In terms or writing assignments, we don't use any workbooks or curriculum. I kind of wing it. Not sure that's so great, but I am more at easy with the verbal side of things.
We did a character development "assignment".
The idea was to invent the characters in the story before even thinking out the story.
It was very open ended and fun.
DD7 started writing about crayon people. For example: Sky Blue was a girl crayon about her age,, etc. She mapped out all the characters and named them. Then she would write a little here and there. She kept going back to each crayon and adding personality traits and interweaving their "stories".
She never organized it into an actual story, but it's a work in process.
She really enjoyed it and I think it's a good excersice to cultivate her writing "voice" which seems to be what the school is focusing on in terms or writing.
Questions wrote:
ps - in response to one of the earlier posts, I checked out many of the links on your site last night, but almost all of them refer to workbook based programs. I think we need a little more excitement so that he's learning without even realizing he's learning - which is how he picks up everything anyway. Thanks again.
The character development project was more like a game. For a child who doesn't like to do extensive writing, you could have them dictate, to a recorder or to you.
Incog
