Cottage Press Reviews and using it with ULW/Spelling Wisdom

We used he Primer and Fable and liked them both very much. It would be too much to add SW/ULW as it includes spelling and grammar and copy work.  We found the higher levels to be too much. And take too much time. I know we started Bards as well. I cant remember if we gave up mid-way through that one or if it was the next level that was too intense. I wanted to love the higher levels but they felt too work bookish. The beginning levels were very enjoyable though.

We have pretty much followed the SCM recommendations. SW/ULW, reading great literature, and written narrations. My daughter likes analytical grammar but it didnt work for the boys. We have tried multiple writing curriculums but none have worked for us. My oldest took an IEW class his senior year and that shored up format writing for him. My daughter is in her junior year and is writing a novel, though she has never written a essay. And my 8th grader is plugging along with narrations.  I added in McGuffey’s readers to use for copywork and narration. Probably overkill with ULW but it works for us. They basically do lots of copywork, dictation, and narration. All of my kids can write and use grammar well. Two of three are excellent spellers. DS1 got dads poor spelling gene I think! I am a bit of a minimalist, I like to get things done as quickly and simply as I can.  So far it has worked, though if my kids were college bound I would probably do more essays sooner. As it stands the first two are making pit stops at community college or trade school so I wasnt terribly worried about research papers etc. I hope that helps a little.

When my daughter showed an interest in being a writer I polled all of the professional writers I could find and hands down they all said just read alot and write daily. They actually recommended no writing curriculum and told me college would not make her a better fiction writer. I was a little shocked, but this was the same advice from 6 or 7 authors/freelance writers I spoke to. So she reads and writes and we occasionally watch a writing workshop on youtube or on the Read Aloud Revival site. I think finding your style and voice is what makes for good writing, format can be learned quickly when it is necessary. As long as you can communicate in writing interestingly and clearly you can mold your thoughts into any formula a class may want. Just my two cents. Certainly college bound students will need those formulas, I just didnt want to focus on it until it became necessary.

I totally get it. You could probably find 50 posts on this site from asking about writing. We just never found anything that fit for us. We have started dozens of writing curriculums – all of the ones that promise to crank out amazing essay and research paper writers. They all felt like twaddle and busy work. None of the greatest writers in history had writing curriculums. They learned by reading and mimicking other great writers. I hope you find the perfect fit. Many people find “the one” so it must be possible!

On an encouraging note, my “never written an essay” daughter did her narration today as a series of proverbs. It was fantastic. I have complete confidence she will write spectacular essays for college when she needs to.