Anyone taught writing without a curriculum?

[YsgolYGair]

(Or any other subject for that matter??) 

 

I'm making up my list to purchase for next year, and because I'm feeling uncertain about where our finances will be, I am starting to question whether I even need to get many of the books I was planning on. I know I'll get some, so I don't plan to go completely curriculum-free or anything. But has anyone ever sat back and said, "Seriously, why do I need that book or workbook?? I can teach it just as well myself out of my own head!"

 

If you went down that road, how did it go for you?? I'm totally confident in my ability to teach several subjects, but somehow I seem tied to the notion that education requires textbooks and workbooks....

 

Anyone?

[hollyhock]

I sort of do this with writing and I know others do, too. I say "sort of" because I don't make it up myself; I base what I have my kids do off of SWB's writing philosophy, which can be found in her audio lectures or WTM book or in the sample pages of WWE. So instead of purchasing a writing curriculum, I have my kids narrate, outline, copy, dictate, etc. as she describes.

 

I haven't sent any kids to college yet, but so far I think this has worked really well. In fact, I have actually tried some writing curriculum with my oldest and they just don't work for him, whereas this approach does, so that is one major reason I stick with it.

 

I have also done this with handwriting. You don't *need* a pretty handwriting book to teach kids letters. You can just show them how and have them copy your example.

 

I'm not sure I would feel very confident doing this with any other subject though, unless I had access to a good library.

[OneStepAtATime]

There are so many free and really low cost resources out there that you could easily gather stuff without spending much at all.  If you wanted to go that route I would do some searches or start a thread on a specific topic and ask for advice on free/low cost resources to use as a spine for specific subjects.  If your siggie is current your kids are little.  There is no reason a good library and some creative searching on the internet won't net you the resources you need to have a great school year.  My only caveat to that would be if you had a child with some learning challenges, such as dyslexia.  That may require some targeted purchases.

[aaplank]

I teach writing without a curriculum by thinking through what kind of writing I want my kids to accomplish by the end of the year. I use Pinterest ideas and other writing materials I've collected along the way to help teach the concepts. They have a writing notebook of compiled word lists, graphic organizers and other helps to aid in their writing. Kind of like a homemade Writer's Inc.

 

If you Google or search Pinterest for a particular kind of writing assignment you will get all sorts of free materials, from graphic organizers, lesson plans, and rubrics.

 

I try to choose a mixture of creative and academic writing. Here are some we've done in the past.

 

Summaries, paraphrases, research report with bibliography, personal narrative, compare/contrast essay, movie review, persuasive essay, fractured fairy tales, etc.

 

I've taught writing this way for several years and it really seems to be working.

[MerryAtHope]

It looks like your oldest is in 2nd grade this year? You could totally work on writing without a curriculum. You can use copywork from her readers (any books she is reading) to teach things like capitalization and punctuation. You can find pictures online and let her write about what she thinks is going on or what she thinks might happen next. Or let her keep a journal for the year and draw or take photographs of favorite things, places, people and write a sentence or two about each (she could make her own little book if you wanted). Have fun!

[Jackie]

You might find this thread helpful and interesting: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/504322-writing-wo-a-curriculum-lets-create-a-master-thread/

[8filltheheart]

If you went down that road, how did it go for you?? I'm totally confident in my ability to teach several subjects, but somehow I seem tied to the notion that education requires textbooks and workbooks....

 

Anyone?

I have designed my own curriculum almost from the beginning (which was over 2 decades ago). I teach my younger kids grammar and writing without curriculum. (I was going to post a link to a description, but Jackie's link includes it (Incremental Writing).)

 

I design courses around subjects my kids want to learn more about. We don't use textbooks except for math when they are younger.

 

How did it go for me? I have great kids who are academically successful.

[Peaceseeker]

It seems like everything I do is cobbled together. I have never been able to do anything exactly the way it is presented. I prefer to think of everything as a resource as opposed to a curriculum. I choose what resources work for each subject. Some of the resources I use others would call a curriculum but I rarely use it as such. I take what I want from it and leave the rest. I am the opposite of a 'box checker' and I have no qualms about doing things my own way. This approach seems to be easier for some personality types than others. I know some homeschoolers who would be stressed out to the max taking my approach.

 

While I love my approach and I am probably never going to be any other kind of homeschool teacher, it can lead to a disease called 'supplementitus'. It is also very time consuming to be constantly looking out for great resources and figuring out how to work them all in and make up all your own lesson plans. Sometimes I wish I could make my own life simpler and just do something the way it comes.

