Finishing Writing Tales 2 - now what?

[sted]

I'm looking for a follow up writing program to Writing Tales 2 for next year. My daughter is in grade 4 going into grade five. Last year we did CW - Aesop. I liked both but found I like the way Writing Tales is more "teacher friendly" in my opinion. Anyhow since there is no WT 3 yet, I was looking at Homer. While the stories don't look too difficult, the grammar is what scares me. We've been supplementing WT this year with Growing with Grammar 4 so my daughter has been doing grammar, but it seems pretty intense (more than I ever learned). Also considering Poetry perhaps and leaving Homer till we're done that. Anyone have any other ideas or suggestions? My daughter is a strong writer and I want to keep developing her skills but with a new baby coming I'm worried about tackling Homer next year. I'm open to other curriculums if you know of some.

Thanks,
Shannon

[Tina in WA]

bumping this for you...

It is a very good question. One that I would like to hear other thoughts about it as well. :)

~Tina

[Amy from WT]

Hi Tina,

I have a couple of suggestions for you, and then I'm also looking forward to reading what everyone else suggests too. I feel like I haven't really been able to get out and look at a lot that is available over the last few years. Looking forward to being able to do that this year at the CHAP convention, hopefully.

Anyway, if you're not going to have the time to put into Homer next year (which I understand, believe me!) you might want to look at two other progym possibilities: (a) Classical Conversations: I don't know too much about this, but it's on my shelf waiting for me to read it through. It looks fairly easy to use and I'd recommend you check it out if you can. I think it's a nice alternative if you can't do Homer; OR (b) Imitations in Writing: I think this program is actually a little light "meat-wise", but if you mainly want to keep your child writing, this will do the trick, and she'll probably even continue to progress with it. You'd probably want to start at the "Medieval Legends" level. At any rate, it's inexpensive enough to take a look at, which is nice!

IEW is one program that I don't know much about, but I've heard such great things about it that it is high on my list to research.

All the best,

[Amy from WT]

Oooooops, should have said Hi SHANNON and Tina!!! Sorry, it's definitely tooo late for me to up now!

[Heather in VA]

I'd take some time with Poetry before moving on to Homer. Poetry is more doable than Homer so it would give her time to mature and develop before hitting Homer. 5th grade is the very earliest I'd ever try Homer so it would be nice to have more time before getting to it.