more writing and grammar questions

[Elizabeth86]

Background: planning for my son's 3rd grade year, he will be a young third grader. He will be 7 2 months of his third grade year. He has done fine working at this grade level, but we are feeling a bit of burn out this year.  

This was the plan I was aiming for for next year

MP literature guides

Something for grammar??

R & S spelling

ZB cursive

Writing - I am torn. I am looking at CAP W&R, MP & IEW.

As I look at mp, the things they have for third grade say they are for grades 3-4, cap writing and rhetoric tables is for 3-4. I was thinking of putting off these plans until his fourth grade year and trying out ELTL as a bit of a gentler year.  I feel he is so young I just am not sure either of us are ready.  I don't know, as I plan, it just looks like a lot, it looks hard lol. I guess I am asking "permission" to slow down a bit for third grade.  Do you think ELTL would be the gentle year I am looking for? Do you think the plans I have made will be fine to pick up in 4th? 

[HomeAgain]

ELTL B would be nice and gentle.  If he has no trouble writing a paragraph, ELTL C would work, too.  We absolutely loved last year with the program and will be continuing next year, but we took a year to continue practicing the skills in C and gently include more to prepare him for D (and for the books in D)
The draws for me:
3x a week
Consistent practice that changed ever so slightly
Poetry, short stories, and great read alouds*
Grammar with diagramming in level C and above


*B includes Peter Pan, and I find that particular book to be a little above a child's level with regards to the humor, language, and inherent social divides/racist portrayals.

[Ellie]

3 hours ago, Elizabeth86 said:

Background: planning for my son's 3rd grade year, he will be a young third grader. He will be 7 2 months of his third grade year. He has done fine working at this grade level, but we are feeling a bit of burn out this year.  

This was the plan I was aiming for for next year

MP literature guides

Something for grammar??

R & S spelling

ZB cursive

Writing - I am torn. I am looking at CAP W&R, MP & IEW.

As I look at mp, the things they have for third grade say they are for grades 3-4, cap writing and rhetoric tables is for 3-4. I was thinking of putting off these plans until his fourth grade year and trying out ELTL as a bit of a gentler year.  I feel he is so young I just am not sure either of us are ready.  I don't know, as I plan, it just looks like a lot, it looks hard lol. I guess I am asking "permission" to slow down a bit for third grade.  Do you think ELTL would be the gentle year I am looking for? Do you think the plans I have made will be fine to pick up in 4th? 

He will not be a "young" third grader, because he is not in a classroom with other third graders with whom he will be compared. He will just be himself. Choose what you do based on him, not his being "young" for his "grade."

Yes, you have my permission to slow down for your little person this year and to do more next year.  🙂 The "grade levels" are irrelevant.

IMHO, an 8yo person doesn't need grammar. There are only eight parts of speech plus some thingummies like gerunds and phrase and whatnot. How many years do our children need to study those?

The third grade-level of Spelling by Sound and Structure is very simple; you could do it if you want.

Definitely ZB cursive. You might have him use a fountain pen instead of a pencil.

Is there any writing at all in the MP literature guides? That might be enough.

Save the heavier writing until he's 9. 

You could check out Understanding Writing. This is Cathy Duffy's review.

[Ellie]

37 minutes ago, parent said:

My guy is the same age.  He'll be 8 at end of Oct.  Sept 1 is the cut off for age/grade level here, so he will be in 2nd grade.  I've been glad to keep him back but now I feel he needs more challenge in some areas, especially math.  It's hard when kids are between grades.  But it's nice you can be flexible with homeschool.

"Grade level" has no real meaning for homeschooled children. It is primarily a way to group children of approximately the same age and has nothing to do with what the children are actually doing academically. In the time of the one-room schools, children might or might not have been labeled by grade, but *all* of the academics were based on ability, not grade.

So, homeschooled children are not between grades. We decide what to teach and when to teach and how to teach it based on each child's ability, not his grade level. We just keep the grade level label hanging around for the sake of grandparents, Sunday school teachers, and some activities.

[8filltheheart]

2 hours ago, parent said:

For many people, their children are still assigned a grade level according to their state requirements.  We have some flexibility but generally try to stay on task with any required skills for their grade.  We can certainly surpass the standards but it it not ideal to fall short.  As I said, it is nice that homeschooling allows us some flexibility. 

