Are your kids reluctant to write?
Is it difficult for your kids to put their ideas in writing?
Let me share an “ah-ha” moment I had when I was homeschooling my kids.
During our first year of homeschooling, I registered Ashley & Gentry for a writing workshop in Houston. They went kicking & screaming. You would have thought I had asked them to clean the entire bathroom with a toothbrush.
But after 4 days in this workshop, they had confidence in their writing. They wrote in our van, the entire way home (2 hours). What made the difference?
Remember that writing is a learned skill, it’s an art. It takes practice with the right tools. You can’t expect perfection without teaching and modeling for them first. I really don’t care for writing programs that give prompts. They do not teach & model the art of writing. Instead, they ask kids to write something without telling them how to accomplish that task.
Why do we give our child a blank piece of paper and ask him to write?
We wouldn’t do that when teaching multiplication facts!
Parents must be involved in teaching writing to their kids. Writing is not a “hands-off” subject in your homeschool. How can you be involved?
Modeling!
You need be a model as your are dealing with how to teach writing to your kids. This includes a wide variety of modeling, such as:
- How to write the alphabet
- How to write a sentence (with a capital & punctuation mark)
- How to organize your thoughts
- Take turns writing sentences for your child’s writing assignment. They’ll watch you write and learn from your modeling
- How to revise a paragraph
- How to put your ideas into a organized fashion
- How to improve your writing with strong verbs & quality adjectives
Don’t assume your kids know these concepts.
I know this may sound a little overwhelming to moms, especially if you don’t feel adequate in your own writing. I think the biggest key is no matter what you’re teaching, you need to MODEL writing skills & activities many times. This gives your child confidence in his own writing abilities.
Never teach concepts all at once, because you want to help your kids be successful. You should be their mentor, coming alongside your kids and making each step easy. When you come alongside, you give your kids the opportunity to be successful. And when they are successful, they will gain confidence & want to continue writing.
How can you do this in your homeschool?
Take a look at WriteShop.
Kim Kautzer & her team have pulled together FUN activities for the entire writing process. All along the way, WriteShop will show you how to model writing for your kids. It’s the very BEST way for your kids to learn how to write.
Whether your kids are learning how to write a sentence or how to write a research paper, WriteShop will give moms the confidence to be a great writing teacher.
WriteShop has activities at all ages…take a look here:
http://howtohomeschoolmychild.com/resources/writeshop
I also want to invite you to our FREE writing workshop called Help! How Do I Teach Writing? You can still reserve your spot right here. If you want to know more about what we’ll cover, click here.
NOTE:.
.Question: How do you teach concepts in your homeschool? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
2 Comments
Thank you again for sharing your knowledge about homeschooling! I am a new homeschooling mom and have to admit I am very nervous! I really enjoyed your webinar about teaching writing skills to our children. What a big task ahead because I vividly remember that red marking pen on all my papers growing up BUT I do feel more prepared to begin this step after listening to your webinar. Thank you again~!
The biggest thing homeschool moms can do for their children is encourage & model writing skills. Find 3 things to praise before making corrections.
I must admit that I wasn’t very good at this. I praised first when it came to character, but not academics. So…now, I’m encouraging moms to praise in academics before correcting.