A few questions about CTC?

[CookFamilyHomeschool]

I’m getting ready to start gathering up books and materials for CTC for my 10 year old. Creative writing has been one of the hardest parts of Preparing this year. He’s great at written Narrations, but we sometimes have tears when it comes to the creative writing. I’m looking at “Write With The Best” and just dreading the battles that might be coming. I’ve looked at IEW and wondered if their approach might make more sense to him (but it’s expensive!) I’ve also looked a little bit at Writing Strands by Master Books. I’ve never had a chance to actually see and hold a copy of “Write With The Best”. Can anyone here help explain how it works and if it would be frustrating or helpful to a child who is struggling in this area?

My other question is does the old black and white edition of the guide book work with the note booking pages? I have a friend who offered to let me borrow her guide but I want him to be able to use the pages. I might buy the color guide anyway because it looks fun, but it kind of depends on funds too.

[Rice]

First off, the CTC NBing pages have not changed, and work with all printings of the CTC guide. Unless you want a copy of your own, borrowing is a good way to save money. You will want to make sure that the books match up for page numbers (which it will if you're borrowing them all from your friend, but may not if you're purchasing them from HOD - you'll have to check).

I'm sure Carrie or Julie will have suggestions for making WWTB work, but we have used most of IEW's Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons in CTC with success. (I don't try to complete it all, I skip parts and have it as a general intro to formal writing, still doing it 2 days per unit, but not trying to complete the entire course.) It means 2 years of IEW in a row, since Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons is scheduled in RTR, but that has worked well for us. I have not found it to be terribly expensive, especially since my kids don't write in the student books.

Blessings,

[StephanieU]

I used WWTB1 with my oldest two last year. We had skipped out when my oldest was in CtC because I needed something more independent while a dealt with a baby and two kids that needed my focus to be on their reading. The writing assignments are fairly basic and open ended. You start with a classic and discuss what makes it an example of good writing. Then they are instructed to do their own writing of the same type. So if it was a dialogue you were studying, then it was a dialogue they would write. If it was a description of a location, then that is what is written. But the actual topic is up to you (and your child). My oldest really liked that, as she hates being told what to write. She is okay with narrations, but many writing programs leave her with little room for creativity. My second isn't a strong writer, but because the topics were so easily relatable, he was able to complete them. And I liked how they were then instructed to edit their work.

It definitely isn't for everyone, but I really liked the simplicity of WWTB1 and plan on using it with my third later (currently combining her and #2 in writing u using a program not used in HOD, and I plan on continuing to combine them until #2 is in WG).

[CookFamilyHomeschool]

Thank you Rice and StephanieU for your helpful replies! I’ve also been doing some reading on some other threads here on the board about Carrie’s reasons for her writing curriculum choices throughout the guides. It helps me understand the path forward better. I’m still praying about what is the best path forward but I feel like I have a better idea of what I’m looking at now.

[The2youngs]

As far as how WWTB works, each unit focuses on a different type of writing (narrative describing a place, narrative describing a person, dialogue, poetry, etc.) and uses a selection from a famous work as its example. For instance, a portion of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is used in the "narrative describing a place" unit as he does an phenomenal job describing the sights/smells/sounds of a London street in winter. The first few days of the unit are used to help students identify descriptive words - adjectives, verbs, nouns - in the sample passage that enhance the writing, making it more than just a humdrum narrative. Then, students are asked to select a place that they know well and brainstorm different descriptive words for that place. Finally, they use what they've brainstormed to write a narrative of their own. Each day's assignment is typically fairly short and students aren't expected to find ALL the descriptive words; it's more an exercise in recognizing them, not a test to locate them all.

With that all said, I really wanted to love it. I loved that the author pulls from excellent literature and I thought that my natural-born writer (currently in CTC) would really love it. Instead, she choked. Every day became fraught with tears over being unable to come up with anything to write. The identification exercises she could handle, but the brainstorming and writing parts just caused her to freeze, regardless of how much help/encouragement I gave her. Even spending extra days on an assignment, her writing was still incredibly flat and stilted, very unlike her other written narrations and even free writing that she does on her own time.

