First grader not ready for WWE1--wwyd?

[lindsey]

We are pretty new HSers. I'm not sure our writing program is working out well for my first grader. For the first 5 or 6 months I pulled a copywork sentence or two from our history readings 3x a week. I started using WWE1 about a month ago because it seemed like he was ready. It's just okay. He usually can't answer a few of the comprehension questions, and the copywork portion is SO SLOW. He has never been speedy, but for some reason he crawls through this activity. It can take him ten minutes to get out two words. He piddles around, stares out the window, retraces his letters over and over ("armoring" them, he says), etc. I have to redirect him for every letter some words. o.O

 

I'm not sure if he's just bored by the subject matter, or somehow not ready? He was writing sentences of a similar length before. Just a phase? Too hard? Was what we were doing before sufficient for a 6.5yo? It felt like it wasn't much, but I'm not sure how much longer we can drag this out...I try to not make him work more than 20 minutes on something (and it is HARD to get a quiet 20 minutes for this!) and sometimes he can't even finish a short sentence in that time. :P

 

 

 

[Rosie_0801]

Go back to what you were doing for six months and use that time to read/watch videos of some of the lit used in WWE.

[Petrichor]

For the first half of first grade, when we started WWE1, my DS (when he was in 1st) would often have trouble answering the comprehension questions. I would go back and read the portion of the passage that contains the answer, then ask the question again. Sometimes it took a few tries, and sometimes it took rephrasing the question for DS to figure out the answer. 

 

He's in 2nd grade now, and he does still take his time. Oh man, there was a phase during some portion of 1st grade where he would turn his letters into cacti, and give everything spiky arms. For copywork, I let him do the cactus letters, but during handwriting/spelling/phonics, I insisted on nice perfect handwriting.

 

I think you should stick with it, but if it becomes too stressful for you or him, go ahead and slow down or drop it for some time. 

 

[Critterfixer]

If he was writing sentences of equal or greater length before he started WWE, consider that he may be bored with the content. My boys found fiction very, very hard to narrate when they were young. Non-fiction went much, much better! I also found that copywork was much less onerous if they got to pick it from their favorite books on dinosaurs or tornadoes. You might see if his interest goes up if he can choose some of his own work.

[Petrichor]

Are you having him do copywork for WWE and for history in the same day? And how much other writing is he doing? My DS doesn't have much stamina for writing. We can usually do a sentence of WWE, 6 spelling words, a few lines of handwriting practice, and a couple of math pages. If there's more writing than that planned for the day, he will usually burn out at some point, meaning some of math will be narrated or done on a whiteboard rather than written on the worksheets.

[lindsey]

We are only doing WWE now, two days a week. Then the third day he'll do some free writing/drawing or I will sometimes dictate a few short sentences and he write them (with invented spelling), or he will dictate a short note to his great-grandma and then copy what I wrote. 

 

ETA: We haven't even started spelling...and he did a whole HWOT handwriting book before, over the summer/fall, along with the copywork. 

Edited January 21, 2017 by lindsey

[desertflower]

If it's any consolation, when my son was 6.5 we didn't do any copywork.  We skipped copywork in WWE1.  He did have a handwriting program.

 

When my ds was 7, we only did copywork every so often.  He does it correctly and knows his punctuation marks, so I just don't see the point with this child.  Everyone is different though.  There was already dictation in my spelling program, and since he did fine in those, I just didn't see the point in all the copywork. 

 

I hope that helps. 

[MotherGoose]

I would consider putting it away for a month or so with no mention of it and then taking it back up. He sounds like my first dd in 1st grade. My second dd did fine with copywork. I would focus in the comprehension aspects, and shorten what you ask him to do, so that he can copy "The cat sat on the hat." Perfectly instead of struggling for "The lovely purple fluffy cat sat quietly on the floppy felt red hat."

[ScoutTN]

I'd just go back to what you were doing before. Some copywork and some informal, oral narration makes plenty for 1st grade. No curriculum necessary. Just choose books you and he like!