Walking by the Way

More Writing Fun

Obviously it would be wrong for me to share all of Peggy Kaye’s ideas with you, but I am going to share one more today (and maybe just ONE more in the next few weeks).   If you have a student who needs to push a pencil more (become more fluid with handwriting skills), you really should check out Games for Writing.  If you can’t afford to buy it, try your library!

This is a simple idea.   In fact, it’s so simple I wonder why I didn’t think of it.   Have your student make a list.   Yep, that’s it.   The key is to make it a list that your student finds fun or funny.  

Elijah’s first list was How to Drive Your Mom Crazy.   He thought this was fantastic.  You should’ve heard all the possible scenarios he was contemplating.    For the first time in his life, he didn’t ask how to spell every word!   He figured most of them out on his own and then had a few errors.    Again, he didn’t complain or give me that look (the I’m-surely-going-to-die-if-I-have-to-do-this look). 

Here is the list:

1. Take your clothes off.�
Ah, me son know me well.  Me hate when boys strip down to underwear.  Why they do this?  Me know– they do to drive me crazy!

2. Dump cereal all over the place.

3. Eat a hunk of brownies without asking.

4. Wake her up too early.

5. Take the cushions off the couch.

Here are some more list making ideas I have ready to go for Elijah.

~List Making Ideas (Handwriting Without Tears font)

~List Making Ideas (Primary font)

A Little Bit of Magic

Elijah has been struggling with writing more than a few sentences each day, and I really want to boost his endurance and confidence.  I posted a plea to Facebook yesterday and got some ideas & encouragement.  I also remembered that I had Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye sitting on my shelf (for the past 5 years!) and had never really looked through it.  So, I pulled the book down.  All I have to say…Peggy Kaye is a genius!  

Elijah and I tried one of the games today (in his second workbox).  

You need some titles (I am sharing mine in case you need some on the fly), two pencils, a piece of paper, and a die.   That’s it!

You can randomly select a title (draw one out of a bowl) if you want, but I let Elijah choose one.  He chose "Chocolate for Lunch" (of course!).   I started the game by rolling the die and writing the corresponding number of words on the paper.   Then it was Elijah’s turn to roll and continue the story.   I did not let him write more (or less) than what the die said.    It took us about 45 minutes to write our story.  

This was SO GREAT.   I can not tell you what a good time we had.  Elijah didn’t complain about writing (not ONE time).   We laughed a lot.  He’s funny!   I also had a chance to explain when and why to add end punctuation.    I didn’t correct his upper case letters.  He has a bad habit of writing in ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME.  It drives me crazy, but I wanted this to be fun.   And it was.  It is a memory I will always have.  (The day my son enjoyed writing!)  

Here is our story…

Chocolate for Lunch
One day I thought I should have chocolate for lunch.  I started out with a fat Hershey bar.  Next, I ate a chocolate bunny.  I also gobbled brownies with chocolate ice cream and delicious hot fudge sauce.  For dessert I had chocolate covered pretzels.  The next day I was feeling icky.  I went to the dentist.  He was not happy with me!   The End  :)

Comic Writing (for Albert)

One of the lessons in the Five in a Row Volume IV manual for Albert (a book we recently did a unit study on), is to make your own comic. 

Here is Elijah’s!

Runny Babbit was taking a walk. 

He meets a few munny fonsters.

But it was really just his friends!  

If you want to make a comic like this, go to Read Write Think’s Comic Creator

Leprechaun Writing

Here is another Tops and Bottoms that Elijah did for St. Patrick’s Day.

I am so PROUD!

Handwriting doesn’t come easily for Elijah.  It’s WORK. 

So, what was I thinking when I pulled out something new today? It’s a book called Tops and Bottoms Writing Forms by Evan Moor.    When I told Elijah to write a story about a bear (the form he chose) on his six lined HWOT paper, he looked at me like I had purple ears and a pink nose.   He said, "Mom, I can not fit a story on that paper."     And I thought…well, I could make him write one of those stories…"Once there was a bear.   It met a friend.  They ate lunch.   THE END"

Here is his finished product (which may look sloppy to you, but I know how hard he worked on this, and I am so HAPPY!):

Just a Happy Homeschooling Mom,