But, yes, grade level does have "real meaning" for homeschooled children.  Maybe not for yours, but for many others. 

While I typically disagree with Ellie when she posts about age and grade levels, I 100% agree that we can and should teach based on child ability. Unless your student is actually a public charter student, homeschoolers do not need to follow the scope/sequence of public schools even in most highly regulated states. It isn't about "falling short." It is acknowledging that public schools teach to the masses based on avg bell curve distribution standards that do not necessarily equate to the best ways for children to learn or even lead to the best educational outcomes.  

Grade levels, especially in the areas of reading, writing, and spelling are rather meaningless in young kids nc skills are so variable. Even in a ps classroom, there will a wide gap amg how individual kids are performing. 

Focusing on the skills the individual child needs to learn is much more important than any supposed grade level standards. Most kids don't come in standard models. 😉

[Ellie]

2 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

While I typically disagree with Ellie when she posts about age and grade levels...<snip>

Focusing on the skills the individual child needs to learn is much more important than any supposed grade level standards. Most kids don't come in standard models. 😉

I tried rilly, rilly hard not to say anything, lol.

[8filltheheart]

29 minutes ago, parent said:

Saying "young for the grade" or "old for the grade" seems obvious that the person is aware of the fact that grade levels don't describe each child's level, which I think was clear in my first post.  I was trying to be helpful to the OP since we have a child the same age and I've used something she's considering.

My kids are enrolled in a public homeschool so perhaps I am more aware of grade levels than others.   I do not have to follow a scope or use any particular curriculum (just have to submit work samples and my grades for them) and I do try give them work based on ability.  My advisor just told me to skip levels of math if my son needed more challenge, so I'm not restricted to grade level.  But I also pay attention to grade standards to make sure they aren't missing anything, and I think it would be a different situation if children were below grade level rather than above it.  In addition, many curricula are sold by grade level so we have to fit to a child that may be between grade levels. For example, there may be a child advanced in math who can't read the word problems well in a math book that is a grade level higher so it may be difficult to skip a grade.

Grade level sorting is also quite common here, whether it is lego league, art class, spelling bees, etc, and even sports; and the grade level is based on their DOB.  The only ability based group activity we have is music class.

So again, it's great homeschooling is flexible and that I can and do challenge my kids.  But, I would be concerned if they fall below grade level ever, especially since grade level standards are so low.  I also want them to be above or equal to their peers since we interact a lot.

Not to derail the OP's thread, but I found your example of reading word problems and math as way to share that an alternative approach to teaching a curriculum to a child is teaching a child a subject using a curriculum. It is not a distinction without a difference. I have a ds who is severely dyslexic, but equally gifted. At age 10, he was still a pretty weak reader (he didn't read on grade level until 5th grade), but he was ready for a solid high school algebra course. I would sit beside him and read him his alg word problems. It was what he needed to succeed in the math. It didn't matter that I was reading him the textbook. He was doing the math. His math progression way outpaced his reading abilities. By 8th grade, his reading levels caught up. (Spelling, otoh, will always be his nemesis. I made him do spelling until he graduated from high school!) If he had been limited to math based on his reading levels, he would have had to have been held behind in math. Conversely, he graduated from high school having completed 300 level math courses.

It is a rare curriculum that fits a child's specific needs, but curriculum can (and often should) be morphed or adapted, especially writing curriculum. Writing curriculum tends to be multigrade leveled bc there is such a wide range of when kids are ready for different skills (not really age dependent, but individual kid dependent.)  In addition, when learning to write, most kids will have both strengths and weaknesses that are not going to be easily addressed by any curriculum. 

Fwiw,  my perspective of IEW is that it can easily taught to 3rd grader who is a good reader if it is an approach that the appeals to the teacher and she is confident teaching via that method and adapting to the student as necessary bc the process itself is simple (key word outlines, retells, and dress-ups).

[beka87]

When my daughter needed a light year, I read her one great literature book at a time and asked her to narrate it back.  The second half of the year, I asked for a written retelling once per week.  We kept up with spelling a few times a week and that was it for language arts.  She adored that book (Understood Betsy), she solidified basics of spelling and writing a good sentence, and it was totally fine to pick up more formal stuff the next year.  You should absolutely follow your instincts and lighten it up a bit.  Good for you!  Have a wonderful year!