Cottage Press Fable and Song vs. CAP Writing and Rhetoric

[TheAttachedMama]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am looking for some reviews of Cottage Press Fable and Song program.   Has anyone used this?   If so, can you please tell me your thoughts on the program.   I am trying to decide between the Cottage Press products vs. the CAP Writing and Rhetoric products.   

 

Why did you choose one over the other?

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Some of my thoughts after looking at samples and reading reviews:

 

It seems like Writing and Rhetoric program is much more popular.   I wonder why that is?   The cottage press products look nice too.   However, I rarely hear them mentioned on this forum.   

 

Both programs seem to follow the progym or classical method of teaching writing.   Cottage Press seems to follow the Charlotte Mason method a little more though.

 

Cottage Press contains grammar which might also help shorten my day.  (Although the grammar is very light compared to the current "Well Trained Mind / FLL / ALL " path I am on.)   It looks like it would mostly be review....but maybe it is enough grammar this year just so they don't forget anything?)   

 

Cottage Press contains spelling, but I would still have to supplement that.  My kids are dyslexic and would need to stick to our OG program.  Still, it can't hurt to review things....right?  (Looks like Cottage press is loosely based off of Spalding method or analyzing words?)  Regardless, I know it wouldn't be enough on its own.

 

Cottage Press contains poetry lessons and figures of speech.   

 

Cottage Press contains natural "typing practice" reminders.  

 

I really like how CAP W&R sparks wonderful conversations and discussions based on the readings.   

[Guest]

CP is newer and has less components published, that's why.

 

In both the primer series, the grammar and spelling (and picture study and nature study) are all take it or leave it. I would assume that continues in the higher levels, but then again you know what you do when you assume...so maybe not. In any case, there's only so much grammar ykwim?

 

I went from the primer series to Writing Tales (beautifully), and plan to go to CAP after WT2, FWIW, not the upper levels of CP.

 

 

[KeriJ]

Fable and Song is very different from the 1st primer level at least. I haven't seen the 2nd primer. But I have used Fable and Song as well as the 1st primer book and Bards and Poets.

 

I can come back later and share our experience.

[beka87]

Cottage Press is meant to be a complete language arts program (WR is not), though I will end up supplementing spelling through Fable and Song, at least.  At a higher level (Bards and Poets and up) there is a lot of meat there and plenty of room to be creative and to have great discussions.  I think CP is a lot more streamlined than WR.  While WR is a great program, I don't know that all of its components are strictly necessary to the extant they are included in order to teach composition and thinking skills.

 

CP is not talked about as much because 1)it is newer and 2)WR is from a much larger and better publicized company.

 

While I appreciate the WR sentiment behind making the progym more "creative", I think that ultimately a resource that teaches well but minimally is what will actually give my kids the room to be creative.  Also, though not as important, I totally disagree with the grade levels in WR.  I think CP is much more realistic in terms of teaching the progym steps to students old enough to understand the process and purpose behind each.

 

 

[KeriJ]

Cottage Press is meant to be a complete language arts program (WR is not), though I will end up supplementing spelling through Fable and Song, at least.  At a higher level (Bards and Poets and up) there is a lot of meat there and plenty of room to be creative and to have great discussions.  I think CP is a lot more streamlined than WR.  While WR is a great program, I don't know that all of its components are strictly necessary to the extant they are included in order to teach composition and thinking skills.

 

CP is not talked about as much because 1)it is newer and 2)WR is from a much larger and better publicized company.

 

While I appreciate the WR sentiment behind making the progym more "creative", I think that ultimately a resource that teaches well but minimally is what will actually give my kids the room to be creative.  Also, though not as important, I totally disagree with the grade levels in WR.  I think CP is much more realistic in terms of teaching the progym steps to students old enough to understand the process and purpose behind each.

I agree with all of this.

[KeriJ]

I think Cottage Press is a wonderful program. I wish I could have made it work for us, but I realized I'm more of a traditional person when it comes to language arts lessons. It's just how my brain thinks.

 

We had come from R&S 5, so Fable and Song was light as far as grammar goes in the beginning. However, by the end of the book, it had covered quite a bit. I love the sentences used for diagramming. I still pull them out to use in place of R&S diagramming sometimes. I really did love the all-in-one component and the fact that so much was included each week. It's a very rich program. I also loved having the lessons all come from one literature or poetry selection.

 

For us, there were too many parts that we didn't use, so it didn't feel worth the money to me. I didn't really care for the spelling exercises, so we skipped them.

 

As far as the writing goes, my only complaint was that it was very incremental...so much so that you only finished a short piece of writing maybe once every 2 weeks. However, I did love the systematic approach and detail. It would be fine as long as you are doing frequent written narrations as well.

 

I did use one level of W&R years ago, and I definitely like CP better! It truly is an excellent program if you want a nice blend of progym and CM.

 

I have the book still (and am thinking of selling it if you're interested) and would be glad to answer any more detailed questions.

Edited March 22, 2017 by KeriJ

[TheAttachedMama]

I think Cottage Press is a wonderful program. I wish I could have made it work for us, but I realized I'm more of a traditional person when it comes to language arts lessons. It's just how my brain thinks.

 

We had come from R&S 5, so Fable and Song was light as far as grammar goes in the beginning. However, by the end of the book, it had covered quite a bit. I love the sentences used for diagramming. I still pull them out to use in place of R&S diagramming sometimes. I really did love the all-in-one component and the fact that so much was included each week. It's a very rich program. I also loved having the lessons all come from one literature or poetry selection.

 

For us, there were too many parts that we didn't use, so it didn't feel worth the money to me. I didn't really care for the spelling exercises, so we skipped them.

 

As far as the writing goes, my only complaint was that it was very incremental...so much so that you only finished a short piece of writing maybe once every 2 weeks. However, I did love the systematic approach and detail. It would be fine as long as you are doing frequent written narrations as well.

 

I did use one level of W&R years ago, and I definitely like CP better! It truly is an excellent program if you want a nice blend of progym and CM.

 

I have the book still (and am thinking of selling it if you're interested) and would be glad to answer any more detailed questions.

 

Yes, please PM me if you are going to sell.     Great review.   Can you tell me what other parts you skipped besides spelling?   

[KeriJ]

Actually it was only spelling that we skipped in that level. We skipped more in the Primer and Bards and Poets.

[Foofaraw]

On 3/23/2017 at 8:43 AM, KeriJ said:

Actually it was only spelling that we skipped in that level. We skipped more in the Primer and Bards and Poets.

Would you elaborate more on your experience with Bards and Poets?