How much writing is too much for Gr1?

[Canada_Mom]

Those of you with kids in gr1- how much writing do you do in an average day? I'd like to get a feel if dd6 and I are doing too much... or too little!

[GLOWAcademy]

to me you can never really do to much, when my son was that age and he wanted to keep writing i encouraged it :)
we first started off with 1 sheet if he wanted another i handed him another, when he got tired of it i gave him something else to work on :)

[SnowWhite]

Depends on the child. My son writes 2 "fill in the blank" phonics/language pages, 5 spelling words, 2 math workbook pages, and two lines of handwriting. He wouldn't write a whole page unless I paid him $10 I don't believe.

[Jami]

I agree mom2one, I only require enough writing to complete math assignments, a page of copywork, and other work in Explode the Code, Prima Latina and our Bible Study books, which isn't a great deal. But I encourage writing letters, notes, stories, etc. as much as I can during the day. The less *work* the physical act of writing is once they're in 3rd or 4th grade, the more focus I can place on composition and content in our writing program.

Jami

[KAR120C]

Those of you with kids in gr1- how much writing do you do in an average day? I'd like to get a feel if dd6 and I are doing too much... or too little!
I like to aim for a "low simmer"... that is, it's too much if it causes a meltdown, but too little if it doesn't require some effort. That's going to be a different amount for every kid -- some love writing and will go on and on, and some will melt down after three words. I had the latter type at that age, and so in first grade we did VERY little writing. By the next year though he had improved a great deal (just the age and maturity I think) and could copy a solid page twice a day.

Right now we're working on doing the writing and composition at the same time, which is yet another part, more than just the physical writing. Keeping the copying separate from the composition gave him room to do each as well as he could without one relying on the other, but he's at a point now where he really can start to put them together, although I would say his composition has taken a step backwards with the added effort...

And if you're looking for what is average at the level, we have a friend in private school who at first grade brought home spelling words to copy (three times each for ten words I think) and fill-in-the-blank answers on worksheets. And at least one time they had to write a kind of crostic poem (like if it was about tigers it would be six words to describe tigers, starting with t, i, g, e, r and s). So in a given week it seems she did about that every day for at least four out of five days.

[Sue G in PA]

My ds6's hand would probably fall off if I asked him to write more. He does 2 ETC pages, 2 math pages, handwriting/copywork. It's not a lot, but for him...it is! My ds8, on the other hand, when he was in first did quite a bit more b/c he didn't mind it.