Do I Have To Write It ALL BY MYSELF?!

CKW is a very reluctant writer - his brain (and mouth!) goes far too fast for his handwriting.  He produces a tonne of ideas, but has trouble getting them onto the page in paragraph form, and sometimes even into sentences.

We had planned to do the full Moving Beyond The Page (MBtP) 7-9 level this year, but the writing was quickly proving to be more then he could handle.  He was really starting to resist even attempting the process of writing, so I backed off and decided to save the 7-9 level until next year and, instead, we are doing the two language arts heavy concepts of 6-8 level this year: Community and Culture.   However, I have informed him that am not scribing anything for him in MBtP!  We do plenty of outside science and social science studies, and if I find that the amount of writing expected in MBtP for a particular day is quite heavy, then I will scribe for him in other subjects, but I really want him to learn to write on his own.   We are also doing (see links at the side) MCP Phonics C, Spelling Workout B, Easy Grammar 2, BraveWriter - The Wand, and WriteStart Primary C this year, so we are going to keep plugging along, with the goal of having his writing abilities equal to the level required at the 7-9 level of MBtP in time for the 2012-2013 academic year.

So far, he's doing great! Yes, he sometimes does find the MBtP readings to be 'babyish' at this level, but we most often discuss the topics presented in great detail, I always have him choose the second option for activities when they are available, and I try, as often as possible, to add in 'extras' as I find them listed on the MBtP IdeaShare forum.  So far, so good...

Happily, his writing is already improving by leaps and bounds and he continues to read more difficult books on his own and in the more challenging literature unit studies I choose that we discuss verbally.  For these, I went through MBtP, as well as Michael Clay Thompson's literature program and left out any books that they included so we wouldn't end up repeating things later on.  (I hope to add bits and bobs of Michael Clay Thompson's language arts program to our curriculum in the not too distant future, but that put the kibosh to this fall's planned Wind In The Willows pond unit study!)    

Last year, it was recommended to me at school that I should not worry about his handwriting, as he could move onto a keyboard anytime.  Several teaching professionals felt that handwriting was no longer a necessary skill 'in this day and age'.  But I strongly disagree!   As a traumatic brain injury survivor, I have discussed this with rehabilitation ocupational therapists, psychologists and speech therapists, and they have all strongly supported the studies showing that the act of physically writing letters and words helps both children and adults to build and maintain cognitive function.  Benefits include, but are not limited to, reading, writing, spelling, focus, memory, and executive function.  With this in mind, I've made the choice to slow down for a year to allow him to learn to write more easily - one of the best things about homeschooling is we've got lots of time!