FLL, WWE, SOTW and IEW - what would Susan do?

[MarigoldHS]

I have a young second grader currently finishing up FLL 1 and WWE 1. In addition, I have a fourth grader doing IEW. They are both learning history with SOTW vol 2. My question is this: How much writing should I require of them?

 

In other words, should the second grader be doing all of the assignments in FLL and WWE as well as some narrations in SOTW (where I write them down)?

 

And should my fourth grader be completing his own 2-5 sentence narrations in addition to his IEW assignments that he does 4x/week?

 

Finally, I've seen a lot of stuff online about SOTW copy work....how do people fit this in with all of the other writing mentioned above? Are people doing copy work in lieu of narrations for SOTW? Or in lieu of handwriting?

 

I just don't want to wear the kids out unnecessarily but I also don't want to be too light and avoid building the appropriate skills. Am I correct that some history curriculums, such as Sonlight, don't require any writing of the student?

 

 

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[Kiara.I]

In second grade, I required FLL (no writing at all), WWE (writing) and SOTW (them dictating, me writing.)  That's only two sentences maximum of writing, from the WWE.  If you want to add in FLL writing assignments you can, but it depends what you want FLL to do.  I wanted it to teach grammar, so writing wasn't important to me.

[hollyhock]

With the 1st grader, do WWE. If you want to sub out a lesson for FLL or SOTW once in a while, you could. But I wouldn't do all of WWE plus anything else. With the 4th grader, I would just stick with IEW. I don't know how IEW works, so if it's possibly to sub out a lesson like with WWE, then you could do that. But if it's being done 4x a week I don't think I would add to it.

[reign]

My kids do WWE, FLL, and SOTW. They do copy work everyday. This is either from WWE (2 days a week) or a book(3 days a week). We do not do the copy work in FLL. We do one written narration in SOTW a week. The other day we don't write it down.

 

My older two were in 1st and 2nd last year and we added in more writing. My youngest (first grade now) is not ready for what her sisters did. We will just add cursive and a journal entry for her.

[blondeviolin]

My oldest is in fourth grade she does dictation with FLL 4 if it's there, dictation with spelling, and writes her own with the SOTW AG. With volume 2, I'd probably require her to take a dictation one day and give me a narration the other day (me writing).

 

My second grader is doing FLL, WWE. He does dictation in spelling as well. He gives me a narration both days we do history and I write it down.

 

I think this is going to vary wildly between kids. FWIW, my 4th grader was rather annoyed that I am no longer writing her narrations in history. She got over quickly.

[MarigoldHS]

Thank you so much for your replies.  This has been a head scratcher.  Now, I'm discovering a new writing problem with my 4th grader.  I'll have to start a new thread for that!

[TheAttachedMama]

I too have suffered with this same issue.   There just seems to be SO much overlap with the peace hill press products!!   It is like each product is an independent writing curriculum almost.  It drives me nuts because I feel like there is a lot of inefficiency built into my school day.   I posted a similar question a year or two ago---and was basically told by a bunch of people just to do it all.   To make things more complicated, we use AAS which has the child do 4 sentences of dictation a day.   So even MORE overlap in the copywork/dictation/narration cycle!  :) 

 

I am NOT an expert, and often doubt what I am doing.    However, my gut tells me that it is not necessary to do it all from each program.  

 

 

[EKT]

I give WWE priority, since that is specifically a writing program. Basically, I have my daughters do enough writing every day where I can tell they are pushing themselves, but when I can see that their hands are literally "about to fall off," I step in and take over, usually turning the work into a narration. Or I split the writing up to give their muscles a break (for example, do WWE, then break for a read aloud, then return to more writing in another subject).

 

Elementary children are truly still developing fine motor skills and actual hand strength, so I would never drive my children to tears over this or anything like that. We just do WWE first, then if, say, history requires a narration later in the day, I might do most of the writing and have my children make copywork of just ONE of the sentences (as opposed to copying all four of the sentences she originally dictated to me) and so on. I think to myself, "Okay, with WWE, the focus is actually on writing, so we'll write. But with history, my focus is more on learning the content, not the actual mechanics of writing, so we'll do less writing there and then more work orally (narrations, etc.)." I think if you're requiring your child's oral narrations always to be in complete sentences, your child is still learning to compose great sentences, even if their hands are not yet capable of writing it all down. 

 

Honestly, though? I think any child using Peace Hill Press or SOTW curricula (or similar) is probably getting plenty of writing over the course of a year. I wouldn't sweat it too much. :-)