Admittedly, I tend to be rather hard-nosed as a homeschool mom, so I'm certainly an advocate for persevering through something difficult. But, watching my daughter become completely demoralized in a subject (writing) that she's always loved was the tipping point. As I looked back at her previous written narrations, I realized that she naturally does many of the things that this author is trying to get students to do - she'll use quotations (from memory, not copying!) and descriptive language in the middle of a WN. She'll take an author's writing style and make it her own. So, I decided the (remainder of) this year was going to be the "year of the written narration". On the days that WWTB is assigned, she either does a written narration from her DITHOR book or her Storytime book. She's getting different genres to work with, different authors to emulate, and learning to hone her personal writing style. Next year, we'll attempt IEW (we've found it to be a good selection this year with our RTR boy). In theory, I like that WWTB has the student write about their "own" topic. My kiddo just isn't quite there yet in that directional process. All that to say, I will probably attempt it again with my youngest in a couple years, but we'll see how it plays out when she's at that point.

[my3sons]

I really like the balance Carrie has planned in the guides, especially in all the language arts areas. She rotates which language arts subjects are done each day, so no one day gets too heavy. Write with the Best (WWTB) is only scheduled two of the four days in CTC (days 2 and 3). The lessons are also broken up nicely into mini-lesson segments, so no one day gets too long. I actually JUST did a blog post on this that just published this morning! So, your question is pretty timely! I love it when the Lord connects things like this in His own special way! I wrote that post several weeks ago, and the Lord must have planted that topic in my mind just in time to help with more details in answering your question here! Here is the link:

https://www.heartofdakota.com/blog/2021 ... -the-best/

Carrie has thoughtfully planned the progression of writing in the guides, so something new is gleaned each year. You can read more about that here:
Progression of Writing Through the Guides Up to RTR:

http://www.heartofdakota.com/board3/vie ... 31&p=64455

I've found with my own sons that often times the writing program they don't love as much is the one they probably need the most. For example, my logical son loved IEW. It was like note taking in a key word outline form and then re-summarizing in his own words using the outline. This appealed to his love of logical step-by-step procedures. This same son had a harder time with WWTB and The Exciting World of Creative Writing, as he had to come up with his own topics. Choosing a topic was hard for him! He needed help with this.

My more creative son loved WWTB and The Exciting World of Creative Writing! This appealed to his creative side, as he loved to choose his own topics he was passionate about. In contrast, he had a hard time with IEW. He felt confined and wanted to just totally choose his own topics instead. Sticking to an assigned topic was hard for him. He needed help with this.

My oldest son is finishing his junior year of college right now. He has had to write both kinds of essays often - creative/choose your own topic and logical/you must write about 'x'. He has received "A's" on both. I think without working through HOD's progression of writing he would not have done as well. Hope this helps as you ponder what you'd like to do!

In Christ,
Julie

[The2youngs]

I've found with my own sons that often times the writing program they don't love as much is the one they probably need the most. For example, my logical son loved IEW. It was like note taking in a key word outline form and then re-summarizing in his own words using the outline. This appealed to his love of logical step-by-step procedures. This same son had a harder time with WWTB and The Exciting World of Creative Writing, as he had to come up with his own topics. Choosing a topic was hard for him! He needed help with this.

My more creative son loved WWTB and The Exciting World of Creative Writing! This appealed to his creative side, as he loved to choose his own topics he was passionate about. In contrast, he had a hard time with IEW. He felt confined and wanted to just totally choose his own topics instead. Sticking to an assigned topic was hard for him. He needed help with this.

Julie,

I appreciate your response in this! I’ll have to be thinking on how to encourage my girl in this area, so that she is well-equipped for both structured and free-writing assignments.

[CookFamilyHomeschool]

Thank you Julie and Heather!

You all have been so helpful! It is wonderful that the Lord put this subject of your heart, Julie, for a blog post just a few weeks ago. It was very helpful. I’ve also been reading about the progression of writing skills.

It really made me stop and think when you said sometimes the program they don’t like as much might be the one they need the most! Up to this point school has come easy to my oldest son, but this year in Preparing has really stretched and grown him in many good ways. But he does freeze up exactly like Heather was talking about when he doesn’t know what to do. And choosing a topic for something is hard for him! He is definitely a more logical thinker! So maybe WWTB would be just exactly what he needs! Then he can do IEW next year. I plan to talk over this and many other school related things this week with my husband and pray about it. Thank you all for taking time out of your days to answer my questions. I have many others! So I may have to start a few other threads