Spelling and writing advice needed

[WahM]

For third grade writing I was thinking about moving on from WWE. While I like it and think it's been working great I'd like something else. Should I just stick with it or switch to W&R, TC, IEW theme book, etc?

 

For spelling we use AAS and I like that as well, but I feel like it doesn't give enough practice for the words. For now she finds all the words easy and can spell with with no problems, but I feel like once we hit words that are challenging there won't be enough practice with them. Does it seem like enough practice? I do like the dictation and that it focuses on the rules.

 

Maybe I just want a change but should stick to what we have?

[eternallytired]

What are you hoping to accomplish by changing things up?  If what you've been doing has been working well and your child is happy with it, it's always a bit of a gamble to start switching.  If you feel like she needs something different for a time, then knowing what sort of change is needed could be helpful, so folks can better suggest programs.

 

As far as spelling, AAS is meant to give as much or as little practice as needed.  If your child is understanding the concept being taught, you can keep breezing through.  As soon as she starts to struggle, you hunker down and spend more time on the concept, rotating through the main words and the additional practice words and dictating the sentences with target words until she gets them.  I've found it to be fine so far, though we've only gone mostly through AAS3.

 

Needing a change is totally understandable, though.  I've even changed my method of presentation for a subject or switched to doing it in a different room if I was getting restless with it.  I think I'm restless by nature, though...  We switch things up often, though I wait until the kids are getting frustrated with a subject before doing anything drastic with curriculum.

[WahM]

I think maybe *I'm* just getting bored with the writing and am wanting something more creative? Or not really sure because I do like the methodology behind WWE.

 

Okay, that's true AAS is very easy to speed up and slow down. We've just been going through so fast and hardly spend anytime on the lessons I started worrying about what would happen when it does become more challenging.

[Kiara.I]

Okay, that's true AAS is very easy to speed up and slow down. We've just been going through so fast and hardly spend anytime on the lessons I started worrying about what would happen when it does become more challenging.

 

Yup.  We whipped through Levels 1 and 2 at high speed, and when we hit a wall in AAS 3 I wasn't quite sure how to handle it! I didn't have a system in place.

 

But it's really just a case of reviewing the concept a few more times, making sure to practice the key cards that go with it, having the child spell the words regularly, and then keeping them in the review section and actually *reviewing* them (which we hadn't been doing.)

 

So when it does become more challenging, just do more review, basically.

[ScoutTN]

If it ain't broke....

 

AAS is easy to adjust to your student, more or less review/practice.

 

WWE 3 is great year, I wouldn't skip it if your student is doing well with it. We added in some creative writing for

dd at that point, using CAP's Fable a couple days a week in addition to WWE 3. My Dd enjoys writing.

[LindaOz]

I think maybe *I'm* just getting bored with the writing and am wanting something more creative? Or not really sure because I do like the methodology behind WWE.

.

My ds is doing WWE3 but we usually only do it twice a week as I find it easy to do the dictation and narration portions on one day allowing 4 lessons in 2 days. On alternate days, then, we do grammar and free writing. He writes his own stories etc in this time which gives opportunities to be creative and apply skills he's learning in other program. He also loves doing 1 min writes. I give a word and he writes flat out for 1 min using that word. He has improved creatively doing this I reckon :). Sometimes give more time than minute. Or more required words.

 

These are just some ideas for adding spice and variety to writing without changing the whole program. :)

[WahM]

Thanks for all the advice! I think I will just stick to what we've been doing since it has been working well and they are easy to tweak into what we need/want.