Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources writing curriculum advice desperately needed

Hello, I am new the these boards and this is my very first post. I've been homeschooling for 5 years and I need some help finding curriculum and resources for a very independent learner in grade 5. My daughter is 10 and will be starting grade 5 soon. She has always refused instruction when it comes to writing and so it is always a neglected subject. If you know of any good curriculum (including online resources) that would be helpful I would greatly appreciate your suggestions. She will work from workbooks, even though I'm not a fan of workbooks. Ideally all instruction should be contained within the curriculum. She needs to tackle all areas of writing, both creative and non-fiction writing. Thanks so much.

I like http://www.time4writing.com/ We did a class last summer. While not designed for gifted, it covers fundamental writing concepts that are important. To add challenge, just take a class for older kids. Instead of elementary school writing, take middle school writing.

Has she resisted instruction to the point she has had no instruction and can't write or is she actually quite a good writer? Or somewhere in between?

I have heard good things about the Michael Clay Thompson program for language arts, EPGY, CTY, and Athena's Academy.

Writing Strands is something to look at....might be something that works for your kid, might not.

The 6+1 Writing Traits book is really good. Our school uses it to some degree in their writing lessons -- I was surprised to see it mentioned, actually, because I got the book as a completely separate thing from the school classes.

You might want to check this out. I have heard others recommend her and my DS is doing the summer Reading Response class now.

http://wordwise-instruction.weebly.com/

Depending on where your dc is at already, Writing and Rhetoric would be another choice. We are doing MCT this year, but using Writing and Rhetoric for writing. The suggested grade levels would be high for a regular student. My dd should have been in 3rd last year by age, and we did the Fable level. She liked it, wrote willingly, and learned things. A 10 y.o. student might start in Narrative.
http://classicalacademicpress.com/writing-rhetoric-1/

If dc is already writing well, consider Lively Art of Writing (there a free open source workbook) with some essay topic changes- those in the book are a little dated- and a subscription to Stone Soup Magazine.

HTH Bean