Can we talk about developing writing skills?

S is 4th grade age and we have tried
First Language Lessons (1st grade, liked it, but no longer remembers all those fun definitions we learned so what was the point?)
Saxon Phonics (2nd grade, way too much for me -- I love it for Math though)
Shurley English (3rd grade, great program, but we didn't like it enough to stick with it for 4th)
Learning Language Arts Through Literature (this year. I thought this would be perfect since she LOVES to read. And she breezed through the reading part -- the books were very easy for her. But it doesn't really teach writing. Good program though.)

Somewhere in there we tried Writing Strands too.

We've used some programs that I can objectively say were excellent, yet they haven't helped her learn to write. S is very disorganized -- and she has some interesting language issues. She very delayed -- and simulaneously very advanced. When we did some testing around kindergarten time, she had some skills below 3 yo and some at 7th grade level.

She reads all of the time. She reads well above grade level. She reads all sorts of books. I think this will help her over time.

At the same time, I am looking for something more structured to help her to put her many creative and interesting ideas down on paper in a coherent way. She is 10 now.

Any ideas? Anybody have writing programs they like or could recommend?

Well, I like Writing Strands but you tried that!

I may need to look at Writing Strands again. Which levels have you used?

I've read so many good things about Writing Strands over the 15 1/2 years we've homeschooled that I've tried it 3 times now! You'd think I'd figure out that it's a bad fit for us :lol: .

We really like IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) http://http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/index.php?q=start

The price kept us away for a long time, but when we finally bought it, it was worth every penny. It's just writing, though, not grammar or lit or other LA stuff like others of the programs you mentioned. We did Shurley English for grammar, as well, but skip the creative writing component of that.

I may need to look at Writing Strands again. Which levels have you used?


We used Level 3

Its the only one I used but I really liked it when my ds was 11 years old. I still have it on the bookcase. (Just in case the youngest needs extra writing work at that juncture).

how structured to you like to be, generally?

we're pretty relaxed about schooling but we're going to head more into discipline soon . . .

For grammer, honestly? <hangs head> We use a lot of Mad Libs. I know this will probably get me shot, or something, but the kids love it and dh will play them with us, and they can easily see how it works kwim? Plus we have those word-magnet things, only the different parts of speech are different colors. I can't find them online now (of course) but since they were from my mother they probably came from either Target, or some educational/teacher supply store.

If you mean story writing, have you tried those um, story starters? I've seen them online as free downloadables, and remember them from 3rd grade, they were mimeographed (no, i'm not quite that old, our school was really poor, i swear) and had a picture, and maybe two sentances, and the third was usually "And then . . ." and then the rest of the sheet was blank lines.

hth, I'm not too with it atm (must. find. coffee. zzzz)

We had mimeographed sheets too. Ah. The smell of that purple stuff....

I am looking for structured. She needs help to make sense of her ideas. So I need promts for the who, what, when, etc. How many sentences to write in each paragraph, how many paragraphs to, say, describe a book.

I've heard good things about Excellence in Writing. I will have to go back and check out that site. I think I skipped it because of the price last time too.

<laughs> yes, to me that purple ink meant school and i loved the scent of it . . .

anyway, have her write reporter type stories, discuss how reporters answer the who/what/when/where/why/how in an article, read some, watch something (doesn't pbs or someone have kids news?) etc.

Or there are also downloadable um, what are those . . story bubbles? I have one in a workbook and could email you a file of a scan of what I mean if you liked.

Or, get the curriculum :D

Hey, they still used mimeographs at my high school--in my senior year. Does that make me old?!

Back on topic: We have only used K12s "Writing in Action" DS hates it, but he hates writing anything. ((shrug)) I think it is pretty painless as far as writing goes, but then again, I wanted to be a writer when I was younger.