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We're in the middle of Week 15 of Preparing Hearts and it's going wonderfully. We've seen some great growth in skills for our son!

We're currently doing written dictations that are 3-5 sentences in length. Last week, DS9's dictation was 7 sentences long. It was great with lots of details and explained the story from beginning to end. It also had a number of spelling errors and some fairly exciting punctuation, which we're working on. At any rate, he decided on his own to tighten it down to the 5 sentences and did great with a bit of editing and combining of sentences.

My question is, hopefully, fairly direct! Is the goal of the written dictations to be as short as suggested (in this case 3-5 sentences) or is it okay if they write more? I'm looking ahead to the end of the guide and it seems that the goal is to keep them on the shorter side (for now). We will be using CTC next year and as we're almost halfway done with Preparing I'm wanting to make sure I have him headed in the right direction to be ready for the next step!

- Bronwyn

About the written narration, I wrote a long response, but accidentally deleted. Here is a shorter version:

I would aim for 5 sentences, but if he goes over and is meeting all of the guidelines of written narration outlined in the Appendix of Preparing, then I would think that is EXCELLENT!! And that your ds self-corrects is a wonderful skill. I would really praise his initiative and diligence to do such things. In CTC, the goal is 5-8 sentences, so I think your kiddo is doing fine.

My ds 11 still does not like this part of school and if he could get by with writing just one sentence in CTC, then he would do it. Also, I checked the instructions for the Extension pack in PHFHG and it says that the older students should write 2-3 paragraphs, so...maybe your ds is just advanced in this area. I know my ds detests writing, so getting him to write anything is like telling him he has to clean the bathroom

I don't know how useful my answer is, but if nothing else, it will bump this question up!!

Malenksha wrote:...My question is, hopefully, fairly direct! Is the goal of the written dictations to be as short as suggested (in this case 3-5 sentences) or is it okay if they write more? I'm looking ahead to the end of the guide and it seems that the goal is to keep them on the shorter side (for now). We will be using CTC next year and as we're almost halfway done with Preparing I'm wanting to make sure I have him headed in the right direction to be ready for the next step!

- Bronwyn

Yes, the goal is to keep the written narrations relatively short, to 3-5 sentences. This is for a variety of reasons. Dc need to learn to focus on what is most important to include in their narrations, so the written narrations flow in an order that makes sense when you read them. If dc write longer narrations to begin with, they often get chatty and can sometimes go on and on, not really learning to choose what's most vital to include so the gist of what was read is conveyed. Likewise, editing longer written narrations can be overwhelming, as there are many more errors to fix. Keeping the written narrations shorter helps dc learn the editing process in bite-sized pieces as well. The idea is quality is more important than quantity. The following year in CTC, the length and the editing guidelines or written narrations are increased, and in RTR the requirements become even more advanced, and the guidance in the plans becomes less. This progression has been wonderful for my ds! He writes written narrations with ease now, and he makes relatively few errors. The editing tips make sense to him, and he could pretty much use the guidelines on his own, though I do go through them with him. So, it sounds like your ds is doing so well - hooray! I'd probably keep the narrations to 5 sentences though, and focus on selection of material and editing for now. I think it will really prepare him well for CTC, and he'll enjoy it along the way!

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks ladies, for the encouragement!

The details, Julie, on the "why" helped enormously. He didn't mind cutting it down to five sentences and he managed to include all the important stuff... he just went off and wrote longer biographies of the main characters to present to his father later "in case he wants more information". Hahaha!

Since we are still working on mechanics it certainly makes sense to keep it shorter to make writing it correctly easier for him.

We'll be doing his next written narration on Friday (we did school this week, but won't tomorrow) so now I feel we'll have a firmer direction!

- Bronwyn