Writing with Skill is a writing curriculum for grades 6-10, which follows Writing with Ease. I broadcasted a Facebook Live event about this curriculum because we use it and find it very good. Last week, I reviewed Writing with Ease.
Writing with Skill, level 1
These Facebook Live events happen every Sunday at 4pm, EST. I try to keep them under 15 minutes, because I know homeschool parents are super busy, even on a Sunday afternoon. If you cannot make it to the live events, the recording will get posted to the blog and to the Facebook page.
Susan Wise Bauer wrote Writing with Skill initially for grades 5-8, but then realized it would be rather ambitious to expect a fifth grader to start with level 1. In our own experience, she is correct.
https://www.facebook.com/HomeschoolWays/videos/324706358885028/
My children first finished Writing with Ease at the end of fifth grade. Then, in sixth grade, they started Writing with Skill. Even in sixth grade, you will probably find that it is slow going. There are three levels, each with 36 weeks arranged into four daily lessons per week. A student text and an instructor text are provided. You need both volumes.
The instructor text makes this curriculum super easy to use. Even if you do not think you can write well, you can teach your child how to write based on the instructions, examples, and explanations.
Through imitation and analysis of great writings, children learn to write properly. There are narrations, outlines, literary analyses, topoi, and copia. The passages of literature children read are descriptions, narrations, biographies, poems, etc.
The author even suggests several schedules to use this curriculum through middle school and high school. One starts as late as eighth grade, finishing the third level in the 10th grade. Then, you can start IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) basic in the 11th grade, and the advanced level in 12th grade.
You know your child better than anybody and should decide accordingly. Don’t you appreciate flexibility?
