Homeschool World Forum

[bedashwood]

Help!
My 7yr old son HATES to write. I like the C Mason philosophy, but it includes a lot of copywork. When we do "school" this way, the results are insanely aweful.
So, my question is - is there a good complete and inexpensive grammar program out there that doesnt require a lot of extra writing?
His reading is at level for 2nd grade, which is a subject he likes. Not loves, but likes.
Any ideas or opinions will be a huge help!
Thanks so much!!!

[MyKidsRGR8T]

The only other alternative to writing would be reading. I suppose if you want your child to learn literature/language in some shape or form, giving your child interesting things to read would be helpful. However, I recommend that you provide your child with SOME form or writing exercises. Regardless of whether he's capable of understanding material, a lot of teachers and future employers want people to PROVE they can write and understand materials.

My suggestion would be to make the lessons interesting. Ask your child what he likes to watch on TV and perhaps you can find some cool books for him to read. As far as writing exercises go, you can have him write his OWN story incorporating those characters. Think that'll work? Good luck!
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[Theodore]

Get him books he'll enjoy - McBroom, Centerburg Tales, some Beatrix Potter, etc. - and just have him read a lot. Reading will gradually build spelling, punctuation, grammar, vocabulary skills even if he's not writing anything. As for writing, assign him simple research topics that he might find interesting and have him write something every week or so. Make sure that the writing material is unrelated to the reading material so writing doesn't affect his love of reading. Perhaps get him a pen-pal or two and let him write back and forth with you monitoring.
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[DESTP]

Children really do need to learn to write well (being a great reader will never be enough) but traditional 'writing lessons' rarely motivate a child who dislikes writing. The answer is to make sure they achieve success in writing ... success is the best motivator. I have written a method that explains how to do this step by step with any 7-12 year old who either dislikes writing or is a very poor writer. Please see link below.
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Improve writing skills
reading problems

[David Brown]

Finding him a book he's really into is important as MyKidsRGR8T mentioned. With the writing you could play a game where he hides something and has to write down instructions for how to find it. You could do a 'treasure hunt' for him first and then he could do one for you (eg. 'look in the kitchen draw', 'look under your bed')
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[hmschooling]

We use a very solid grammar program and do most of it orally This really helps my reluctant writer soooo much.
We use Rod and Staff English. No need to rush through....do a grade per year and then take half speed through 4 and/or 5....5 REALLY steps it up. Level 6 goes beyond the typical high school level (even though it says "grade #", I don't use that part).

I go through the lesson, which takes about 5 minutes. Then I do a couple sentences from each section of the exercises on the white board, we do a couple together, then she does a couple from each section on her own. Unless there's a worksheet, then she does that instead of writing the few sentences on paper. Total mom time is about 10 minutes, then 10m for her to finish.

Also, using studied dictation helps so much. You may also consider getting him writing by letting him dictate things to you (i.e. a narration, or perhaps a story, free time or assigned). Then he can spend a couple or more days copying it himself.