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All the writing and copywork in Bigger (most of it is in the R & S grammar) is driving my poor dd6 (almost 7) to tears.

She struggles with handwriting, has poor pencil grip and it takes her FOREVER to copy things down.I know she is still young, but I do suspect she may have dysgraphia.

There does seem to be a lot of copywork in the grammar. Can I skip it with her? Do it verbally? She is still writing the spelling words and doing handwriting. Any suggestions?

I've done some of the Rod and Staff grammar orally. It helps. As long as they truly understand the concept, and how to apply it with the written word, I'd skip anything that wasn't necessary.

My 8 year old is just so slow, and a lefty to boot. So I only assign 3-4 lines of poetry a day but I insist they are done as neatly as she can. For the handwriting work is the same. She doesn't have to make "al" connect 6 times just one good one will do.

I make worksheets out of about half the grammar work. The other half we do orally, with her pointing at the words, ect. or we do most of it orally and i only make her do 4-5 lines. Grammar is not A Critical subject right now. But my dd enjoys it so we do it, if she hated it I would only do as much as the state requires. and if the state had no requirement I would put it off till next year, or till she is 12. But she likes it so we include it.

I even take out some of the copy work in her note booking. I will write down her experiment question and answers. but I do it verbaitim and don't correct her grammar.

I tell her over and over again getting it done well the first time is better than doing it 3 times poorly.

right now we don't do any of the copywork in Bigger. We are going to work into it slowly, as my boys are very allergic to pencils and structured copy work.
I guess I should quantify-we don't skip ALL of writing. We do writing in the various subjects, and I do have them write out some of the answers to questions in the science text, etc.

Annie,

Definitely skip most of the writing in Rod and Staff and do it orally or with you writing her dictated answers on the whiteboard instead! I think I put it in the Introduction to "Bigger..." to make sure not to do all of the writing assigned in Rod and Staff English.

I usually have my son do one short exercise in writing from the Rod and Staff daily. I always pick the shortest one! Tansy gave great suggestions as well on how to modify the writing even more as needed. Tears are NOT the goal. A little bit written well is better than much writing produced with tears and frustration.

If your child is still getting the concepts, than that is what is most important. You can ease slowly into a little more writing as her confidence grows and the year progresses!

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks for all your speedy responses.

I must have missed that in the introduction Carrie. Ooops! I'm glad I posted about this now instead of pushing my poor dd through it any longer.

I'll sit with her and do it orally for now.

Thanks again

You know I have always thought that if R&S placed what is in their text into worktext they would have the perfect grammar and writing curriculum! I agree that it is too much to copy. I heard of one lady that said that the text were so inexpensive that she had her children write in them instead of copying. Most I hear of just do it orally, though. I think both would work well.

Annie,

I'm so glad that you asked! We don't want anyone's little sweetie in tears. That is NOT the goal of school. My boys would be in tears too, if I had them do all of Rod and Staff's exercises in writing.

Blessings,
Carrie