 

Not gonna happen though- I am a rebel at heart 😎

[ALB]

Agreeing with what others have said!  I have purchased and attempted to use WWE 1, WWE 3, WWS 1 and MP's Classical Composition Fables.  I always end up ditching the curriculum to focus on copywork, narration, written summaries and our own writing assignments.  I think the writing instruction in WTM is great, and I enjoy implementing it on my own.

Writing is a subject I'm very comfortable with, as opposed to something like high school science or calculus.  I think it makes sense to use curricula for subjects that you need the extra hand holding for, and branch out more on your own for things that are your strength.

[beka87]

I have made all of my own curriculum for about two years, except math.  History, science, geography, literature, Gaelic, composition....I prefer to think of curriculum books as resources.  I do like having those resources for some things, others I don't mind tackling totally on my own with a just a good library.  It's worked well so far and I think I am a better teacher for it.  I only use the math curriculum because it works so well and why reinvent the wheel?  I think if you pick a few content subjects and utilize the library lots, you'll be able to save quite a bit of money.  Depending on the age of your children, you could do writing without a book, too - or my daughter, I focus on oral narration, one written narration a week, pulling important information from a science book, copy work, dictation, and notes and letters to family and friends.  It's plenty for elementary.

[....]

(Or any other subject for that matter??) 

 

I'm making up my list to purchase for next year, and because I'm feeling uncertain about where our finances will be, I am starting to question whether I even need to get many of the books I was planning on. I know I'll get some, so I don't plan to go completely curriculum-free or anything. But has anyone ever sat back and said, "Seriously, why do I need that book or workbook?? I can teach it just as well myself out of my own head!"

 

If you went down that road, how did it go for you?? I'm totally confident in my ability to teach several subjects, but somehow I seem tied to the notion that education requires textbooks and workbooks....

 

Anyone?

 

I mostly put our school together myself, but I have used curriculum in the past.  For some reason, I think I use more bought curriculum with my grade school-aged kids than I do with my older ones.  You can build your own curriculum for a fraction of what it costs to buy something.  So, I mostly put our stuff together because it really is so much cheaper.

 

I tend to buy more books and science resources than curriculum.  Like science kits...Physics Workshop-type stuff...microscopes...dissection kits...beakers/graduated cylinders...  Most of our books come from the library.  A lot of our books on the Kindle were free, because they are classics (like Count of Monte Cristo was free on the Kindle, for example).  

 

My high schoolers are using several textbooks this semester, but I bought them used and they were ridiculously cheap.  They're using Gardner's Art Through the Ages, which is an art history textbook that sells for over $100...I bought it for $10-$15 plus shipping.  They're using an AP British Literature textbook that I swear I paid like $5 for on Amazon.  A couple of years ago, I bought Lial's Algebra for 88 cents!  So, check used books on Amazon.  We don't usually use textbooks, it's just a coincidence we used several this semester.

 

We aren't using curriculum for writing this year (but I have used stuff like Writing with Skill in the past).  Here's what they're currently doing:

 

My 3rd grader does mostly copywork and dictation. She also takes notes in a notebook if she does a science experiment or something.  She'll draw pictures and then label them in her notebook.

The 6th grader does copywork, dictation and narration.  She also does some creative writing and she does the writing exercises in Rod and Staff English (you know, like how to outline, etc).

 

The 9th grader and 8th grader do daily narrations.  So, after their reading, they write a page about some aspect of their reading...sometimes they just do a summary of what they read.  They also wrote a research paper this winter (in December - we'll never do that in Dec again!).  They did the whole process - write a thesis, find sources, take notes, write a rough draft, revise and rewrite...they even had a title page, bibliography, etc and typed it out on the computer.  This was the first time they had done this.  We are also doing some homemade "writing workshops" this semester using sections of the book Writers, INC.  I'm going to teach them the 5-Paragraph Essay format pretty soon (not sure how to teach that really) and we're going to practice that.

 

How did this circus turn out?

I don't know yet.  My older kids have taken classes with public schooled kids (like Confirmation, etc) and they've been able to hold their own.  My son's class had to take notes from a lecture and the teacher used his notes as an example for the class (Lol).  

 

Sorry that was so long-winded!

