I finally farmed out a subject that doesn't have to do with the ARTS. Having not had a single lesson in either drawing or musical theory, I had good reason! But writing, well, not my strongest subject either.
I started to investigate writing classes in the summer. I wanted a class that my 5th grader could attend once or twice a week and get more in-depth instruction and feel challenged to upgrade her writing. We have been focusing on this for the last year or so and it's one of the more challenging topics for me to teach. I have never been a great writer and have an ongoing struggle with too much/too soon when it comes to pushing for kids to write when they aren't ready. But Mackenzie was now showing signs of being ready.....
Over the summer, Mackenzie continued to work on and add to her story she started at the end of our school year. It 's a prequel to Percy Jackson and is written freehand on about 16 pages as it stands right now. I was so impressed with her desire to write even when it wasn't required that I thought it was time to get more formal instruction and additional challenges.
Excellence in Writing offers some great classes for all ages and we decided to sign her up for a Medieval Writing Class that is offered once/week . The course follows along with our curriculum for the year, so it really was a perfect fit. She is doing really well and there has been hardly a complaint about the work. Love it when a plans comes together!
Here is a quick sampling of her work so far. All the paragraphs are based on history that is taught in class.
"The Middle Ages are mostly remembered for intrepid knights, massive castles and wealthy kings, but these were not brilliant times. The Middle Ages began with the crumbling of the Roman Empire in the 400-500's. Warriors stormed Europe and seized parts of it. The Barbarians were not civilized,they lived in tents, ate raw food, and they did not bathe. They were fetid. The Barbarians had no interest in arts and learning like the Roman people. The Barbarians invaded the Roman lands and split them up into smaller kingdoms. The sophisticated life of the Roman people was lost. Some call this time the Dark Ages because we do not know very much about it."
All in all, a good effort on her first concise paragraph describing the events that led to the end of the Roman Empire.
wow! go kenz!!!! she's a writer! xo
ReplyDeleteI think you have an excellent writer on your hands! This is an area of weakness in our house and I would like to farm that out as well.
ReplyDeleteYour young writer is doing very well! I so need to get mine writing more. I think we are going to "farm that out" (as Lisa said :)) to Time4Writing for the first time. I like the idea of one-on-one teacher time, since that is what she gets in our homeschool. I think I just push too hard in writing, and my daughter doesn't hesitate to push back. Maybe I'll have better luck farming writing out! Thank for sharing and Happy Homeschooling!
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