the road to inspired learning
Sometimes homeschooling high school makes my heart palpitate. For real. I quake in my boots a bit because I am solely responsible for educating my son. It’s a big job, and I don’t take it lightly. However, I want to give him ample time to explore his interests and pursue his passions. I also want […]
I took Simon to a library program in our teeny-tiny town one day. We went through the door; he headed to the left, and I was pulled to the right–to shelves full of library sale books. I saw at least two full racks of picture books. I smiled as I saw familiar, beloved titles such […]
Once upon a time I taught students how to write. High school students. Middle school students. I was an English teacher. I hate to admit this piece of trivia because I overuse clichés. I misuse commas. I abuse prepositions. And I have a fragment habit. It can be embarrassing to announce this to the whole wide web. However, […]
When art and writing collide, I am a happy girl. When I stumbled upon Show Me a Story at the library, I was thrilled. I immediately knew it was a winner, and I would some day teach a co-op class with all the amazing get-kids-writing ideas found inside the book. This class was such a joy […]
Within the past few months I have had four friends who homeschool approach me with different problems: Panicked Mom We've unschooled for several years, but now that my son is going to be entering high school, I want to "catch him up" in reading. Desperate Mom My middle school daughter is crying her way through a […]
I've professed my love of poetry here on the blog in the past. I've given you my Ten Favorite Poetry Books for Children. But I don't think I've ever admitted that sometimes it can be difficult to bring my danger-loving, adventure-seeking kid into the wonderful world of versed words. Sometimes poetry for kids is tricky. I found […]
This post is sponsored by How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night Sailed off in a wooden shoe,— Sailed on a river of crystal light Into a sea of dew. "Wynken, Blyken, and Nod" was the first poem I ever memorized. I was a squirrely […]
Happy Birthday to Hans Christian Andersen who was born in Denmark on April 2, 1805. He was zany and lanky and an amazing writer who is best known and loved for his timeless fairy tale classics. If your students are interested in learning about Andersen's life, read The Perfect Wizard: Hans Christian Andersen by Jane Yolen. Andersen's […]
My teacher tacked a picture to the bulletin board–a brown dog with droopy eyes and a forlorn face. She told us to write about the dog. Whatever we wanted. Just write. I was a little girl scribbling words ferociously, completely engaged by the visual writing prompt. Years later, when I was in college, my belief that art […]
I love playing with words, and I super-LOVE finding new ways to do this. Tagxedo is a free way to play with words and create art at the same time–one more way to engage your writer! Simon and I worked through a few of these last week, and I am going to share his cat […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 by the amazing Peggy Kaye. If you can't afford to buy it, try your library! This game is super simple: Have your student make a list. Yes. That's it. The key is […]
Elijah has been struggling with writing more than a few sentences each day, and I really want to boost his handwriting endurance and confidence. Today we tried a game, Roll to Write. Idea adapted from Peggy Kaye's Games for Writing book. To play you need: two pencils paper a die (or two) some titles (see […]
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 […]