One of my goals in homeschooling creatively has always been to help kids love writing. Whether students believe it or not, writing is an essential skill that finds its way into real life quite often. Teaching writing with real-life methods is a great way to convince kids of its importance. Not to mention, anytime an…
One of the things I love so much about nature study is its ability to merge together so many other academic subject areas. Nature study and language arts, for example, go hand in hand together. Think about all the reading and writing that take place as nature journals are written, field guides read, or new…
Typing instruction has always been an important part of our homeschool. Not just for the sake of learning to type, but as an integral part of our language arts program. In today’s technology age, of course it makes perfect sense to introduce our children early and often to correct typing format before bad habits are…
Why would anyone use picture books to teach expository writing? Because picture books are written by master authors who can teach us clearly through their examples. Not to mention, it doesn’t take long to read through most picture books, so you can share examples and get right to the work of writing. What is expository…
It’s time for another post in my series about using picture books to teach writing to middle and high school students! Today’s topic is using picture books to teach text structure. What is text structure? It’s how the information written in a text is organized. Learning to identify text structure as a reader can greatly improve…
My children don’t typically jump for joy when given a writing assignment. Do yours? I’ve found several ways over the years to take writing from dreaded to enjoyable in our home, though. One of the most beloved of those ideas is writing newsletters. Several years ago, I wrote the monthly newsletter for our church. I…
Voice. It’s in every good piece of writing, but it’s a tad elusive when it comes to defining and teaching. Writing that connects with readers has voice. Writing that makes you feel emotion has voice. Writing that comes to life has voice. Writing that sounds unique or comes from the heart has voice. Voice is…
I {heart} picture books for so many reasons. One giant reason is their ability to teach so many in depth concepts in such non-intimidating ways that students often don’t see fear in the lessons that follow. One such example is writing. I can’t tell you the times I’ve been asked by homeschooling parents to tutor…
Living literature isn’t just for reading – it’s also great for teaching writing styles! Serious writing lessons don’t start in our homeschool until middle and high school, but believe it or not, I use picture books quite often to help me teach. Since picture books can be read in one sitting, they are perfect examples…
I’ve been sharing a little series of posts about how to use living literature to teach writing – specifically, narratives and persuasive pieces. In this post, I’m focusing less on a particular style of writing and more on writing with style – otherwise known as literary techniques. No matter the age of your children, you…
In my last post about teaching narrative writing, I mentioned how the subject of writing tends to be a thorn in the side of many homeschoolers. It doesn’t have to be that way, though! In this little series of posts, I hope to encourage you that teaching writing styles to your middle and high school…
If there’s one subject that seems to befuddle homeschoolers more than any other, it’s writing. I hear it during homeschool consultations and casually talking among homeschool friends, and I see questions about it all over the internet. This post contains affiliate links. People are often surprised when I tell them I don’t formally teach writing…
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