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Maryan
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| Posted: Sept 29 2011 at 7:32pm | IP Logged
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This year my fifth grader and I are stumbling along doing some IEW writing lessons for the first time. Since we're doing the Middle Ages, I actually bought their Middle Ages Writing Lessons. Love all the content so far!
However,... does anyone else fine IEW dreadfully plain and have issues with its aesthetics? Or is just shallow me? I loooong to retype everything in a new font, with different boxes, etc.
If he didn't like it, I would bag it on looks alone!  Although, that said -- I should give kudos to the vocabulary cards for each lesson which are a little perky. 
Oh and there is that whole method thing....
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
A Lee in the Woudes
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leanne maree
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| Posted: Sept 29 2011 at 8:45pm | IP Logged
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Hi Maryan,
We love IEW.
I tweeked it to suit us though.
I laminated all the various sheets she needed for story writing, report writing and the word lists.
I also laminated the 6 different beginnings etc of sentences.
This allowed dd to decide what she needed for each project she may be writing about.
We have used it for near 3 years now and have found it to be quite helpful- my dd refused to write more than a sentence up until age 11. So this program has helped her enormously.
In saying this, I don't require she use IEW for everything, but now it has become a technique for her. She now owns the style.
You know it may not be for everyone though- we just found it worked. 
God Bless,
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Leanne
Loving wife to Dermot and Adoring mother to Louise, Kristie, Kieran & Brid
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Maryan
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| Posted: Sept 30 2011 at 7:13am | IP Logged
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Leanne,
Leanne maree wrote:
I laminated all the various sheets she needed for story writing, report writing and the word lists.
I also laminated the 6 different beginnings etc of sentences. |
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Great tweaking ideas! I'll have to try those!
Truly, my son loves it. He loves the method and his writing has improved even in such a short time. He's pleased that he can outline (he likes making his own symbols) -- he likes that his writing now has pretty sophisticated words...
It's me. I'm looking for a little pencil graphic where they give the assignment -- another graphic that tells you "Here's your grammar review!"... etc.
Other than the outline pages, I feel like every page in my Middle Ages book just seems to look the same, so when you're looking for a certain page its tricky!
Oh and we did try IEW in third grade for about a week and he hated it, so I do think there is a right time.
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Sept 30 2011 at 7:47am | IP Logged
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If you are laminating something (I've never seen the materials, so I don't have a visual), you could always mount it onto some pretty paper or maybe into a pretty border
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Lindsay
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Sept 30 2011 at 7:48am | IP Logged
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Oh, and maybe find some appropriate stickers to coordinate with the topics and add your own "graphic."
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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JennGM
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| Posted: Sept 30 2011 at 11:46am | IP Logged
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Maryan, do you like to use tabs? Like the ones by Post-It? Or if you are binding or putting into a binder, how about inserting tabbed pages?
Or even more radical, coloring the edges of the pages for different chapters?
I haven't seen the IEW, but I have similar reactions to different books. I really need things to be formatted nicely, with readable fonts and visual aids to find things.
I took Bernard Nebel's book and added chapter headings on all the pages because I couldn't find anything. It was tedious, but worth it so I could find things more easily.
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Maryan
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| Posted: Sept 30 2011 at 2:25pm | IP Logged
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All of these ideas are great! I'm glad I'm not alone in needing visual appeal to keep me going...b/c apparently my 10 yo does not!
And I do have those tabs and nicer paper... perhaps a weekend jazz up project! During football...
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: An IEW shallow comment
