Reluctant writer doing Bigger?

[4littleones]

I have already ordered....

but as I was reading all the previous messages here, I realized that Bigger has a considerable amount of writing... My problem is that I want to combine my 7 year old reluctant writer boy with his 8 year old happy-to-write sister. He is very much suited to Bigger in all other aspects apart from writing.

The children are 14 months apart and I would like to keep them together. I have a 4 yo and a 2 yo too, who are going to do Little Hands.

Oh, wise ladies...what would you advice? Keep the writing to the minimum for him while hoping for a miracle that will allow him to continue with Prepared next year?

Do Beyond with him? Isn't that a bit desperate?

Thank you!

[inHistiming]

I think you have more than one option....

I did Beyond with my dd at 8 and it was great for her, right on her level at the time. I will be starting Beyond over the summer with my now 7 yr old ds, but going half-speed (at least in the beginning) so he can 'grow' into it since he's a young 7 (this week is his b'day). If I feel he is ready and it works for the whole family, then I may move ahead full-speed later. All that said, you could do Beyond with your ds and I don't think it would be 'desparate' at all....you could even add in your dd since she is still within the age range. Then, it would be easier to keep them together as the years pass (probably, anyway).

Another option would be to have dd in Bigger, ds in Beyond, and your younger two in LHTH. Many women do fine with 3 programs. I, however, was not able to keep up with that many...thus my above advice to you.

If you really want dd to do Bigger, you could do a combination of both...with dd doing the right side of Bigger plans, ds doing the right side of the Beyond plans, and choosing either Bigger or Beyond left side to do with both. Hope that makes sense...

Others will be along with their two cents soon too. I'm sure you'll find a great solution for your family.

[LeAnna]

I will have a similar situation when we start Bigger in Jan. My dd will be 7, and other dd 8. I am going to be doing the Spelling 2 list in Beyond with my younger to start, instead of dictation-- I believe List 2 is also in Bigger. When we are done with that, we will slowly ease into Dictation list 1. I am slowing the whole pace of Bigger down, to cater to my younger. We are going to take a year and a half to get through it... doing 6 units half paced (taking 12 weeks), then doing 4 days a week full paced on out. My younger will also wait a year on Cursive and English 2, in which we will be taking half paced all the way out with that. So, that may give you a little idea of how to cut back on some of the writing for you older, and give more time to ease into it. As far as writing in DITHOR, that can be done as little or as much as you want, and some moms read on say, M, W, Friday, and some do bookwork on say, T, Th. Also, some only do it 3 days a week, and stretch it over 2 years. I would be curious, though too, about the Vocabulary work. Would are others suggestions for that with a younger? Would that be something to wait on for writing? Or just take it as is, as slow as we are going to be moving through Bigger?
LeAnna

[4littleones]

Thank you ladies for your suggestions.

I guess.... deep down, I am thinking and wondering and pondering... whether reluctant writers remain so even at a late age.. Will my boy ever get comfortable using a pen and pencil, is it just fine motor skills he needs to work on, or what?

As for "demoting" him to Beyond, I kind of finding it desperate because he fits Bigger in all the other aspects. He is a bright little boy of 7 that has excellent comprehension, retention and imagination (oh, look my words rhyme! ) and he can do all the work BUT write... He just plain hates it... He can do narration, etc, but if he has a scribe he is in 7th heaven.

So... my deeper question (thinking aloud here) is ... should I act as his scribe and if yes, for how long? Or... what?? What else can be done with a reluctant writer (in terms of physical writing - he always was a storyteller)??

(Sigh)

[Kathleen]

Thank you ladies for your suggestions.

I guess.... deep down, I am thinking and wondering and pondering... whether reluctant writers remain so even at a late age.. Will my boy ever get comfortable using a pen and pencil, is it just fine motor skills he needs to work on, or what?

As for "demoting" him to Beyond, I kind of finding it desperate because he fits Bigger in all the other aspects. He is a bright little boy of 7 that has excellent comprehension, retention and imagination (oh, look my words rhyme! ) and he can do all the work BUT write... He just plain hates it... He can do narration, etc, but if he has a scribe he is in 7th heaven.

So... my deeper question (thinking aloud here) is ... should I act as his scribe and if yes, for how long? Or... what?? What else can be done with a reluctant writer (in terms of physical writing - he always was a storyteller)??

(Sigh)

This is my oldest. Very bright. Loves to talk. Does NOT really like to write.

I have seen HUGE growth in my son in the writing department. He just turned 10 (as we finished Preparing). I think a lot of that is following the HOD plans though. Carrie does a great job of spreading out the writing out among the different boxes so that it's pretty even every day. He knows that more writing is expected, and that he needs to do it farily neat and fairly quick. (Not either/or - but I don't expect it to look like a handwriting book example. )

We started with HOD for him when he was 8 in Bigger...and if I'd looked at the placement chart when he was 7, I'm positive that I would have placed him in Bigger then, too. There is a lot of depth to the content of HOD's guides, and Bigger was plenty for him at 8 and I know it honestly would have been at 9, too!

