Monday Musings... This Week & LA Thoughts

I'm still on the fence about language arts for the fall. This should be an easy decision. I am studying for my MA in English Education after all. But it isn't easy when it comes to my own kids.

I want them to have solid writing skills. I read and grade papers for English classes at the local community/junior college, so I know that kids are not getting good writing instruction these days (every child left behind?). The problem I am having is what path we should take to get there. I've managed to narrow down the options, and I just need to decide! So, more structured (think Writing With Skill level 1/Writing With Ease/ Intermediate Language Lessons Book 1) OR more unstructured (think the Brave Writer Lifestyle)???


Here's what I have planned for this week's language arts:
Daily copy work, dictation exercise on Thursday, for both
Reading Horizons work for The Girl each day
maybe work from The Complete Writer?
Monday: A lesson from The Sentence Family for both; Writing Skills work for The Boy, pretty basic but good stuff
Tuesday: Work from Igniting Your Writing for The Boy   Nature journaling for both kids!
Wednesday: Free writing for The Boy, probably using Unjournaling for a prompt
We've ended up doing exercises from The Complete Writer, with The Girl doing level 1 (mostly verbal, some copy work) and The Boy working in levels 3 and 4.

When we do poetry, we might try the Arrow Poetry Guide for fun, since it was half off and I bought it today!

AND AN UPDATE:
I printed out samples of maybe six different writing programs I was looking at for The Boy, and a couple under consideration for The Girl. M and I had a "meeting" where we spread them all out on the bed and went through them together. And we picked a program!!!

I realized that while I love the idea of the Brave Writer approach, when we piece things together we are less likely to get anywhere. Probably a personal flaw/issue of some sort, but there it is. So we ended up picking a more all-in-one approach...

The Boy will be working in Writing With Skill level 1 in the fall, and The Girl will be working through Writing With Ease level 2. M really liked the samples I printed out, and we both agree the programs are very thorough without looking too challenging. I also know that at some point, later down the line, I may want to try Write With the Best and The Lost Tools Of Writing, and I think a year or so of Writing With Skill, etc., will nicely prepare The Boy for either.

Nice and simple!  Phew!