I'm a retired teacher who takes great interest in what homeschooling parents are doing these days. When I was teaching English in the middle grades and would ask the students to write about an experience, I was aware of two things. First, many students from lower economic backgrounds had few experiences outside of the classroom. Their summers were not filled with vacations and field trips; they weren't taken to libraries and museums. I applaud your efforts to write about what your children have experienced as well as the history bits. Second, I noticed that we don't teach sentence construction. Usually, at the lower grades, students wrote a few words and then their teachers prodded them to add to their sentences. They wrote sentences with "and ... and ... and". English has lots of interesting constructions in its sentences. When I read a biography of Benjamin Franklin (American printer and patriot), I was struck by his method of reading Punch magazines imported from Britain and then trying to reconstruct the sentences from memory. He was trying to educate himself but he was also exploring his own writing style. When you read a sentence with your kids, could you look at the styling and then try to "copy in a new way"? Peter Rabbit's "Round the end of the cucumber frame, whom should he meet but ..." is a great example of suspense. Your young writers could come round the end of innumerable objects to meet all sorts of people and things. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much for the very kind shout-out, Catherine!
It is very noble of you to take the task of schooling your children, and it sounds like they are well on their way to becoming impressive adults. I love your idea of instituting daily reading and writing time for your children and think a science notebook would be very useful for them. Learning to design experiments to test their questions about why things happen would be an incredibly useful skill. Just the thought of questioning why or how should serve them very well.
Oh, I love these suggestions! You’ve given me ideas! My two boys have been very slow to pick up handwriting and writing in general—the co-op we attended previously had a requirement starting in third grade to do book reports, and my oldest hated it, so now he’s very resistant to writing anything. He loves science experiments and books, though… I think I may buy a science themed notebook and encourage him to record a fact or two every now and then. Maybe we can gently start over and I can help him enjoy writing eventually.
That’s a great idea! It’s so hard to strike the balance between getting the child to do something that’s really non-negotiable, without putting them off it so that they’ll never want to do it unless absolutely forced to. I think finding something that fits the child’s interests has a much better chance of success. Good luck!
This was a wonderful idea. I was also homeschooled by my mother and I fully plan on homeschooling my (future) kids. I hadn't considered writing as an exercise, especially at that young of an age. I hated book reports growing but you've shown there's a better way. I believe that if something is interesting, learning will happen automatically and it certainly seems like you nailed that formula. Well done!
I'm a retired teacher who takes great interest in what homeschooling parents are doing these days. When I was teaching English in the middle grades and would ask the students to write about an experience, I was aware of two things. First, many students from lower economic backgrounds had few experiences outside of the classroom. Their summers were not filled with vacations and field trips; they weren't taken to libraries and museums. I applaud your efforts to write about what your children have experienced as well as the history bits. Second, I noticed that we don't teach sentence construction. Usually, at the lower grades, students wrote a few words and then their teachers prodded them to add to their sentences. They wrote sentences with "and ... and ... and". English has lots of interesting constructions in its sentences. When I read a biography of Benjamin Franklin (American printer and patriot), I was struck by his method of reading Punch magazines imported from Britain and then trying to reconstruct the sentences from memory. He was trying to educate himself but he was also exploring his own writing style. When you read a sentence with your kids, could you look at the styling and then try to "copy in a new way"? Peter Rabbit's "Round the end of the cucumber frame, whom should he meet but ..." is a great example of suspense. Your young writers could come round the end of innumerable objects to meet all sorts of people and things. Keep up the good work!
I love this idea Sarah, thanks!
Thank you so much for the very kind shout-out, Catherine!
It is very noble of you to take the task of schooling your children, and it sounds like they are well on their way to becoming impressive adults. I love your idea of instituting daily reading and writing time for your children and think a science notebook would be very useful for them. Learning to design experiments to test their questions about why things happen would be an incredibly useful skill. Just the thought of questioning why or how should serve them very well.
Thank you again!
Oh, I love these suggestions! You’ve given me ideas! My two boys have been very slow to pick up handwriting and writing in general—the co-op we attended previously had a requirement starting in third grade to do book reports, and my oldest hated it, so now he’s very resistant to writing anything. He loves science experiments and books, though… I think I may buy a science themed notebook and encourage him to record a fact or two every now and then. Maybe we can gently start over and I can help him enjoy writing eventually.
That’s a great idea! It’s so hard to strike the balance between getting the child to do something that’s really non-negotiable, without putting them off it so that they’ll never want to do it unless absolutely forced to. I think finding something that fits the child’s interests has a much better chance of success. Good luck!
This was a wonderful idea. I was also homeschooled by my mother and I fully plan on homeschooling my (future) kids. I hadn't considered writing as an exercise, especially at that young of an age. I hated book reports growing but you've shown there's a better way. I believe that if something is interesting, learning will happen automatically and it certainly seems like you nailed that formula. Well done!
This is v inspiring and encouraging Catherine - now feeling slightly more enthusiastic about planning some writing prompts for F! X