Anyone else here have dc taking Bravewriter Kidswrite Intermediate this summer?

[Pen]

Mine is, and I wondered if anyone else will have a child in it.

[Liza Q]

Yes - and my son is not too happy about it! If this does not work I think I will just cry.

[Pen]

 

Yes - and my son is not too happy about it! If this does not work I think I will just cry.

 

 

 

Well, I hope it works--and that your ds gets happier about it ! How do you (and he) define what it working would mean?

[Julie of KY]

My kids wouldn't be happy about doing a writing course over the summer either. :closedeyes:
 However, as far as writing courses go, KidsWriter intermediate is much less painful than most.

[Liza Q]

   

 

 

Well, I hope it works--and that your ds gets happier about it ! How do you (and he) define what it working would mean?

 

He is unhappy that he has to do it over the summer. The rest of the summer work we have lined up - Spanish review, Algebra review (as he is starting Alg 2 in the fall after a year of Geometry), getting a head start in US History/Literature, some PSAT prep - he is fine with. We don't expect any of that to take more than 2 hours and he should have left plenty of time to hang with friends. etc. But he is a sssssllllooooowwwww writer and thinks that he will be having to spend a few hours a day on his assignments. I think that entirely up to him and there is no reason that he needs to spend hours per day!

 

Having it work would be...helping him to overcome his perfectionist tendencies, which cause him to want each sentence to be perfect before he writes the next. Helping him to be able to just get to it instead of sitting there dreading it. Helping him to see that discussion is not enough; just because I see that he understands what he is reading and can make logical, coherent points does not mean that he does not have to learn to write out his thoughts.

 

Basically, I need him to get to the point where he can write a decent multi-paragraph essay in a week, not a month. And not just write it in a timely, organized manner, but also write it without frustration and drama, all directed at me. The rest of his schoolwork is fairly drama-free and we get along well so writing is the thorn, or sore thumb, or whatever.

 

I may be expecting too much from Bravewriter! Let's just say that I am hopeful.

[Pen]

I hope I was not underestimating, but I told my ds that I thought he would need to spend one hour per day on KW-Int.

 

My ds took Kidswrite Basic a few years ago, which took a lot of time, and was still at the "partnership" writing level, where I was involved a lot. I want my son to do it this time on his own, and am hoping to resist answering, "Mom, how do you spell ____?" type questions. He'll be going to public school next year and I won't be there to spell for him, so he's going to have to figure out how to get help from technology, dictionary, or maybe other people. And I am hoping that he will get a grade to help give him a sense of how he is doing and feedback that can help him in a variety of ways. In his case, I thought it was a good idea, but made it an offer to him whether he wanted to do it or not in prep for next year at pub sch, not something I insisted on--at first he'd said no, but then decided that he did want to.

 

Based on our experience with Basic, having a topic to write on can be helpful--such as perhaps US History or Lit for your ds. Or for mine, he can do what he wishes, but my suggestion to him is to write on something to do with music since he likely may be taking a music history/appreciation course, and I think if he practices writing about something to do with music now it will make quizzes and essays for that class easier to have had some related practice and to be getting some feedback on what comes through to others when using words to describe things that are musical. Even something like writing about why he likes Taylor Swift's music or even something more factual like writing about the history of an instrument, could, I think, help him out quite a lot.

 

Mine also has the tendency to want to perfect each sentence as he goes, rather than to start with an imperfect draft and revise it. This last year a main writing project never got farther than numerous aborted beginnings.

[Liza Q]

I wanted to come back and mention how this class went. Overall, better than I expected! He complained less than I expected, got all of his assignments in on time, actually saw the value of most of the assignments, and responded well to the encouragement/instruction he received. And oh - his final project was not bad at all. Not 11th grade standard, but a huge improvement over what he was producing last year!!!

 

He just finished the Expository Essay class and the KWI class definitely prepared him well for it.

 

So - no tears for me and much less drama from him plus actual real improvement = success.