One thing you might check out is the Confessions of a Homeschooler site. She made printables and traceable pages of various levels of difficulty for the Draw Write Now books, and I believe they are free:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah0000 Posted July 14, 2015 Author Share Posted July 14, 2015 Yes, I do have a few math curricula that I find very easy to incorporate into our natural play. I guess I'm just not as good at doing the same thing with writing. But last night I had the idea of making an "About Today" time every morning where DS can write on the whiteboard on the easel the date, what the weather looks like, and maybe one thing he would like to do that day or something. Maybe it could even turn into a circle time/morning basket time when he's older. I'm not great at routines though, so we'll see Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 That sounds great. :D I did something like that in a binder with page protectors and dry erase markers when kiddo #5 was K age. It worked well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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