Curriculum Home School Writing

I'm a freelance writer so I think it's fair to say curriculum home school WRITING is my favorite subject to teach.

Here are our top strategies for putting the punch into your home school writing curriculum:

1) Publish It!

Learning to write well takes practice. One way to encourage your children to write, write, and write some more is to publish their stories and articles. Have your aspiring authors create books they can hold and read over and over. We have published dozens of the children's books. It is so fun to scan the bookshelf and see the results of our years of curriculum home school writing.

Here Scott is reading a book he wrote and illustrated in the third grade about his CATS -- a real treasure:

2) Keep References Handy

Dictionary, thesaurus, rhyming dictionary, and the like are the tools of good writers.

b. Need help quickly? Here are some great free online reference tools. Now that’s handy!

	Online Reference Dictionary, Encyclopedia & more
Word:
Look in:	Dictionary & thesaurus Computing Dictionary Medical Dictionary Legal Dictionary Financial Dictionary Acronyms Idioms Wikipedia Encyclopedia Columbia Encyclopedia
by:	WordStarts withEnds withMentions

3. Have Fun!

You can find quite a few interactive grammar quizzes, writing prompts and other writing aids on the internet. Try to add time for these every week and before long your kids are gonna love writing and grammar. Here are a few of our favorites:

a. www.writingfix.com is an outstanding web site that has all kinds of interactive journal prompts, games (with in context lessons) , and more. You will definitely bookmark this site to use in your children’s curriculum home school WRITING program.

b. This Web site contains over 170 computer-graded interactive grammer quizzes, plus lessons on all things writing related.

c. Here are some fun words and games that change regularly so check back often.

Word of the Day
Web site content provided by The Free Dictionary


Match Up
Match each word in the left column with its synonym on the right. When finished, click Answer to see the results. Good luck!
Web site content provided by The Free Dictionary


Hangman
Web site content provided by The Free Dictionary

a. A few years ago my boys attended a writing seminar put on by Debra Bell Bell (author, homeschooler, and English teacher extraordinaire has several fabulous online high school English courses). The conference we attended is no longer being offered unfortunately. But, other similar types of seminars can be found. When you find one, don’t pass it up. This event was definitely a memory-maker. You will want to add one of these opportunities to your curriculum home school WRITING PROGRAM.

The boys teachers’ were none other than Bill Myers (of Wally McDoogle fame) and

Stephen Bly (an author of fiction western-style -- Scott is wearing Stephen's cowboy hat in the pic though it's a little hard to see). I still have the short story the boys wrote at this conference. It’s hilarious.

b. Another great conference for teens is Mt. Hermon Christian Writers' Conference. My son, Sean, and I attended a few years ago. This is one of the few Christian writers conferences that offers a teen track for young budding authors as well as adult tracks. The teen track is taught by Sharon Norris Elliott (wonderful teacher, author of “The Stupid Term Paper – How to Plan it, Write it, and Get an “A” on it,” among other distinctions).

a. Writer’s Helpers Online (WHO) is an unbelievable resource. Parents partner with Christian authors to nurture and inspire teen writers. Classes are offered in a variety of genres. There is even a teen-to-teen magazine called Teen Light where your teens can get published. This would be a great addition to your curriculum home school writing program.

b. As I mentioned before Debra Bell offers several online classes (a writing workshop for junior high students, an Advanced Placement course, etc.. Believe me, any of these classes would be outstanding additions to your curriculum home school WRITING PROGRAM.

c. Vantage Learning's My Access! is an incredible online writing development tool for students in the 4th grade through seniors in college. It would add so much to your curriculum home school writing program.

My Access! can be bought as part of a Sonlight full curriculum package, language arts package, or individually. Is coming up with writing assignments for your children difficult? Or, even worse, grading them? Then you'll love My Access! Both of these tasks are handled by My Access! And, the proof is in the research which has shown that students who use MY Access! are able to improve their writing scores by an average of close to 25% within just 6 to 8 weeks.

My daughter absolutely loves this program. Be sure to check it out today!

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