Spelling Question

[GinainMD]

Hi everyone! My two older dds are using Beyond and one is a reluctant writer. I was wondering if it is ok to do the spelling activities on the dry erase board? I haven't done this yet because then I have no "proof" of all the hard work. TIA

[John'smom]

Gina,
I would do a combination. What child doesn't like the dry erase board? Both of mine do and they are totally different temperaments. I also allow writing in the salt box that we have. I do however make sure I balance with work on paper just in case I need "proof" of our work. HTH!

[Happy2bMommyof3]

We always used the dry erase board last year for Beyond. DD didn't like spelling very much and it kept it fun for her. It worked well for us and she has turned into a pretty good speller, so no regrets!

[GinainMD]

Oh what a relief! Thank you for the quick response! I think that this is the only part of Beyond that my oldest dd isn't completely thrilled with. I also like the salt box idea. Another question if you don't mind. How much of the poem each day would be acceptable for an eight year old? I have been having them do a stanza each day and have been met with a tiny bit of resistance. Do I push through this or lighten the amount of copywork? Again, thanks

[John'smom]

Gina,
My ds is 8 (turned 8 in June) and we just finished up week 3 of Beyond. Each week he has copied the whole poem. I'm sure he would do less if I let him, but I know he's capable. I know that children are individuals though. If you feel like it's really pushing your dc to get it all finished, then maybe back off a little with having the goal in mind to be copying more and more as time goes by. Let your dc know this from the get go too, so they are not complaining when you get there. KWIM? Only you can know for sure if it's too much. Is your dc fluent writers? I mean, do they have to think of how to form the letters? If so, then maybe it's too much.

[Tree House Academy]

We are doing beyond and here is how we do spelling:

Day 1, dry erase board (he looks at the card, flips it over, spells the word, checks his spelling with the card)

Day 2, dry erase board (he writes the words as I dictate them to him and then checks his work with the card)

Day 3, On paper (we pick 3 cards/words to use in sentences. I write the sentences on his paper and he copies them with the spelling word underlined).

Day 4, On paper (spelling "test" - he spells on paper, I check over it, and anything he misses, we do the activity Carrie suggests in the manual).

Day 5. Grammar study - we use the white board or paper, depending on the lesson.

Sometimes when we do dry erase board work, I will snap a digital picture of it with my camera and upload it to our homeschool folder. That way, we still have "proof" of our hard work, but we got to write on the dry erase board too!

[daybreaking]

Another question if you don't mind. How much of the poem each day would be acceptable for an eight year old? I have been having them do a stanza each day and have been met with a tiny bit of resistance. Do I push through this or lighten the amount of copywork? Again, thanks

My ds is 8 and we're also doing Beyond. We're in Unit 5 and so far he's copied the whole poem each week. Our usual amount is 4 lines per day. I do know each child is different, so you'll have to weigh if what your son is copying is too taxing for him or if copywork is just not the most enjoyable activity for him. My ds sometimes resisted, especially in the first few units, but I held firm, as I knew he was capable and now he seems in a good routine. One thing we've done that has worked well is to use one of the bound composition books. I cut white sheets of paper to match the size and that's what we use for him to illustrate the poem. When he's drawn his picture, we paste it onto the left side of the book and he copies the corresponding poem on the right side of the book. When Grama came, he proudly showed her his book of poetry. For him, seeing the book unfold has been very motivating.

[GinainMD]

At this point they do not have to think about how to form letters when writing. My dd8 just seems to tire of the writing. I might try dividing her writing times up into two sessions, separated by some pe. She also tires of other things quickly unless it is self directed . I'm starting to wonder if I've been too easy on her. She was a bit of a late bloomer and I never know quite what to require. I think that I will take some photos of the work on the dry erase board. I also like the idea of using a journal and pasting white paper for illustrations on it. My girls still use the lined paper for 2nd and 3rd grade so I don't know if I can find a comp book with such large lines. Thanks to everyone for the insight.

[daybreaking]

My girls still use the lined paper for 2nd and 3rd grade so I don't know if I can find a comp book with such large lines. Thanks to everyone for the insight.

Actually, you might find good success just using the normal bound composition book. Up until recently, my son also was only using the 2nd grade lined paper. I was hesitant to use the journal, since there was no midline and headline, but I was amazed at how well he transitioned, as well as how it made the writing easier for him. With the lined paper, he was carefully forming every letter and it was a slow process. With the journal, he still tries to be neat, but it seems less laborious for him.

