Week 9: Our sentence pattern is S-Vl-PN.

Today's class felt FULL! We loaded our brains with information from beginning to end. What an opportunity! Have I told you I love your kids?

I'm skipping ahead, but I want you to PLEASE encourage their IEW writing at home this week by telling them how great Mrs. Erin believes their ancient Egypt papers are. Their hard work (and yours!) definitely paid dividends on this three-week assignment. I am pleased and proud with both the effort and the results. I almost teared up in class today as I considered how successfully each student had tackled these paragraphs! Wouldn't they have thought me silly and strange? Rightly so, I'm afraid, but yeah for IEW and our young writers!

The assignment I handed out today, Lesson 9, marks our transition to writing stories. The lesson gives families the option of writing one, two or three paragraphs on the Israelites' exodus from Egypt. Choose whichever works best for your family this week. We discussed in class the elements a good story needs, but it wouldn't hurt to review those again at home. Even if your student writes one paragraph only, that one paragraph should contain the complete story sequence. We did not add any new dress-ups or style techniques, so refer to your checklists for each paragraph's requirements. As to weekly schedule, I'd suggest outlines Wednesday; rough drafts Thursday; revisions Friday; title, labeling, illustration and checklist Monday.

Moving backward to EEL, we covered principal parts using our verb charts and Week 9 memory work. Use the memory work and corresponding charts at home this week to jump-start verb conversations and deepen students' understanding of how verbs work in sentences. If they haven't already memorized them from Foundations, start chanting that linking verb list.

We also introduced our fourth sentence pattern, S-Vl-PN. I told the students that while I haven't found it written anywhere yet, I believe all S-Vl-PN sentences use a form of "to be." That's why it's important for them to know the principal parts of this oft-used linking verb: to be, am, are, is, was, were, be, being, been. Using your EEL Student Task sheets at home this week, dictate S-Vl-PN sentences, dress them up with adverbs and prepositional phrases, and then parse and diagram them. Throw in a S-Vi or S-Vt-DO here and there; I believe the juxtaposition of different sentence patterns help students grasp the bigger picture.

If accomplishing the tasks of both EEL and IEW becomes overwhelming this week (or in the weeks to come), take a deep breath and choose what to let go. Most of these students will take this class again next year. Thus they have plenty of time to master the material.

If that's the case in your house, spend a few minutes a day on verbs this week using the memory work and charts and then complete three or four S-Vl-PN sentences. I'd recommend 30 minutes maximum for EEL. Then move on to IEW. If your student thrives on IEW and time is abundant, go for three paragraphs. If not, one solid, well-written paragraph is an excellent goal.

For students moving to Challenge A next year, look for understanding with EEL but invest your time in IEW. To be honest, I believe most of the older ones have a pretty good grasp on EEL right now. I think second semester will pose a greater challenge. So if they can spend more time on their writing now through Week 12, I'd encourage it.

My older daughter, Maggie, is enrolled this year in Challenge A, which uses IEW's Bible-Based Writing Lessons. We're writing lengthy papers weekly. It's tough, mostly because it takes MUCH time to brainstorm, write and revise each paragraph well. As a result, I believe the better our students can hone those writing skills in Essentials, the better off they'll be in Challenge a year (or two or three) down the road.

Unsolicited advice in those last four paragraphs, but you can tell what's on my mind...

Only three weeks to go! See you next Tuesday.