Teach your children English from their own daily writing experiences in this "school journal" that I use in my own homeschool. Everyday my children write their journal entries on special lined paper that promotes good penmanship. The top of the page is left unlined for illustrating their writing.
As they fix their mistakes with Mom's help, misspelled words are transferred to the spelling section for a custom-made spelling list to be practiced every day and tested once a week. The teacher's section includes lessons to teach on creative writing, poetry, prefixes and suffixes, antonyms, abbreviations, punctuation, contractions, letter writing, and more.
Dictation is a very beneficial way to teach children to write well, so I've included selections and instructions for dictation: inspirational quotes, patriotic quotes, character-building poems, and scriptures. Comes in a 3-ring binder, which becomes your child's ongoing school journal year after year. Paper line size begins with wide spaced kindergarten lines, and progresses to narrower lined paper for 5th graders.
At the end of the year, we take the journal pages out of the notebook and have them bound (approx. $3-4) at the printer into a treasured childhood book. (The printer commented that these were so precious he couldn't help reading a few pages!) I developed this program for my own children after years of trying different writing and language workbooks, and think you'll find it works very well. Use it year after year, just by replacing the journal paper (250 sheets each).
Hear what others say:
I've tried about every workbook and English program on the market, and my kids were still bored and not making much progress. Then I discovered your journal program. It seemed too simple to work, but I can't believe the results! My kids writing has improved drastically, and they are so proud of their bound journal books and want to show them off to everyone. Thanks!
—SueAnn
Interesting, easy-to-write-about topics are featured in this unique card deck. On each card a fact or idea is summarized in a few sentences. Then a question is posed that inspires some great writing responses. For example, from one card: "When we go to sleep, our minds create dreams. Each dream lasts about one half hour and we have about four dreams each night." Now the question is asked to stimulate writing: "If you could pick something to dream about, what would it be? What is the best dream that you can remember?" Asking those questions can be the flicker of inspiration that can develop into a meaningful piece of writing. This is our favorite way to get a writing idea!
Who's got mail? You do with this fun and sturdy miniature mailbox, complete with flag. If you have a reluctant writer, watch enthusiasm grow when there's mail to read and return! Write each child's name on a mailbox and let them enjoy exchanging notes. Great handwriting motivation! Dimensions: 5" long by 3 1/2" tall.
Want to teach your child to be an excellent writer? Start here! I like to teach my children to use a keyboard while still quite young—5, 6 or 7 year olds can manage it! It gives children the freedom of being able to get their thoughts down on paper long before they have the fine muscle coordination to tirelessly handwrite out a story or journal entry. Typing Instructor is unsurpassed for their teaching quality, and the format is plenty of fun. After the lesson, you can choose from 60 music selections (or silence) to type along with, and the typing practice can be chosen from hundreds of interesting magazine-type articles on all subjects. There are fun arcade games to prove your efficiency at every level. We've tried lots of programs, but this rates #1 with us!
System requirements:
Microsoft Windows XP, 2000, ME, 98, or Windows Vista 50 MB RAM or more 580 MB Hard Drive space or more Processor should be 133 MHz or more.
How you you improve on my favorite typing program, Typing Instructor Deluxe? By adding Spanish (along with English), plus even more fun games, plus making it MAC compatible as well as PC (Windows 7)!
Mac System Requirements:
PowerPC G4, G5 or Intel Core Duo processor; 800 MHz processor or higher Mac OS X 10.4.6 10.5 CD-ROM Drive 580 MB Hard Drive space Video card with 32 MB of video RAM
These books really are "just right" for teaching children to write! Exercises are to be written right in the workbook.
Book 1 teaches capitalization, basic punctuation, spelling, indenting, and constructing paragraphs. Other chapters encourage the use of colorful descriptions, creative word choices, and comparisons.
Book 2 begins with a review of capitalization and basic punctuation and then works on the nuts and bolts of sentence and paragraph writing.
Later chapters focus on writing stories, character and setting development, and use of innovative, interesting details. Inclusion of dialogue and writing from a different perspective are also covered, along with editing and publishing.
A great way to teach children to write! Paperback, 140-160 pages, for ages 7 and up.
Make your writing stand out! Learn to organize ideas, choose good grammar, make punchy paragraphs, polish a presentation, and proofread for mistakes. Actual selections from kids' writing helps you understand the concept. Great index helps you find help fast. A Scholastic reference guide for ages 10 and up. Paperback, 142 pages.