[my3sons]

...

Day 1, dry erase board (he looks at the card, flips it over, spells the word, checks his spelling with the card)

Day 2, dry erase board (he writes the words as I dictate them to him and then checks his work with the card)

Day 3, On paper (we pick 3 cards/words to use in sentences. I write the sentences on his paper and he copies them with the spelling word underlined).

Day 4, On paper (spelling "test" - he spells on paper, I check over it, and anything he misses, we do the activity Carrie suggests in the manual).

Day 5. Grammar study - we use the white board or paper, depending on the lesson.
...

This is exactly what we did! I think it is important to have a balance of the marker board and paper, as writing with a marker is much different than writing with a pencil. Your dc will be writing with pencils more often in Bigger Hearts. I had to start with my dc doing a line of poetry each day first, but then we really worked on moving up to 2 lines a day, 3 lines a day, until dc were doing the entire poem each week. This was really important to help train them for success for the writing in Bigger Hearts. Looking ahead, here is the progression of writing from Beyond to Bigger:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3005
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1516&p=11829

My ds had some trouble with spacing in his writing. I don't know if this would be helpful or not, but here is a post where I described what worked for him:
Pics of progression of writing:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5605&p=41147#p41147

I think it's a great idea to rotate the writing with other things! We have done that, and it really helps. We alternated an active time (i.e. the Bible Study activity) with a writing time (Poetry copywork), and then another active type something (i.e. Science experiment) with another writing time (i.e. "A Reason for Handwriting A" - which I decided the boys needed during Beyond to continue to improve their fine motor skills). HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[John'smom]

I also think it's great to rotate the writing with other things as well. You could even throw in some type of physical work. I know when my dc start to feel moppy, I send them to the small indoor trampoline we have in our school room. I'll say, "Give me twenty-five jumps." They usually come back smiling. Check out these activity cards (link removed per board rules). You could print, laminate, and put them in a bowl for her to draw out to do something fun, then go back to a little handwriting. Just a thought.

About the writing lines, my ds had always used the 3 lines until this year as well. I thought we'd have a bigger struggle as it's definitely smaller than what he's use to. I found it's been easier for him in a way. I think sometimes the bigger lines are harder to write on. I know they are for me. Anyway, you can see some of his copywork of his poem here. It's at the bottom of the post. The rest of the poem is on a second piece of just lined paper. I didn't take a photo of that for my blog though. We have the Startwrite program and I made just lined pages the same space apart as the 3 lined pgs, and kept lowering it until I got to the size of wide ruled paper (what you'd find in the composition book a pp talked about ) and had him try out each one before school. His handwriting was actually better on the smaller spaces. I hope this makes sense as I'm having a hard time explaining. I guess I'm just trying to encourage to try just the lines.

[Happy2bMommyof3]

Hi again Gina!

My dd sounds similar to yours in the writing and spelling issues. As I stated before, we used the dry erase board every day. I guess having "proof" didn't occur to me . If it had, I probably would have done what the other moms have done with alternating paper every other day..but what we did worked well. My dd is 8 now and she did Beyond last year when she was 7. I mention that only because you may have more stringent goals for yours this year than I did for my dd last year, but here is what we did for the handwriting which caused us a bit of grief too. ... I remember being frustrated because I would have struggles with getting her to do 4 lines (or a stanza) of the poem so I asked the board here and got some wisdom from Carrie. She suggested I only require one absolutely perfect line each handwriting session. If I got less than what I knew was dd's best, I'd require more. She was so excited at this new way that she improved dramatically, and often she asked if she could do more. Of course I said yes! On a few occasions she turned in an entire poem, on her own, beautifully done. Requiring less of her caused her to excel. I don't understand it, but it worked! Also, I found these mead writing notebooks at Wal-Mart which have been amazing. Dd wasn't ready for the "real" paper I tried at the beginning of this year, but she had outgrown 3 lined paper. This is a transition notebook that gets them ready for real paper. I have attached an amazon link below to show it to you... (link removed per board rules).

[GinainMD]

I don't have time to look into all of the responses and links just now but I wanted to thank everyone for responding and I am going to go through all of that wisdom when I have time to really concentrate. Thanks again!

[8arrows]

I did not read all the responses, so this could be a repeat. When we did Beyond, I just took pictures of the words on the white board to keep for records.