nena3927 Posted January 21, 2019 Share Posted January 21, 2019 I am looking to purchase either SWI A or All Things Fun and Fascinating from IEW for my 4th and 5th grader. Has anyone ever used All Things Fun and Fascinating without ever watching TWSS? I do plan to purchase this in the future (possibly at our convention in March) but cannot afford it right now. Last year I attended an IEW session at our convention and was walked through the key word outline, but that is all the experience I have with it. I am worried I might need more help teaching which is why I am considering SWI A. After looking at samples though, it seems that the video lessons are quite lengthy and I am afraid my dc will zone out. Which do you recommend? I like the thought of having the teaching done for me, but at the same time using the theme book looks less complicated. I just am not sure I could do it justice without having watched TWSS. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess4879 Posted January 21, 2019 Share Posted January 21, 2019 We started using SWI B this spring, having never used IEW writing before. I didn't watch the TWSS videos and never plan to. The SWI B videos are lengthy and honestly, soooo much dribble could be edited out! We did enjoy his teaching and I like how he addresses certain skills. I made sure to watch the videos with my daughter so that I knew what was going on. We started off the year really loving the program, but I've kind of lost the love now. I have trouble seeing the big picture with this program. After a semester of work we have several re-worded paragraphs. I *know* there is more at work in those paragraphs...but it does bother me a bit. I'd like it to move at a bit of a quicker pace. I am really wishing we'd went with a theme book instead. I haven't found the concepts difficult to understand and have heard that the theme books stream-line things...but take this with a grain of salt, as I haven't used one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted January 21, 2019 Share Posted January 21, 2019 If you go with the SWI/SICC route, you don't need the TWSS because Mr. Pudewa does the teaching for you. If you do a theme book, it is really really really helpful to have watched the TWSS (AND written the assignments yourself!) so you understand where the lessons are going and what their purpose is and how they build on each other and how they progress from year to year - otherwise it just becomes a checklist and a mishmash of assignments. They do have a cheap "overview" dvd that gives - well, a quick overview 🙂 of all the units. If you plan to purchase the TWSS in the future, watching that will probably give you enough info to understand the program enough to start ATF&F and then you can watch the complete TWSS when you have enough funds to purchase it. We do theme books in elementary, which I think is plenty of writing for them. By the time they get to middle school (~6th grade), my kids have ready to have someone other than mom tell them about writing and we do SWI and SICC B, and they enjoy Mr. Pudewa's quirky cheesy oddball humor. After that, we do Elegant Essay and Windows to the World and maybe Writing the Research Paper in high school and they are very well prepared for college writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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