Here's a fun and meaningful Christian approach to writing for either boys or girls. Perfect those writing skills while creating your own personal history! Each decorated page poses a question and provides plenty of space for responding with a composition, detailing the writer's own likes and dislikes, experiences and feelings.
When you finish the book you will have written your own story about yourself. Created by Julianna Hopkins (my daughter!). Each level contains different questions. This spiral bound, write-in book will become a treasured keepsake. What an easy way to write your personal life story! Junior is for ages 8-12 years, other is for ages 12-18 years.
I loved using WordSmith for creative writing assignments this year, but found that my younger children who weren't secure in the parts of speech (noun, adjective, etc.) struggled along. Hooray! Now a self-directed course of the same quality for the younger student, ages 9-12. Teaches using parts of speech in writing sentences, sentence structure, paragraph writing, dialogue, topic sentences, and more. Using a newspaper as a basis for all writing, this easy-to-use writing course provides a year's worth of interesting composition assignments. Spiral bound, 120 pages.
Wordsmith is designed to get students excited about writing, and it certainly accomplished that for us! Each lesson explains itself to the student, and then step-by-step leads him through the lesson with a write-in-the-blank workbook. Topics include: "So You Think You Hate Writing", word games using parts of speech, sentence structure, figures of speech, describing a person, narrative, writing dialogue, point of view, how to proofread, etc. The exercises are great for reluctant writers with enough fun to keep them going. Children must know some basic grammar (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) before using this course. Optional Teachers Manual briefly explains daily lesson information and assignments and gives possible answers, but is not essential. Paperback, 90 pages, ages 12 and up.
After you finish Wordsmith, advance to this self-directed program for building and polishing practical writing skills. You will learn to organize and classify ideas, write letters to suit any occasion, and organize your original ideas into excellent compositions. Includes study skills, note-taking, summarizing, brush-up on mechanics, technical skills, paragraphing, and more. The final unit in the book teaches essay writing. Paperback, 93 pages, for ages 14 and up.
If you don't want to have to dream up assignments to teach your children the writing process, you will appreciate the thoroughness of Writing Strands. This write-in workbook first identifies the skills being taught, lists objectives, presents models, gives prewriting experiences, breaks the exercises into manageable parts, and then helps your child produce essays, reports and creative pieces. The material is very well organized and arranged into with day-by-day assignments. Instructions are written to the child, not the teacher, so your child can follow the assignments independently. Paperback, approximately 100 pages.
This book especially for homeschoolers will lead you from simple, descriptive sentences through essays, interviews, and more. Write better letters, an autobiography, short story, family history, news articles, and a photojournalism article using your own photos. When the adventure is done, your students will become adept at using the tools of writing.
I really like this comprehensive and thoughtful guide to writing instruction. Paperback, 201 pages for 6th grade through high school. An excellent writing course!
This entire year's writing course for ages 12 years and up will help you write your very own novel bit by bit! My children received this course with great enthusiasm because they actually created a book of their very own imagination, a fun and noble accomplishment, rather than spending your English time on "throw-away" worksheets. Learning to write is just what happens along the way to getting your great story down!
The author is fun, humorous, and includes Biblical principles to help students gain a moral vision for writing excellence. Includes grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure too. Ifind my students working on their "books" in their spare time and delighting when they come up with a great idea—this makes writing exciting! Complete course includes student worktext and teacher's guide with answer key. Paperback, 220 pages for grades 5th to 12th.
Here's an exciting way to perfect those English skills. Each entry in this write-in workbook is a brief story accompanied by a picture. But watch out, it is trickier than it seems. Each story contains several errors in punctuation, grammar, usage, etc. These workbooks are sure to develop a sharp editing eye. All answers and explanations are in the back of the book, so your child can correct his own work. These books are challenging and fun!
With literature as its basis, this popular English program integrates spelling, reading, grammar, vocabulary, writing, poetry, research, and study skills. Besides that, it is easy for moms to use—all the preparation is done for you! The basic book contains everything needed to be both a teacher's manual and a student's workbook. The answers are included in a side bar on each page, which makes for easy self-correction. (Cover them with a slip of paper while doing the assignments on separate paper. Some pages will require you to write directly in the book or photocopy.) If you want to make life easier, purchase the optional Student Activity Book that contains the same student work found in the basic book (without the answers) in an appealing, illustrated format with space to write in all the answers, as well as some extra enrichment activities such as word puzzles. Each level uses the reading books listed below as an integral part of the program. Complete kit for each grade level includes the Basic Book, the Student Activity Book, plus all the reading books you will need to complete the course.
