Starting with Writing and Rhetoric book 2 instead of 1?

[chellesnead]

My kids are 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade.  I'm planning to use W&R with them in the fall, but am debating between Book 1 Fables and Book 2 Narratives.  I think they would most enjoy the Narrative book, but am not sure if I should skip Fables and whether or not they would miss something important by doing that.  Any thoughts?

[desertflower]

I'm curious too.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I think the first book is sufficiently challenging in terms of the writing.  The reading selections are very basic though.  So you could go either way I think.  Maybe get book 2 and then decide at that point if you want to start in 2 or 1.  If 1, set 2 aside for later. 

 

 

[chellesnead]

I think the first book is sufficiently challenging in terms of the writing.  The reading selections are very basic though.  So you could go either way I think.  Maybe get book 2 and then decide at that point if you want to start in 2 or 1.  If 1, set 2 aside for later. 

 

Good idea!  Anyone else have any thoughts?  

[Targhee]

My honest thought is that unless your dc 5th is needing more time or your dc 3rd is a precocious writer I wouldn't try to combine 3 kids for writing. It's not unlike trying to combine 3 ages for math. Perhaps it would be fine for your family though.

[chellesnead]

My honest thought is that unless your dc 5th is needing more time or your dc 3rd is a precocious writer I wouldn't try to combine 3 kids for writing. It's not unlike trying to combine 3 ages for math. Perhaps it would be fine for your family though.

 

Thank you for bringing this up as with many kids it would be a concern.  My 3rd grader is a very sharp little guy, one of those kids who picked up a book at age 3 and just started reading.  He's got great thoughts, but is definitely still working on expanding them to more complex thoughts, his biggest writing weakness and one reason I think W&R is a great program for him.  He's definitely more advanced than a typical 3rd grader.  My 5th grader loves to read and write, but of the 3 is the one for which writing does not come as naturally.  Thus, the reason I can combine the three of them.  I have one more 3rd grader with learning disabilities and a toddler, so I try to do as much as I can together with 2, 3 or 4 of them as I've got a lot on my plate.  There's no way I could combine my other 3rd grader with any of the other 3 kids as their needs are so different.  

[Targhee]

Thank you for bringing this up as with many kids it would be a concern. My 3rd grader is a very sharp little guy, one of those kids who picked up a book at age 3 and just started reading. He's got great thoughts, but is definitely still working on expanding them to more complex thoughts, his biggest writing weakness and one reason I think W&R is a great program for him. He's definitely more advanced than a typical 3rd grader. My 5th grader loves to read and write, but of the 3 is the one for which writing does not come as naturally. Thus, the reason I can combine the three of them. I have one more 3rd grader with learning disabilities and a toddler, so I try to do as much as I can together with 2, 3 or 4 of them as I've got a lot on my plate. There's no way I could combine my other 3rd grader with any of the other 3 kids as their needs are so different.

Fair enough :-) Fable has a very good introduction to narration and to summarizing (summarizing by physically going through and crossing out non essential parts of the story) that was much more helpful for my DS than the WWE way of getting to narrative summary. That is probably the only big aspect you would miss by skipping Fable. If your kids already do narrative summaries well then I think you could skip Fable. We enjoyed it though :-)

[chellesnead]

Ok, great!  That is good to know.  I think I'm going to just stick with Fable.