So, I guess if I were you, I'd seriously consider doing Beyond with the 2 of them if you're wanting them together. (I haven't used that guide yet, but I've used all the others up through Preparing and have been very impressed with the richness of them all.) I wouldn't look at it as stepping back - especially since they both fit within the target age range of the guide. If you want to still do Bigger, I think you'll need to slow it down somehow so that your younger one isn't on the bottom edge of the age range always. I'm afraid that if you want to zip along with them, he'll always be a little frustrated with school because he's placed a bit over his head. (Not because of what he can understand, but because of what he can do.)

I hope this reply isn't too scatterbrained. My little 2 have been talking to me while I'm typing. I guess the main thing that I would think about now is what's down the road. If your child can do what's in the guide now, they should be able to continue to down the road. Soo...the skills they're learning in Bigger become slightly independnt in Preparing, more so in CTC, etc. If you're needing to do writing for him now, he won't be ready for the independence that's taught in Preparing, and so on. You'll be making more work for yourself, and I would think making it harder to teach him as you go. (At least for me, following the guide makes the skills super-easy to teach. )

I would say that practice and time are on your side with writing. A year will make a big difference for him, I would think. (At least that's our experience here ) And while it's still not his favorite thing to do, our school days are quite happy.

Kathleen

[mombolt]

My 7yo son is exactly where yours is. He's so bright, but hates school because of all the writing. I know it will get better eventually, but what to do until then? We do a lot orally right now. Wish I had some advice for you, but looking forward to seeing what everyone has to say.
Erica

[momwith3]

I recently read something at the NYS Leah Homeschool convention that encouraged other venues for writing. So maybe let your boy who doesn't like writing do it on the computer if he's willing. Or a typewriter type thing? There's got to be something out there like that...it would help him later in life and not overwhelm him with handwriting.

[moedertje]

I am doing Bigger with my 7 year old, we do it at half pace. Most people who do it half pace do left side on one day and right on another, thus giving your ds the chance to grow into all the writing and to grow with the new skills he will be learning, to get him prepared for the following guides.
There isa wonderful post on doing R&S orally for the most part and you will notice as your ds gets stronger in the writing area.
Go to Julie's post and she has a great idea on how to do the R&S, it is working out great for my ds.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2797&p=20666#p20666

You can always have your dd, if it's not too much for her do 2 vocab words and have him do 1, with your help. Even if you do most of the writing and have him draw at first and add to his work little by little.

With the science, I help with some of the writing as well. Except the scriptures, I let him write those all himself!

I have not had him copy any poems yet. But we do all the work orally and I put his poems in a booklet.

Carrie is great and suggesting to copy 1 or more things with science, so for him it will be 1 and for your daughter more with some of the history notebooking and science copy work.

I hope this helps and the guides are written with much flexibility and hopefully your ds will grow into enjoying writing more and more.
And for your dd if she wants to do more you can always incl. the extensions as she gets older, because doing it half pace will have her at the high end of the guide age, but will have your son in the middle. This seems to work great for most boys.

[Mommamo]

Now, keep in mind that my dd has been doing Beyond and doing well with it, so the situation is a little different.

But I talked to Carrie at the Arlington convention because I was concerned about Bigger being too much. My dd won't quite be 7 yet when we start. She really doesn't like to write much yet. So Carrie advised me to do one vocab word, to do much of the grammar out loud, and to ease her into writing more gradually. We're also waiting on cursive for a bit. But what I expect of her at the beginning of Bigger will differ from what I expect of her at the end of it. I'm planning to write stuff on the board for her and let her copy it. I don't expect for her to do a lot each day, but at least some so that she's growing and doesn't see that it's so bad.

Anyway, no real advice for your situation, but just wanted to let you know what we're doing.

[4littleones]

Dear sisters! Thank you for your very practical ideas. And I am glad to see that your children do grow and mature in their academic skills, so there is hope for mine too!

I have already ordered Bigger, so I will stick to that. DD will be 8 1/2 and DS will be 7 and 1/2 by the time we will start in September, so I have some grace-time to keep working on his writing. I have him write other things now that it is summer - my shopping list, a little note to his father, things like that to get him warmed up to writing. And because these are real life and not "school", he does them without complaining and even with pleasure!

We also do a bit of "how to draw" or free drawing to get those fingers going - he enjoys that, but not coloring in!! (shock horror!! )

We will probably start Bigger half pace and see how it goes... I will not even consider cursive... This is the first time we will do notebooking so he might like that...

And thanks for the link to the R&S thread. We are going to work with phonics through summer to get a bit more fluent and ready for R&S 2. Big sister is already half way through this...

Ok, I feel at peace that we can actually do it and enjoy it! Excellent! Yoohoo!