4Real Forums: writing help for a 9 yr old

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Topic: writing help for a 9 yr old

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ann@home
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Joined: April 26 2007
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Posted: Feb 06 2008 at 12:20am \| IP Logged

I'd say we are pretty eclectic in our homeschooling style. We do sit down for math and phonics/grammar and we are "somewhere in the realm of grade level" for most subjects for 3rd grade....except for writing and spelling.
My son really has resisted writing and I was really focusing on his reading the last 2 yrs and didn't worry about it much. Now that his reading has improved and I'm happy with that I realized that he is 9 yrs old and can't write anything on his own!
He does copywork but when I ask him to continue on with his own sentence he freaks. When I do get him to write something the spelling is not even half right and it's often not a complete sentence.
But he can identify complete/fragment/ect. sentences in his grammar book so he knows what they should look like.

I'm kind of at a loss where to start.
I got a program called "Just Write 1" but even that seems to assume he can write basic sentences.

I'd love any ideas you might have. It's like the skeleton in my closet-I failed at teaching writing and he'll be ruined forever!

Help!

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Ann, Full-time Mama of a 10yr old Lego master, 7yr old DIVA, 4yr old King of the Mountain and one more in June '09!

lapazfarm
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Joined: July 21 2005
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Posted: Feb 06 2008 at 7:37am \| IP Logged

I recommend Bravewriter. It starts wherever your child is, no matter the age.

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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning

Nina
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Posted: Feb 07 2008 at 4:20pm \| IP Logged

Ann,have you tried asking him just to write a short story?Or depending on his personality,he may rather do a very short research paper.My son also did not like to write.Once I asked him to write about an animal,he pickedthe giant squid.It helped him to do a little research to get ideas.In the end he did an excellent job.Also, when you go over the finished writing,focus on only one type of problem.Maybe the sentences first,then later on subject-verb agreement,for example.I certainly understand your concern;teaching writing is not my favorite thing either.

SallyT
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Posted: Feb 08 2008 at 12:17pm \| IP Logged

My son turned a real corner at 10 (he was 10 in November). He has been a very good reader since he was 5 or 6, but struggled with both handwriting and with composition. Making the jump to composing AND the mechanical act of writing (or typing) is very difficult.

Only recently has he started writing sentences and paragraphs easily -- but it really was like a switch flipping. I asked him to write some sentences to accompany words in a spelling workbook, and he produced a paragraph of related sentences, all using the spelling words (the paragraph was all about building a potato gun . . . we have that Backyard Ballistics book, and he loves it).

Until now, we've just done longer and longer segements of copywork. That's not a bad strategy to go with -- have him copy whole paragraphs at a go, just to train his hand and mind to the idea of writing for long stretches. Then maybe in the next year start adding in sentences with spelling words.

My son used to freak over writing simple sentences, too. Nine is not that old, and many, many nine-year-olds, especially boys, still struggle a lot with this.

Other ideas --

a little tiny notebook to keep a journal in (my son really started writing last fall when we went to the beach, and he wanted to keep a travel journal)

letters or emails to friends

shopping list

Got to go supervise lunch now, but if I think of other jump-starter ideas, I'll post them.

Sally

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Courtney
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Posted: April 09 2008 at 6:27am \| IP Logged

I just pulled up this thread through a search of "boys and writing". My ds is soon to be 8 and really dislikes writing! I've tried keeping a notebook with him (I'll write him a note and give it back to him and he writes back) but he usually writes one word replies or not at all! Reading all of your ideas helps. I haven't been as persistent at copywork as I should.

To Theresa's point, we have used one idea from Bravewriter so far (I need to pull that out again) and that is Friday freewrite. He does like this. He'll write maybe 1-2 sentences in about 10 minutes. However, I think I'm the only one who could decipher most of what he's written. There are many misspellings (which I don't focus on at the time) and still several backwards letters. So, do you recommend a separate spelling program or is copywork enough? I have hopes that what has happened with your son, Sally, will happen with mine. I've seen it happen with him like that in other areas.

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Courtney in Texas
Wife to Mike since 3/94

Mom to Candace 10/97

,Christopher 4/00

and Connor 11/11

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