I love writing. I just don't know how. I mean, I don't know what makes good writing good (or not so good writing...not so good).
It's a good thing I've got some really great curriculum.
This will be my second year using Writing With Ease and I liked it well enough last year to start my youngest on it and continue on with Ben this year.
One of my favorite things about homeschooling my younger kids is that I get to grow along with them. Writing With Ease starts with the basics. We do a lot of copy work, dictation and summarizing after reading passages from different books.
I bought the workbooks because that way I don't have to search for my own passages (I like having it all done for me...I'm a little lazy that way), but if you'd rather pick your own passages out of your favorite books, you can buy the textbook instead. That's another thing I love, options.
Last year I didn't do a specific writing program with Makenna (there are writing assignments in her spelling and grammar curriculum), but it's something she really likes so we decided to add one this year.
I chose to do the continuation of Writing With Ease called Writing With Skill. Because Makenna's favorite type of writing is creative, we also added in The Creative Writer.
Because it's a new curriculum I'm not exactly sure how it'll fit in with what she's already doing, but our current plan is to work through Writing With Skill four days a week and in The Creative Writer on the fifth day. If that ends up being too much we'll cut back to something a little less. I'm trying to be relaxed about it so we can go with the flow...okay, so I can go with the flow.
Do you have a writing curriculum? I'd love to hear about how you're writing program works at your home!
Leah
If you'd like to check out some of our other curriculum choices, visit our 2013-14 Curriculum Outline.
I began using Writing With Ease last year. :) I LOVE it! I love the passages the author chose and I love that I don't have to think up comprehension questions. ;) I have my three oldest on the same level (level 2), but will probably slow down a little with my 7 year-old before moving onto level 3 with her. :) I love hearing positive things about this writing program!
ReplyDeleteI used to be a homeschooling facilitator (I am a teacher). This exposed me to a lot of different curriculum. One of my favourite programs was The Write Source. They have a great website with free prompts and graded samples that are helpful. One of the best things is a bibliography in the back of the Teacher's/Parents Guide. There are long lists of recommended books grouped according to genre (memoir/non-fiction/letters,etc.) so that you can do extensive reading with a genre-based writing program. These books are the most expensive of their resources, so maybe it could be found in a library? I tend to think that the more reading a student does, the better a writer they will become (as long as there are enough opportunities to practice-- it's like a set of muscles).
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