Writing with Ease: Level 3 Workbook (The Complete Writer)

This is our second year using this program. My son loves the story excerpts that the author has provided and I love that the lessons are already done for me in an organized easy-to-follow program.Last year I would read the excerpts to him and this year he is reading them out loud. He does reading and summary writing one day and the other day I will have him narrate to me what he read and I will write it down and then we do copywork (in place of dictation). I used the dictation exercises in Level 2 - even though I did have to help him quite a bit with the spelling. In Level 3 I gave up using the dictation exercises within the first week - the sentences are extremely long and the vocabulary is not above his head as far as understanding but way above his spelling ability. You have words such as, influence, situation, ferocious, poisonous, scientists, etc. There are also hyphenated words and semi colons and neither of these concepts are covered up to this point in this book or in First Language Lessons Level 3. I use the dictation exercises as copy work. I have dictation that I use from First Language Lessons Level 3 and his spelling work that are perfect for him.The reading excerpts in Level 3 are not as interesting as they were in Level 2. Level 2 has great excerpts from classic children's stories, such as Pippi Longstocking, The Borrowers, and Dr. Doolittle. In Level 3 there is a lot of non-fiction entries and even entries from her History of the World books. My son does not like the excerpts from the history books since he has already heard it before and to be honest, it is not as fun as listening to Pippi Longstocking.My son is 8 and in third grade and tests in a seventh grade level for Language Arts and I am sure that this series is due some credit for that achievement. I would highly recommend this series since it does give you guided exercises for the entire school year, the material is rigorous for this age group, and the activities are consistent yet interesting with the variety of reading that is included (you read the excerpt then write/narrate/dictate about them). No matter what program you use you will have to make adjustments for your child and for me it was to change the dictation into copywork. I feel that he still gets benefits from copying these more complicated sentences and avoids both of us getting frustrated. Happy learning!!

The Complete Writer: Level 3 is exactly what I was wanting for my 8 year old son. He has always been a good reader, but did not love writing. Many of the writing programs that I have found focus more on handwriting without any content. This book is perfect for a child that is ready to move beyond just handwriting and into actually writing something that has purpose. For each lesson, you read a short excerpt from classic children's literature and then you have a writing assignment that also reinforces reading comprehension. The stories are my favorite part of the program. Some of the stories included are: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Paul Bunyan Swings His Ax, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Babe: The Gallant Pig, Anne of Green Gables, The Black Stallion, King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, and The Jungle Book...just to name a few. The assignments that follow teach the student to become familiar with central themes, narrative threads, and reinforce grammar lessons and parts of speech. These are concepts that I struggled with in high school and college because I did not have a solid foundation in elementary school. I love this program and I feel it teaches children to begin to think critically. I would not recommend it for a child younger than 8 because it really begins to build on things that should be learned in the grammar stage. If your child struggles in reading and grammar, I might even wait until 4th grade or beyond to use this book. If nothing else, it builds a love of reading in children and produces creative thinkers and writers in the process!

I have finally found the help we needed to improve my 9 year old dyslexic son's writing. Like another reviewer experienced, my son struggled with the summarizing of the reading the first week or 2. He obviously just needed to learn this skill and by week 3 he had no problem. After just 3 weeks, I can see my son's confidence in his writing has grown greatly. One of the techniques this uses that I believe has really helped, is for the student to dictate some to the teacher, while the teacher writes the sentences. Then, the teacher dictates the sentences back for the student to write. This has trained my son how to keep the words in his head and then put it on paper. Also, there is enough variety in the lesson each day to keep it interesting, for us both!

This book has worked well for my 9 year old son, who doesn't like to write at all. It is easy to follow and is organized by week and day, with four days making up one week. The lessons so far consist of dictation, narration, or a combination of both from selections of different books. I like this the best because it has introduced my son to books such as The Story of Dr. Dolittle, Ginger Pye, and Paul Revere and I. The selections the author uses piques the interest of my son, so he wants to read more from these books! Anything that encourages reading is wonderful! The daily lessons don't take very long, sometimes as little as 10 minutes when there is a dictation lesson, but I have seen him progress and I know it's working for us!

We like this series. My sons are in WWE 1 and 3 and Writing with Skill 1. They all enjoy them and I really like nearly all of the literature selections. I skip the ones that overly glorify war, but I appreciate all the others. There's a little juggling, as there is some parent involvement in all of these books, but its manageable. I like the slow ramp-up into writing, too, as I'm realizing that the classical idea of not rushing the mechanics of writing makes sense. My oldest is also using Grammar for the Well Trained Mind, which is very good too. I plan to start my middle one on the grammar book in a year or two.