the road to inspired learning
In the car the other night Simon announced, "I feel uneducated." He heard me hashing out some thoughts about a homeschooling method that is different than our own. He heard about a co-op where the kids his age spend an hour each week learning grammar. So Simon's announcement was quickly followed by a question, "What is grammar?" […]
My Simon-boy just started writing. A few days ago I showed him the free web interactives at ReadWriteThink, and asked him which one he would like. He has lots of ideas. Big ideas for future writing projects, but none of them included poetry. That's okay. But I want to stretch him a bit. And I love poetry. […]
He sits at the keyboard and plunk, plunk, plunks the keys. (I am so thankful he learned to type!) He calls to me from the other room, "Mom! Mom! I have 4,322 words!" My heart hops. Lately, both of my boys are crafting with words and enjoying it. So I have been plunk, plunk, plunking on […]
This unique creative writing lesson that may appeal to the most reluctant writer you know: Design a Circus Poster. Paul Fleishman and Kevin Hawkes teamed together to create Sidewalk Circus, a fun story in which the people of the town, living their everyday lives, are seen as circus performers. Design a Circus Poster Lesson Plan […]
We've never used a formal writing curriculum before. Nope. This was our first time wandering into the wonderful world of formal writing. I used WriteShop Junior D with Elijah (4th grade). I was provided with digital copies of the Teacher's Guide ($34.95), Student Activity Pack ($34.95), and Time-Saver Pack ($13.95). Getting Started It was a […]
“I don’t want to write!” Have you ever heard that before? Or maybe this one: “Writing hurts my hand!” Due to that second complaint, I choose Elijah’s writing tasks carefully. We do not use a formal writing curriculum, but we do use creative activities and games to build motor skills as well as brain connections. […]
Today we tried an easy creative writing lesson: a creative writing dice game, Roll to Write. I wanted to give the game a whirl because Elijah has been struggling with writing more than a few sentences each day. My goal is to find activities to boost his handwriting endurance and confidence. I also want to […]
This morning while we were walking, I noticed that Elijah kept saying some really cool things about spring. I told him when we got home that we'd work on putting his words in a poem. I gave him these simple prompts after our walk: What does spring smell like? What did you smell? What does […]
Here is another Tops and Bottoms that Elijah did for St. Patrick’s Day.
Handwriting doesn’t come easily for Elijah. It’s WORK. At this age, handwriting and story writing are two different skills. It’s hard when we ask a student to combine the two. It usually results in stories that aren’t much better than those first readers we subject them to (Dan ran fast. Sue ran fast. Dan and […]