Will IEW, CW or WS better prepare my dc for college level writing? Convince me!

[KIN]

I need help deciding on a writing program. I know, my children are extremely young yet. :) But I need to start writing with my oldest next year and I cannot decide between the three programs of Classical Writing, Writing Strands and IEW. Which, in your experience, better prepared your dc for college?

[laughing lioness]

I can't compare as I've only used and loved IEW for years. I recently posted a fun blog post my dd posted for those not yet convinced that IEW works: http://goldengrasses.blogspot.com/2009/03/iew-rocks-works.html

[Julie in MN]

I believe it depends on the child. My dd benefitted from IEW, because she had a hard time summarizing & writing her own thoughts, and IEW makes this do-able and un-avoidable.

 

My youngest ds did a semester of IEW in a co-op & it was way overkill for him. He is the opposite -- already has lots of fluff & needs more factual substance.

 

Youngest ds has done WS & I really like how it introduces specific skills such as tense, first person, limited viewpoint, & so on. I don't obsess over the details & don't over-do it, so it has simply been a useful tool for us. I would even say it's beneficial for "reading" -- since it makes you realize how much power an author has over whether you "like" someone or "see" something...

 

Writing does require lots of mom supervision, IMHO, no matter what tool you use. But the tool should fit the child's weaknesses, I think.

Julie

[HiddenJewel]

Probably the program that teaches the child to think the best since writing well is greatly linked to how well you can think.

[ma23peas]

Probably the program that teaches the child to think the best since writing well is greatly linked to how well you can think.

 

Nicely phrased!! :)

 

Okay, yes, your children are young, can I offer a bit of a steerage off the well-planned course? First, get them so into books that it becomes a "mom, can't I stay up and finish this chapter??" Your job is to acquaint yourself with the books that will keep them hooked!! One of these days, I'm having my avid readers write up their must reads per grade level...we've been through several hundred (no joke). Give me the child that says they hate to read and I'll show you a book that will change that.

 

Next. Focus on having them freely write their thoughts, don't give them writing instruction until atleast age 10..I feel waiting until 12-13 is just fine. I would focus on 2-3 journal entries a week (hey, my kids have sat and written "I hate writing in my journal, I hate writing in my journal and then by the 5th sentence it turns into something quite like creative writing! :))

 

One of my children is a budding authoress...we actually published one of her books on blurb.com she's written over 200 stories and she just turned 11 last week. My son, 13, hates to write, but he loves the good books and appreciates a well written story...for me, that was my goal for him from age 8-13..have him experience enough stories that take him to that creative edge where you ADMIRE that author and realize that you, too, have creative thoughts that can inspire and stimulate great conversations.

My last child, she's a free-for-all..she likes to read, she'll write if she feels like it (she loves her journaling) but she's happy to try anything.

 

Now, in steps IEW....I am at the point in my children's development that they are ready for formal writing instruction. I am starting a writing class for free mind you, because I feel so strongly about the impact sharing ideas can have on the writing process. I am using SWI-B, and various supplements to teach this class to 10-14 year olds, we'll have 10-12 students and all will learn to write...if I only taught my children, look at the number of personal stories/opinions we would miss...there are a couple of yahoo groups for families that use IEW and it's a wealth of information..I plan on teaching this class and moving on and up for the next 4 years....but I feel if I had attempted formal writing instruction prior to this age group, it would have fell flat. I believe it takes a good deal of social maturity and responsibility to take on writing, let them read every good book they can get their hands on and simply do book reports if you want them to get some formal writing in, several free book report outlines/guides available to homeschoolers...but encourage their creative writing, don't focus on grammatical errors, just let them write...write write..without instruction, just gentle suggestions, "How about we write about your worst experience with food" anything! just let them write for fun! :)

 

Tara

[Sarah CB]

I've chosen CW because of the heavy emphasis on analysis. Even in the early stages, we're not just rewriting material - we're analyzing to figure out where the author's emphasis is and then we're rewording and rearranging the material and analyzing it again to see how the changes we've made have effected the emphasis. We look carefully at word choice and try things different ways to see which is most effective - and we look at sentence structure and again try out different ways of writing the same sentence.

 

CW teaches flexibility with words and ideas. And it teaches the student to constantly think and test and think again.

 

My reluctant writer (who says she'd rather write math equations than a paragraph) is becoming a very articulate writer through her years with CW.