[YsgolYGair]

Thank you all so much for your responses!! It's great to know that others do this. My education and experience mean that I could teach most subjects myself if I wanted to, history being the great exception, as I just didn't seem to absorb much at all, but I have just never had the courage to do so. I end up with huge stacks of curriculum each year which become like a noose around our necks. And yes, I've just got littles. Thankfully, they like school, but I really need to learn to keep things simpler for all our sakes!

[2_girls_mommy]

I used the Well Trained Mind for how to teach writing and we used Rod and Staff for English, so we do those assignments a lot too. Plus we do co-ops. I have used those classes for how to teach writing. If they were doing a co-op class and had to give a speech, I taught them around that subject matter for their presentations. But we just mostly stuck with WTM's copywork, narration, summaries, then outlines across the curriculum as we went.

 

I did buy a copy of WWS, and my dd14 has worked through it some, and plans to again, possibly this summer when she has more time.  She has done projects for girl scouts and contests at museums that require writing. 

 

As for history, we used SOTW for the 1st 4 years. After that it was easy to transition to their logic stage plans using a used KHE and library books for reading, outlining, writing from ala WTM. 

 

Art, music, poetry are all things I have been able to teach using materials I had on hand or got free or cheaply. I search used bookstores for books that are recommended in WTM or that look interesting. I paid a quarter for a like new copy of Drawing with Children and used it for 3 years of elementary school. The What Your X Grader Series is a good reference to have on hand. I found most of those books very cheaply at used sales. I have bought Algebra texts for less than a dollar here too. I have several to choose from on shelf. I ended up using a borrowed one from a friend that she bought online for less than $10 for an older edition. Algebra is Algebra. I don't need the newest edition. 

 

I'm not against buying curric. But there have been years I couldn't get all that I wanted, and I ended up finding ways to use what I had. Then there have been years I bought a lot that i never used as we had enough on our plates. I tried to learn from those experiences, and I only buy a bit at a time now as I need it instead of trying to buy the whole year at once. 

Edited January 23, 2017 by 2_girls_mommy

[FO4UR]

Use your homeschool budget to shore up your weak spots. So, I'd recommend SOTW for history. Enjoy it as a read aloud time together, and do the coloring and mapwork.

 

If your oldest is 2nd grade, you are wise to NOT fuss with a writing curric. Copywork. Do daily copywork at their level. Narration. Ask them to orally narrate what you have read to them. Allow that time to morph into discussion. You want them processing aloud, and speaking in coherent sentences.

 

When they are older, about 4th grade, you can begin to require written narrations from readings.

 

Dictation is the other piece. At 2nd grade, I would personally start short and simple dictations, mainly to help them grow accustomed to how it is done. Study a sentence. Turn it over. Copy from memory, with oral repetition from mom as needed.

 

You won't find a curric superior to these methods. You can find currics that make this easier on you, but you can also do this very well from the books on your shelf.

[EmilyGF]

You can teach things without a curriculum when you are very good at them.

 

I wouldn't teach writing without a curriculum. But astronomy? Sure!

 

Emily

[abba12]

Yep, definitely. I too see curriculum as resources, not as a specific planned course. So, my math is cobbled together from like 100 books (well, maybe not quite... lol), a page of this and a page of that. Time consuming? Yes. But I love our course and my plans for future years with it.

 

I'm a very confident writer, so, I'm teaching that entirely from my own mind, through frequent short writing assignments right now. I may pick up Writing Strands at some point as that's what I used as a kid, and it'll make sure I don't miss anything, but, even that's a resource, a prompt, not a curriculum to me. I definitely wouldn't consider any of the big involved ones because I just don't feel I need it. Handwriting I have a workbook for, for simplicity, but I'm not following any of the guides, just using the pre-made sheets, and I have a heap of other motor skill resources like mazes and drawing and stuff which I add into our handwriting.

 

I do have a spelling curriculum as I never learned formal phonics or rules and would like a backup. I'm teaching basic grammar myself then will use an intensive course in middle school to handle the details (analytical grammar). 

 

And the content subjects are totally from my own mind right now. By the time they begin to hit the limits of general knowledge and quick internet searches, they'll be in 4th or 5th and more than ready to begin learning directly from books, at which point we will switch to big reading lists, no curriculum, just goals and what I want them to learn and then good interesting books for them and projects/essays/stuff. 

 

I dislike the turn I've seen toward homeschoolers themselves feeling like they need a professional to tell them how to teach and what to teach and when to teach it. It didn't used to be like that. Of course you can teach your kids from your own knowledge, especially at this age, and by the time you can't anymore there's plenty of options outside of formal curriculum