Making homeschool decisions easy
We use copywork in our home since I have two boys that don’t like to write. I try to find many ways to enhance their writing experience and help with their penmanship. I am picky though on what I will allow them to use. I don’t just want them to copy words on a paper. I want them to learn something as they learn
We enjoy incorporating art into our unit studies. There are many ways to accomplish this, but one of my favorites is to have my children do a lesson from Draw Write Now, a series of books containing beginning drawing lessons and handwriting practice for primary and elementary students. The author, Marie Hablitzel, developed this collection of lessons for her second-grade students after seeing that they were becoming
Guest post by Dana Hanley I never thought much about handwriting when I started homeschooling. I never thought about its principles or developed any particular philosophy of what handwriting was or how good handwriting should be developed. I taught it exactly as I had been taught: through repetition and drill, expecting perfect conformity of letters. I must confess that I have had no more luck
Writing is something that I have always liked to do. However, not everyone does, especially many children. Sometimes children (and even writers) struggle to think of ideas and things to write about. So, what can a parent do to help their children with this? Last school year, I volunteered to teach a writing class at my homeschool co-op. I had to undergo a DVD training
This year we are using Susan Wise Bauer’s wonderful new program, The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease. This curriculum teaches the elementary-aged writer (or struggling older child) how to express themselves on paper. I find this program simple to implement and enjoyable to teach. My children look forward to their daily copywork lesson, and they are thriving on the step by step approach. Easily accomplished
IEW, or Institute for Excellence in Writing has a top of the line writing course called Teaching Writing, Structure and Style. It is a DVD based writing program by Andrew Pudewa that teaches you how to teach writing to a child of every age. I’ve used IEW since 2004 and I’ve taught co-op classes and small groups in my home, giving me a lot of experience
Story Starters, by Karen Andreola, is perfect for your reluctant writers and it is a creative writing supplement that can be used for a change of pace along side any writing program. If you’ve heard about using narration as a grammar tool, you will definitely want Story Starters on your school shelf. The name Story Starters is just what it says, a start of a
