Too much over lap?

[vaquitita]

My kids always complain about writing, so I'm having trouble figuring out how much is appropriate and what to do about seemingly overlapping subjects.

 

For my 4th grader next year I want her to do:

spelling you see level C

cursive copy work (from ELTL 2)

Maybe AAS (she needs slow, incremental teaching as well as lots of practice. That is why I'm considering using AAS and SYS)

Copying her history narration once a week OR the BF early American primary copy work/notebooking

 

For my 6th grader:

Spelling you see level G

Fix It grammar

IEW weekly writing class

Written narration twice a week

Plus some writing in the following workbooks: word roots, geography, science

 

Does this seem like too much?

Edited March 4, 2017 by vaquitita

[Ellie]

No, not too much.

[SilverMoon]

No, I do not consider that too much for those ages.

Edited March 5, 2017 by SilverMoon

[vaquitita]

No, not too much.

Thank you. When I look at the list, I can guarantee my son will whine about doing copy work in SYS and in fix it. Lol. I just need to get ready to be firm ahead of time

[Ellie]

Thank you. When I look at the list, I can guarantee my son will whine about doing copy work in SYS and in fix it. Lol. I just need to get ready to be firm ahead of time

 

Believe me when I tell you that it is not too much, and I'm much closer to an unschooler than I am to a WTMer, lol. Shall I tell you the story of the things *I* had to write when I was their ages? :-) They have it easy!

[Another Lynn]

I would say it would depend on how fast the IEW class moves.  If they're writing a paragraph a week, then two more written narrations is no problem.  If they cover a 5 paragraph paper in one week, then I would back off the written narrations.  Just my .02.

[vaquitita]

I would say it would depend on how fast the IEW class moves. If they're writing a paragraph a week, then two more written narrations is no problem. If they cover a 5 paragraph paper in one week, then I would back off the written narrations. Just my .02.

I don't know yet, this will be new for us next year. But I will keep this in mind.

[vaquitita]

Believe me when I tell you that it is not too much, and I'm much closer to an unschooler than I am to a WTMer, lol. Shall I tell you the story of the things *I* had to write when I was their ages? :-) They have it easy!

Maybe the question I should be asking is, is this enough? ;)

[Another Lynn]

Maybe the question I should be asking is, is this enough? ;)

 

Ha!  I think it could be borderline too much.  Anytime *I* have tried to use multiple resources for one subject, something inevitably gets dropped along the way.  For your 4th grader, if cursive copywork happens every day with ELTL (I don't know, I've never used it), then I wouldn't do copywork in history.  Or I would pause cursive copywork until she learned to write her own narrations without copying them.  I would pick a spelling program - AAS or SYS, but not both.  But that's just my opinion.  I would rather streamline and find things that achieve multiple goals rather than find multiple programs each one accomplishing a single goal.

 

The only overlap I see with the 6th grader is potentially the IEW class and written narrations.  

 

You could listen to SWB's talk on writing in the logic stage years - I think she outlines how many days per week to cover spelling, grammar, and writing and how much writing to do each week.  It would be a good gauge to compare to!

[Ellie]

Maybe the question I should be asking is, is this enough? ;)

 

For your older dc, maybe not.

[vaquitita]

Ha! I think it could be borderline too much. Anytime *I* have tried to use multiple resources for one subject, something inevitably gets dropped along the way. For your 4th grader, if cursive copywork happens every day with ELTL (I don't know, I've never used it), then I wouldn't do copywork in history. Or I would pause cursive copywork until she learned to write her own narrations without copying them.

Good points. ELTL cursive copy work can be 3-5 days. I will skip it on history day. This kid won't be writing her own narrations anytime soon. Tho ELTL copy work is easier for me. Lol. So it may be the history stuff that gets skipped.

 

I would pick a spelling program - AAS or SYS, but not both. But that's just my opinion. I would rather streamline and find things that achieve multiple goals rather than find multiple programs each one accomplishing a single goal.

I wouldn't consider using two programs with my other kids, but this kid needs lots of practice before she feels confident in doing something and won't attempt writing till she does feel confident. And even though she has beautiful cursive, I don't feel like it's helping her with her spelling. She needs print copy work for that, but I don't want to stop cursive and have her lose that. But yeah, I really wish I could find some way to streamline.

 

The only overlap I see with the 6th grader is potentially the IEW class and written narrations.

 

You could listen to SWB's talk on writing in the logic stage years - I think she outlines how many days per week to cover spelling, grammar, and writing and how much writing to do each week. It would be a good gauge to compare to!

I guess it all depends on how much writing this class requires, which I just don't know yet.

Good idea, off to check that out...