How do you plan IEW and keep track of skills learned, what you'll teach next, and

[one l michele]

source paragraphs? I really like IEW and it's working wonderfully for both my boys, but I feel like I'm missing a "schedule". They have units 1 & 2 down, because of their age (7 & 6) I'm not sure what other units or dress ups I should teach next. I've also looked at the Fables, Myths, and Fairtales theme based unit and perhaps Ancients for next year to go along with SL core 1. I'm really not sure how the themed units work and worry that I wouldn't be as flexible to go at their pace? I also like the flexibility to pick topics that interest them and pull from other subjects. Thoughts?

[Sue G in PA]

I would say the theme based units might be a bit difficult for younger kids. The Ancients is recommended for 4th - 6th I believe and some of the others for even older than that. If your dc are familiar with IEW and confident in the skills they have already learned, they *might* be able to do Ancients. Might. My understanding is that it covers all 9 units of IEW in one little themed book.

[Kelli in TN]

You know, we have dropped way off with IEW. My kids just absolutely hate watching those dvds. Before I had the dvds I only had the notebook from where I had attended a viewing of the teacher program with a group of homeschool moms. I did better teaching from that notebook than we do with the student program.

So, I think this summer I am going to set aside some time, watch the student dvds by myself and make up a schedule and just teach it myself. The method works very well for my kids, but I need a better way to incorporate it.

So, I am no help but I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone in trying to make this work.

[angela in ohio]

I think children of that age can also handle unit 3 pretty well. You can pull your own stories to use as you go along. It says in the TWSS that if you use Unit 3 with 1-2 grades, that you would have them orally tell the story and that you can use it to especially work on vocabulary development. It also say to use the unit for 2-3 months. It says for Unit 4 to only do it with assistance and to use very simple resources that are connected to content areas they are already studying. I would plan on using units 1-3 for the year, but then see if they can possibly do unit 4 at the end of the school year. Of course, there is no hurry, as they have years to advance through the units.

As far as dress-ups, I think the banned word lists are really simple to teach to younger children. They actually seem to like them better than the older dc. They get a kick out of hunting for "forbidden" words. It is also great for building vocabulary. The other simpler dress-ups to teach are "ly" words, because clause, and the strong verbs and quality adjectives (along with the banned word.) I'm not sure I'd use sentence openers at that age, maybe if they really were doing well. I acutally find some of the "advanced" dress-ups really catch their attention and are easy and fun to use: conversation, question, and especially the triple extension (repeating -ing and -ly words and maybe even verbs.)

As far as how I plan: I bought at the office supply store a set of legal dividers that go to 50. I took out the extras and made a set that matched the number of weeks in our school year (45 here.) At the beginning of the year, I use my science, history, and other plans for the year to decide a list of possible topics for each week. Then I decide which units and concepts I want to teach. I work back and forth, matching topics to the units and planning out each week. Then I find my models and put a copy in the binder behind that week's tab. I also copy off any charts or lists I plan to use (mostly great resources I find at the IEW Families Yahoo group) and put them in the week. So throughout the year, I just need to pull out each week the materials to use. I found that I couldn't sit down each week and plan it out, so writing wasn't getting done at our house. This way, it is always ready to go.

HTH!!

[one l michele]

That is reassuring to hear about the student dvd's, I had purchased them and returned them (didn't even open them) once I saw the first 4 TWSS dvd's and felt the S&S is enough to teach from. I still think it is, once I get my system of how to schedule it. The files on the yahoo IEW group are also quite helpful. I did see one "checklist" there, but it really wasn't what I was looking for. I defnitely need to take some time and play around with some scheduling.