English issues

[Janeway]

I really like how BJU English does their grammar. I am not in love with their writing. Their writing is not bad or anything. But I am not terribly interested in having my child write a thank you note, a rough draft, and then revise the next day, and then proof read the next day, and then final copy the next day, in the third grade. No one writes letters over a course of several days. I am finding myself discarding most of the writing lessons and only using the grammar lessons. Now I find myself thinking a little bit like I have spent a lot of money for a program where I only like the grammar. I like some of the writing, like the poetry. I know I felt this way when I did this program with the other kids too. But I never found anything I loved for grammar, or even liked much. However, there seems to be so much more out there. 

 

Would I be best off just using the BJU English and continue to skip the writing lessons I do not like? (or skipping the processes, for example, great for him to learn about the different types of letters, but not interested in spending a week doing through a rough draft, and all the other steps that no one would do when writing a letter). 

[MerryAtHope]

An adult might not spend several days revising a letter (although I will say that for certain important letters, I have absolutely spent a week writing, rewriting, and revising a letter), but sometimes a child might need to. I'd probably amend assignments like that to my own taste if you generally like the other assignments though. I'd have the child write a letter, and if there was nothing to correct, they could be done. If there were some things to go over (capitalization and punctuation specific to letter-writing, spelling, grammatical errors and so on), then I might work on revising for one or more days--whatever I felt was warranted. I don't do a lot of revision work with 3rd graders honestly--I mainly encourage! With that said, aspects of letter writing often show up on standardized tests (especially capitalization and punctuation of various elements), and if your student misses things like that with the assignment, this would give you a "real world" chance to work on them. 

If you do the assignment in one day or even two and then want to move on, do something fun the rest of the week for LA (I find Bravewriter's "free-writing" prompts can be fun to fill in with, or ideas from their "Bravewriter Lifestyle" such as "Tuesday Tea.") 

On the other hand, if you like less than 50% of BJU, then I'd probably look to switch. HTH some!

[Janeway]

17 hours ago, MerryAtHope said:

An adult might not spend several days revising a letter (although I will say that for certain important letters, I have absolutely spent a week writing, rewriting, and revising a letter), but sometimes a child might need to. I'd probably amend assignments like that to my own taste if you generally like the other assignments though. I'd have the child write a letter, and if there was nothing to correct, they could be done. If there were some things to go over (capitalization and punctuation specific to letter-writing, spelling, grammatical errors and so on), then I might work on revising for one or more days--whatever I felt was warranted. I don't do a lot of revision work with 3rd graders honestly--I mainly encourage! With that said, aspects of letter writing often show up on standardized tests (especially capitalization and punctuation of various elements), and if your student misses things like that with the assignment, this would give you a "real world" chance to work on them. 

If you do the assignment in one day or even two and then want to move on, do something fun the rest of the week for LA (I find Bravewriter's "free-writing" prompts can be fun to fill in with, or ideas from their "Bravewriter Lifestyle" such as "Tuesday Tea.") 

On the other hand, if you like less than 50% of BJU, then I'd probably look to switch. HTH some!

We are doing all the grammar lessons and then as far as the writing goes, a very small portion. I would rather teach in a more classical method way. Or delay writing instruction altogether. 

[Ellie]

11 minutes ago, Janeway said:

We are doing all the grammar lessons and then as far as the writing goes, a very small portion. I would rather teach in a more classical method way. Or delay writing instruction altogether. 

See, and I'd be more inclined to teach writing first and delay grammar. :-)

[sweet2ndchance]

I have spent days writing important letters as well, complete with brainstorming, rough draft and revising. True, I probably wouldn't do that for a simple thank you note but I honestly think it is broken up like that to keep the assignment manageable and not overwhelming for the average 3rd grader. If your third grader can condense that schedule and do the whole thing in a day or two, then do it. Make the curriculum work for you, not the other way around. Likewise, if you find your third grader overwhelmed at doing the whole process at a faster pace, know that you can slow down.

If you think of it like math, there was a time that you needed to count objects or your fingers to figure out a problem like 8 + 5. But as you practiced and got more comfortable with manipulating numbers, you might have been able to just visualize the physical objects instead of counting them. Finally it became second nature to just use whatever method was easiest for you to produce the answer quickly.

So it is with writing as well. You start off breaking the entire process into its most base parts. As you get better at producing writing and internalize the format for each style of writing (whether it be a letter or a story or a report etc) you can condense the steps or maybe skip some altogether. Maybe you won't need to write a rough draft anymore for simple letters or maybe you can revise as you go. Some people are naturals at writing and all those steps seem tedious and unnecessary but other people need it broken down into simple steps. However there is no reason to stretch those steps over a week. If you child has the stamina to do it all in one day or even 2 or 3 of the steps in a single day, there is no reason you can't do that. If they write their rough draft and it is everything you would expect from a final copy, there is no reason to make them revise and re-copy. Again, make the curriculum work for you and your child.