I used WS with Garrett, but it's been years, and I'm a believer in starting it slightly late (level 3 in grade 4 or 5). But I'm starting to wonder if I should pull out the level 2 book and use it with Rylee grade 3. Today we worked on the writing page of Scott Foresman. It went fine until I told the kids they had to do part C, where they pretty much have to write a simple story on their own with not much guidance. I'm thinking we will do parts A and B of the Scott Foresman, but skip C. Writing is like pulling teeth with these guys (Rylee has been working for 4 hours now to copy 7 sentences we made doing part B... she gets up and wonders or drifts off to some fantasy land or who knows what else..lol), but our law says we have to teach writing... I'm not sure what that means really..lol. Glancing at the first lesson of WS2 it seems simple enough. Anyone have any experience with it? I think Garrett started out with level 3 in 3rd grade.
We're using 2 & 3 this year (semester per book). I like it. I also don't like teaching writing too early, and I take "writing" to mean handwriting, spelling, and grammar, because those are the basic building blocks before the creativity has developed.
Also, I think it's much easier for younger kids to TELL a story than to WRITE a story. Their brains aren't wired to slow down and remember all the thoughts racing through their minds. You could try recording them and then play it back to have them write it using proper grammar, etc.
I think I have decided to just scrap too much writing. We will do part of the Scott Foresman's writing portion, but not all of it. I also remembered I picked up a package of reproducable writing forms that I found at Dollar Tree, they have a little story about something, a spot for kids to draw a picture of something to go with it and then they are supposed to write a little about their picture. I think there is over 30 of them, they will give enough for some samples to keep in our portfolio if nothing else comes along.
I'm kind of in that same mindset here. Rachel's entering 3rd grade this year. I was thinking of doing either SF or WS....I still haven't decided and we start in less than 2 weeks!!! ARGH. LOL
Well the A and B of the SF writing are GREAT, they get the kids thinking a bit, but the part C was just toooooo open ended it made both of my kids have melt downs! So for Rylee, I had her write the sentences we created for part B... the rest of the SF we are not writing out.. either doing orally or fill in the blank. I don't care for WS 2, I looked at it more, and remembered that is why I didn't use it with Garrett...lol
Sommer, it's my feeling/opinion that if a kid is meant to be a writer, then s/he will be one, and there's not much you can do to stop it. If they're not meant to be a writer, then there's not much you can do to make them one. You can teach how to write a good sentence, and you can teach how to write a good paragraph, and a good essay or report, LATER once they have something in their minds to write about. I don't like forcing writing on kids who don't have the tools yet, so I think maybe 4/5th grade is soon enough to start, and 2nd/3rd is for "the sentence". My grandson started off in first/second grade with wonderful little "stories" of about five sentences, with no prompting. But then when I asked him to write something and gave him a particular topic, he balked. No ideas. He "dried up". Which only reinforced my notion about "if they're meant to be a writer".
I have a lot of trouble with my boys and writing also. They hate writing. They still try to write 1 or 2 word answers as much as possible and I have to tell them to explain. They are 9yrs and 14yrs but the 14yr old is special needs and is around the same level as the 9yr old with reading and writing.
