A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Progrymnasmata, a series of rhetorical writing exercises that the Ancients used with their students. This is not the only way to teach writing, of course. It is one of many ways. There are many modern writing curriculums available that will succeed in making your child a good writer. I have accidentally stumbled upon another way to make a strong writer. With this way, you do not use curriculum, just plain, old pen and paper. Oh, and good literature.
Our family hit a life bump at the beginning of this month. As a result, we have had to have a lite version of school. I had planned on using Classical Writing this year with my oldest but I knew that I wouldn't be able to pull it off with all that we were going through, so I had to change my plans in the area of writing.
After talking to a few homeschooling moms about what to do with writing when your plans go up in smoke, I decided to do the tried and true method of writing a la Charlotte Mason--written narrations and copywork. It sounds so simple, but I am finding that it is working. After carrying out these activities for a few weeks, my anti-writing child is carrying out her writing assessments with little complaining and her narrations are very well-written-- at least for a 10-year-old.
I have added a few things to my writing expectations. As a result, I am liking how we are carrying it all out. My dd is reading Little Women on her own. I ask her to write a narration for each chapter. I also have her do copywork from this book as well. My hope was to do this every day but the reality is that we are lucky if we get to copywork twice a week, but this is better than nothing. We are studying Ancient Egypt this month for our history unit study. She is to read Tales of Ancient of Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Green. I have her write out narrations from selected chapters from this book.
For my two youngest, I have them doing copywork as well. My youngest is not reading yet, so I just have her write simple words. My ds, 8, copies sentences from the book that he and I are reading, Understanding Betsy. I also have them do narrations from the chapters on Ancient Egypt from Story of the World. This is a wonderful way to kill three birds with one stone. I read the story, then have the two youngest give me their narrations. I write out my youngest's narrations and then let her draw an accompanying illustration. I write out my ds' narrations but have him copy it out. For my oldest, I have her do the beginning step of outlining. She reads each paragraph and writes a sentence for the main idea of that paragraph. I found this idea in the logic stage section of The Well Trained Mind.
All of these ideas are a simple marriage of ideas from CM and WTM. I am so thankful for the simplicity of these ideas. Simple works just as well as fancy and formal.
Julia and her husband live on the Canadian Prairies, homeschooling their 3 children (10,8,6) and attempting to give them a Classical Education. You can read more at her blog.
