Curriculum Suggestions - 7th and 4th grades

[kagmypts]

I am trying to finish ordering our curriculum for next year, and I have a few remaining subjects that are giving me fits. 

My first conundrum relates to my seventh grade son.  I need help finding something for composition as well as spelling/vocabulary. With respect to composition, he is not a natural writer.  We have used IEW and have seen some improvement, but overall his writing is extremely bland.  His writing fails to use any sophisticated vocabulary (he is drawn to words such as awesome, amazing, cool, etc.).  One drawback with IEW is that is follows a handful of "formulas."  For example, each paragraph must include a certain dress-up (sentence opener, sentence structure, and so on), but it makes his writing feel even more forced than it already does.  We used Writing With Skill with my daughter, and it was a fabulous fit for her.  I am not sure how my son would do.  Any suggestions?

Along the same lines, I need a spelling and/or vocabulary program for him.  Neither of these are his strong suit.  We used Spellwell with some success, but that only went through fifth grade.  Any ideas?

For my fourth grade son, I need a reading program.  We have used Memoria Press in the past, but he is starting to put up a strong fight.  I am not sure if I have it in me to fight him this year.  I am also open to good books with literature guides.

I would love any suggestions or advice.  Thank you!

[Ellie]

Your comment about IEW is why I've never cared for it.

What about Writing Strands? You'd probably start with your older dc. Also, when you correct/evaluate his writing, do you subtract points for using "cool" and "awesome"?

Wordly Wise is pretty decent for vocabulary; you could *add* points to his writing assignments when he uses words from his vocabulary lessons.

Also, does he read much? I mean from good, well-written literature, where "cool" and "awesome" will not be used the way he's been using them. :-)

[rebcoola]

No ideas for writing but Megawords is good for spelling and vocabulary.

[mmasc]

We used (successfully!) Essentials in Writing this past year for my 7th grade DS. Also, we kept a thesaurus handy. ?

[MamaHill]

7 hours ago, kagmypts said:

I am trying to finish ordering our curriculum for next year, and I have a few remaining subjects that are giving me fits. 

My first conundrum relates to my seventh grade son.  I need help finding something for composition as well as spelling/vocabulary. With respect to composition, he is not a natural writer.  We have used IEW and have seen some improvement, but overall his writing is extremely bland.  His writing fails to use any sophisticated vocabulary (he is drawn to words such as awesome, amazing, cool, etc.).  One drawback with IEW is that is follows a handful of "formulas."  For example, each paragraph must include a certain dress-up (sentence opener, sentence structure, and so on), but it makes his writing feel even more forced than it already does.  We used Writing With Skill with my daughter, and it was a fabulous fit for her.  I am not sure how my son would do.  Any suggestions?

Along the same lines, I need a spelling and/or vocabulary program for him.  Neither of these are his strong suit.  We used Spellwell with some success, but that only went through fifth grade.  Any ideas?

For my fourth grade son, I need a reading program.  We have used Memoria Press in the past, but he is starting to put up a strong fight.  I am not sure if I have it in me to fight him this year.  I am also open to good books with literature guides.

I would love any suggestions or advice.  Thank you!

Have you considered Classical Composition's Fable?  Does the progym appeal to you at all?

Take this with a grain of salt since we are only in the beginning stages of Fable (for my 4th and 6th graders)...  In my understanding, the gist of the program is that you take a fable and manipulate it many different ways.  For example, in one of the exercises you spend the class time brainstorming synonyms for particular words.  Then you rewrite the fable based on those tweaks.  Another class time, you brainstorm how to add 'figures of description' which describe various elements of nature, etc as to paint a better picture in the mind's eye.  Another class, you rewrite the fable with the sequence in inverted order.  The child writes a final draft based on just ONE of those elements (inverted order OR using the figures of description that have to deal with nature, etc.  NOT both)

The synonym work sounds like it would be helpful to break him out of the "cool" words.

I will be honest that it's taken me working through several lessons myself to wrap my brain around how this works, but so far I LOVE it.

With my older boy, we used SWI-A and SICC and the dress-ups just became to much for us.  It made his writing very tedious and formulaic.  I just couldn't bear to carry on with it through another level.

Maybe this could be an option for you to research.

I also second Megawords.  Another idea is to look into How to Teach Spelling and use the workbook along with it.  I am using How to Teach Spelling to supplement Megawords for my 6th grader and R&S spelling for my 4th grader.  It's working beautifully for them, of which neither are natural spellers.  If I had known about the HTTS workbooks before buying Megawords or R&S Spelling, I would have just done that to make it easier.

Lauren

 

[kagmypts]

1 hour ago, mmasc said:

We used (successfully!) Essentials in Writing this past year for my 7th grade DS. Also, we kept a thesaurus handy. ?

 

How much grammar instruction is there in Essentials in Writing?  I have a separate grammar program for him so I do not want to duplicate work too much.  I was unable to get a sense of the program from the online samples.

1 hour ago, MamaHill said:

Have you considered Classical Composition's Fable?  Does the progym appeal to you at all?

