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daughter struggling with spelling and writing
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I have a daughter who is 8 turning 9 in MAy and she is’n’t writing stories or much of anything yet. Her spelling is not there either. I need so advice on this. All her friends at church are way ahead of her and she is feeling left behind i guess. is IEW level A a god place to start and we do do copywork just not every day. Should i make her do written narrations? Thanks you are all a great support here.
Slow down and breathe. An education isn’t a race, but a journey. I understand she feels behind and that can be a motivator, but I would encourage you to take some time to pray and make a decision about which flavor of homeschooling you wish to use and learn more about that. If a CM education is what interests you, you must learn more about what that means. It isn’t a book list or simply hallmarks of a CM education like living books, narration, and nature study. It is a true paradigm shift in what education really is. To learn more about how Charlotte Mason viewed and instructed language arts, I recommend scm’s Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing – http://simplycharlottemason.com/store/hearing-and-reading-telling-and-writing-a-charlotte-mason-language-arts-handbook/
In your shoes, I would focus solely on DAILY oral narration and DAILY copy work, remembering the habits of best effort and perfect execution. Start with one word if need be and move on from there. The rest will come and will come more pleasantly if you don’t push too hard.
I would never begin written narration with a child who is not solid in both oral narration and copy work of several sentences or more. These are not easy things you are asking your child to do.
Blessings,
Christie
Christie,
I have a D’s who is 13 and. Is a struggling writer and the reading is coming along. The advise you gave above, could I do that with Ds or should I go oanother route with him? ? I am learning the CM method and understand in theory. I will be implementing mores of the method kn the. Spring /summer.
Agreeing w/ Christie here: slow down and breathe. And secondly, what 8-9yo girls talk about their writing and spelling skills at church??
We have a creative writing time once per week, in place of copywork. I don’t focus one bit on spelling, punctuation, or other skills. This time is simply to give my children something to creatively write about. I’m going to post a few of my dd’s “stories”, with her exacty punctuation and spelling, just so you can see that your dd is TOTALLY normal, not behind or lacking in anyway. I’m sure this will make you feel better!
Topic: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why?
Her Answer: If i could Live anywhere i would Live in Japan becase i Like Japanese pepole and i would Learn to speak Japanese!
Topic: If cows gave root beer instead of milk…
Her Answer: If cows gave Root beer Instead of milk I Would go out & milk the cow and see Root beer Instead of milk & say, yum!
Topic: Pretend you are a snake and describe your day.
Her Answer: I am a snake, everyBody is afraid of me. I am a viper snake. Way to poisinus. I will be anyone that is in my way. Do not come near me I am way to Dangerous! today I am Protecting my viper snake vilege.
Topic: What superhero power do you wish you had and why?
Her Answer: I wish I had ice & fire Power’s. Because if there were Bad guy’s around I could freeze them or set them on Fire.
My dd actually does good written narrations, although her spelling and punctuation is still lacking. BUT she also has not had much grammar–other than EFTTC, vol 1 last year–and she has done zero dictation. So, I shouldn’t really expect her spelling or punctuation to be amazing. I think she’s doing pretty good with where she’s at. I wish she would put forth more effort into her creative writing, but I’m not disappointed in it at all. She does give her best effort and full attention to *most* of her work, and that is enough for me.
Please don’t worry! You and your dd are doing just fine!
Agreeing with Christie and Lindsey. An 8 turning 9 year old that cannot spell easily or compose creative writing is completely NORMAL. Getting your daughter to begin written narrations at this time will only frustrate her and (I would guess) kill her confidence and love of school if you make her suffer through it. I really believe age 10-12 is the more appropriate age to begin written narrations.
If you really want to see a composition from her, have her dictate her oral narration to YOU. Read her a passage for about 5 minutes from your current literature, science or history living book. Once you finish, ask her to narrate – but first, get yourself settled at your computer, or in front of a notebook with your own pen in hand. YOU write or type exactly what she says. (it will take practise as she will talk faster than you can get it down, but after some time she’ll learn to talk slowly and compose her narration thoughts carefully, and you will learn to write more quickly). At the end of the exercise, you/she will have a sheet with her thoughts in order …. and you can see – presto, she’s done a composition. At age 8-10, I try to do this exercise with my children once per week. If you can get to this, you’ll really see her mind at work. She’ll have completed and given a true reflection of her ability to gather and state her thoughts. At this age, the ability to gather and state your thoughts on a piece of fine literature (in my opinion) is brilliant.
In short, beginning creative writing or composition ORALLY, for my family, has had the best result. There will be a great deal of time in the future for her to be writing short stories from scratch. Again, as Lindsey says, you are doing fine!
I agree that copywork should be daily. It does not take very long. Is she at a point to begin transcription? I think this helps with spelling. They focus on copying the whole word rather than letter by letter.
wings2fly, not sure yet. Thisis a whole new journey for me. I used the copy work book from here and she said it was boring so has/have any of you used anything from the Queens web site? If so did you enkoy it. Her web site looks great and I do love the stuff for little girls. Last night she wanted to write 4 lines about her dog. I was happy just letting her play around with it. She made spelling errors but she enjoyed it for the most part. Thanks for the support.
Angelina, Thank you for the advice also.
I used the first Pictures in Cursive book from queens, but was not impressed. Sentences like “The dog is brown.” do not impress me. Copywork can be pulled from her current books or from a ready made resource. We have enjoyed using Spelling Wisdom for copywork as well as books from Light Home Publications available on http://Www.currclick.com. Westvon Publishing has a variety, but I’ve not been impressed with the samples. Dd6 is beginning a new one next week – Cursive Writing Practice: inspiring Quotes published by Scholastic, the length is perfect for her and there is a silly joke one available, too. Another option is Daily Handwriting Practice books by Evan Moor.
Copywork requires practice, but depending on age the time varies. My dd6 has 5m, ds10 has 10-12m, dd13 chooses her own passages for her commonplace book.
HTH,
Christie
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