Baby Girls #1 and #2 completed their first paper of the year. Before you judge, I purposely didn't start this curriculum until after Christmas. We have another Language Arts program that I use and really love. I wanted to focus on that the first part of the year. But after the Christmas break I wanted the girls to have an actual writing curriculum along with the Language Arts.
I can't take credit for finding the curriculum. We joined an academic co-op at the beginning of the 11/12 school year. We were only in it for the first semester, but I was introduced to this writing curriculum. At first I wasn't crazy about it because it seems really confusing for Baby Girl #1, but after the first month or so we found our groove and I realized how awesome it is.
Why is it so awesome? First of all, the writing process is put forth almost like a formula. A formula that you follow each and every time you write a paper. You always start with an outline. You always brainstorm for quality adjectives, strong verbs, and adverbs. In each paper you have a certain number of "dress-ups" that you have to have. You always have a first draft that you revise and then write a final copy. As we get further along there will be vocabulary words that they learn that they will then have to incorporate into their papers. I love that as my children get more familiar with the process it will become a habit for them to write like this. What I think is especially awesome is that this is a process that they will become familiar enough with that I will be able to have a short lesson with them at the beginning of the week teaching any new concepts and then they will be able to finish the rest of the work on their own. There is always a checklist to remind them of what they have to have in their paper, so there is no excuses for them to not get it right.
Not only does teaching them to add these dress-ups in their writing help me not die of boredom when reading their papers, it also translates into making their every day speech more interesting. For example, I would like my child to tell me that the fireworks display was breathtakingly amazing instead of telling me it was cool. I firmly believe that when they are able to write papers and add those kinds of words in without having to think about it that they will begin to use those types of words in their everyday speech! And I think that is really cool! ;)
So what is this curriculum? It is the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Don't be intimidated when you look on their website. They have a lot of products, including a DVD set that they recommend you watch before trying to teach their curriculum. But I have never watched them and I don't have any problems understanding anything. Granted, I had the best English teacher in high school, but I haven't had any English beyond that. I don't even get the teacher book, just the student book, which states that I can make copies for multiple children in my own family. That means that I am spending just $29 a year for our writing curriculum. Can't beat that!
So it might seem a little ridiculous to be this excited about our curriculum, but as other homeschooling moms will understand, when you find something that you really love you want to pass that information to as many other moms as possible!
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