10 year old writing

[Kezia]

I have been homeschooling since August. I hope to homeschool forever but my husband may only be on board with it for this school year. 

I started with My Father’s World Writing Skills for Today. I liked it, but it didn’t seem that it was a good fit for him. So over Christmas break, I searched and decided to really do an eclectic mix using bits from several curriculums, focusing on reading great literature (as we have always done),  composing more complex sentences, sentence and idea clarity, great verb choice and descriptive adjectives and adverbs. I also point out awesome writing in our read alouds (currently The Hobbit). Main writing program is W&R Fable mostly orally and accelerated, then start TC when finished. Actual writing now is dictation from Fable and either writing a couple of paragraphs about a drawing he does or a 3-4 sentence written narration from WWE 4 (he always chooses story if given the choice). I see him now using Caesar’s English vocabulary words, using better verbs and better adjectives in his stories and attempting to make more complex sentences. Finally, better spelling and sentence mechanics as well. So I see some progress from focusing more on what I noted he needs, although it has only been a month. 
 

If I get to continue homeschooling for 5th, I am leaning towards classical composition (has videos) fable accelerated and CC 2 at normal pace. I think it can help teach more about how to think and convey those thoughts in an organized manner. 

5th public means he would need to pass Starr test math and reading (no problem) and Starr writing. The writing prompts for starr look ridiculously hard for a 9-10 year old. He has trouble with that type of writing, but I think following my plan, he would be prepared for that after 6th grade Chreia/Maxim. That would be 2 years from now. 
 

 For example, brief explanation explaining that we are all learning all the time. Prompt:

“Write about something you have learned and why it was important to you.”

 

Should I worry about this writing if he has to go back to public? This is the type that he gets writers block with. 

[Kezia]

I just found a rubric of sorts, and I was able to read some examples of the type of writing that would receive a 1 out of 4 and what scores a 4 (looks like that is the best). Looks like my expectations may be too high for  9-10  year old 4th graders.

 

I think TC will help immensely with this type of writing in the 2nd and 3rd parts, add that to what we are currently doing and I won’t worry if he has to take all the Starr tests to place into 5th. After all, this same school sent me my 3rd grader home for good in the spring of 2020 with awful spelling, zero punctuation or capitalization usage and he hated writing. He was aware but never had to correct anything or change his ways. His math and reading were both ahead of grade level but I sent him there in K reading CVC words and doing basic addition/subtraction. 
 

His voluntarily writes now. He drew a picture of an armored, medieval knightish looking, chicken headed, warrior today and is happily contemplating describing this character in vivid detail next Monday. His own idea, by the way. 
 

So I answered my own question. No need to worry. 

[Momto6inIN]

Glad you answered your own question! I totally would not worry about a kid in 4th grade being able to meet writing expectations at ps. They are shockingly inappropriate while also being shockingly low at the same time, amazingly enough. If your child is doing W&R Fable comfortably, he is already miles and miles ahead of most ps writing programs.