Take this with a grain of salt since we are only in the beginning stages of Fable (for my 4th and 6th graders)...  In my understanding, the gist of the program is that you take a fable and manipulate it many different ways.  For example, in one of the exercises you spend the class time brainstorming synonyms for particular words.  Then you rewrite the fable based on those tweaks.  Another class time, you brainstorm how to add 'figures of description' which describe various elements of nature, etc as to paint a better picture in the mind's eye.  Another class, you rewrite the fable with the sequence in inverted order.  The child writes a final draft based on just ONE of those elements (inverted order OR using the figures of description that have to deal with nature, etc.  NOT both)

The synonym work sounds like it would be helpful to break him out of the "cool" words.

I will be honest that it's taken me working through several lessons myself to wrap my brain around how this works, but so far I LOVE it.

With my older boy, we used SWI-A and SICC and the dress-ups just became to much for us.  It made his writing very tedious and formulaic.  I just couldn't bear to carry on with it through another level.

Maybe this could be an option for you to research.

I also second Megawords.  Another idea is to look into How to Teach Spelling and use the workbook along with it.  I am using How to Teach Spelling to supplement Megawords for my 6th grader and R&S spelling for my 4th grader.  It's working beautifully for them, of which neither are natural spellers.  If I had known about the HTTS workbooks before buying Megawords or R&S Spelling, I would have just done that to make it easier.

Lauren

 

 

Thank you so much for the comprehensive answer.

I will look into Classical Composition's Fable.  Is it meant to be a full year class?  The main focus of this upcoming school year is to improve my son's writing.

Do you know how HTTS compares to All About Spelling (AAS)?  We completed the first several volumes of AAS, and my son did not retain anything.  Also, what level of Megawords are you using?

[mmasc]

Starting in Level 7 of EIW, there’s a pretty heavy shift to composition, with grammar and mechanics being supplemental. So basically there is some review in the beginning lessons, then it’s mostly writing. If you still want or need grammar instruction, you would need to use something else in addition to EIW. So this might be a good fit since you already have grammar covered.

I still have our finished book so I could look up specifics tomorrow if you’d like. I just remember that the grammar was only in the beginning and it was only review. 

[mmasc]

Rainbow Resource gives a pretty good look at the table of contents. Only the first seven lessons are grammar (and they are really just review), then it moves right into composition. 

https://www.rainbowresource.com/viewpict?pid=064960

Most lessons have a video that is less than 10 minutes and then the student does the lesson on their own. They are manageable chunks, but still build on each other to create good writing IMO. So far it has been the only thing that my DS didn’t hate for writing. I did most of my research at the time on here and there’s a very detailed and helpful thread/post from Merry at Home if you can find it!

[kagmypts]

1 hour ago, Paradox5 said:

Have you thought of trying Writing with Skill? EIW teaches how to write specific types of papers. WWS and the proygym teach how to write anything. That is a terrible explanation so someone more eloquent than I chime in here, please.

I second Wordly Wise 3000. It is straight vocabulary teaching. MegaWords is designed to help with READING, not spelling or vocabulary. 

For a lit program, have you taken a peek at Mosdos? I have not used it personally so no reviews for ya.

If he is fighting the guides, why not skip the writing part and just use the TM orally? Mine will fight tooth and nail about writing in the guides but LOVE doing them orally. Also, HLS does not have the kids write out all the questions. Pick and choose.

Side note - I went to our homeschool convention this afternoon to browse the programs mentioned in this thread.

It is interesting that that you mentioned WWS.  I used WWS levels 1-3 with my daughter in middle school, and it was a fabulous fit for her.  After completing the program, she is an extremely proficient writer.  With respect to my son, I worry that he will get bogged down in the complexity of many of the reading selections.  Also, his writing style (sentence structure, paragraph formation, word choice, etc.) are well below where they should be.  I really want to tackle his writing style before adding on the skills addressed in WWS.  Ironically, I did pick up WWE Volume 4 today!  It will not be his entire composition program, but it will be part of his daily work.

I looked at EIW today. In fact, I lulled over it for about an hour, but I did not purchase it.  At the time, I could not put my finger on what my hesitation was, but I think that you alluded to it.  Does EIW place an emphasis on the parts of a specific type of paper?  For example, does it focus on the five parts of a friendly letter?  I am not sure if you are familiar with Rod & Staff English.  The program contains writing lessons, but I would not classify it as a composition lesson.  Is EIW the same?  I really want something that teaches him how to construct a solid, interesting paragraph - topic sentence, the appropriate level of detail, clincher.  However, I do not want his writing to look like this (Cannot figure out how to indent so I used quotes):

"Going to the park is fun.  I like the slide. The monkey bars are also cool.  My favorite thing is jumping on the suspension bridge.  The park is an awesome place."

If I asked him to add more detail and make it more vivid, he would write something to this effect:

"Going to the park is extremely fun.  I like the red slide. The high monkey bars are also cool.  Interestingly, my favorite thing is jumping on the brown suspension bridge.  The park is an amazingly awesome place."

Despite tackling these writing issues for the past two years, he has not improved.  I need a program that will teach him how to make his writing interesting and compelling without getting bogged down in formulas, our problem with IEW.  If he can master a paragraph, moving from a paragraph to an essay is really only a tiny step.

On a related note, he does not have the slightest grasp of what an appropriate level of detail is.  These issues are making me insane.

PS - I bought Worldly Wise 3000.