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Earlier this week, I had a wonderful back-and-forth email conversation with a reader about literature and language arts in our homeschool. She had questions about the literature book/s we were using when my kids were in grades 2, 5 and 7. I thought I would share a lot of that conversation with you today. It highlights some of the language arts books/texts/resources we have used over the years. Plus, I’ve...
I just wanted to let you know that I added a new video to explain why and how we used a Writing Workshop in our homeschool. You’ll find that at the Writing Workshop page – homeschoolden.com/writing-workshop Just click here: In this video, I didn’t realize I should drag it and make my screen bigger… so I’m like 1/2 an inch as I talk!! Ah well… live and learn! But, the...
This Writing Resource BUNDLE will help you take your kids’ writing to the next level! It includes five huge action-packed pdfs! For the last year, I have been trying to compile and put ALL (300+pages) of our writing materials and resources into a more convenient packet. It’s been a huge undertaking! I thought it was about time to release it… even though it is always a work in progress! 🙂...
We have been using a writing workshop model in our homeschool for many, many years. It has brought a lot of joy to our writing time. My kids are not at all intimidated by writing now… even high school essays! I have a lot of posts about what a Writing Workshop looks like in our homeschool and also have a lot of posts about the various mini-lessons we used to...
History Portfolio Projects have student focus on one theme, topic or time period and can include an array of writing, art, and geography assignments that are compiled together in a final product. While we did a couple of portfolio projects when the kids were in elementary (age 8 -10 or so), Portfolio Project really become a powerful tool during the middle and high school years! History portfolio projects require students...
Today I have a free Biography Writing Paper Packet to share with you! These writing pages include famous Americans as well as famous historical figures from King Tut to Marie Curie, Albert Einstein dozens more! These can be used with the biographies my daughter read (more details about those below) or just as quick assignments when you have the time. 🙂 My youngest has been working independently on these for...
September 11th is coming up on Tuesday. We are going to spend a couple of days writing about the events of that day. I wanted to make the kids some writing paper for this project. These September 11th writing pages are free to download. I hope they are helpful! ~Liesl Here are some suggestions for using these blank 9/11 writing pages. Research and write about the events of that day....
At the beginning of the year, many students are asked to do personal or narrative essays… my kids are writing personal essays as well! I came across this writing resource that has 500 writing prompts and felt like it was such a great writing resource, I wanted to share it with you. It’s a free printable. These are generally for older students, but below I’ll also add in the link...
We have been using this fairy tale stationery in our Writing Workshop to practice creating stories with dialogues. Specifically, the kids are focusing on using quotation marks and commas properly. This packet has writing pages for these fairy tales: Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks, and Frankenstein. Mini-Lesson: Before we began writing, we talked about the many variations and stylistic differences among...
How do you help kids improve their essay writing skills? For many years, I worked on essay writing with students (I taught high school & college history) and now as a homeschooler, I’m working on essay writing skills with my own kids. I thought I would share some of writing strategies that I am using with my kids as they learn to write in this genre. A few days ago,...
Today, I have some free creative writing paper for you. This set includes various mythological creatures: dragon, centaur, dwarf, gargoyle, goblin, dryad, and so forth. My girls thought these were neat and I have printed out these pages to store in our Writing Workshop area for when they are in the mood! Down below, I’ll include some of the links to why we started using a Writing Workshop in our...
My girls thought it would be really fun to spend some time writing about the holidays and writing Christmas stories. 20+ Holiday Writing Prompt Ideas Here are just a few of them: If I could do one thing to make the world a better place this year, what would it be? What is your favorite (and/or least favorite) thing about this time of year? Write a story about the lost...
This past summer, I spent quite a bit of time trying to decide what LD would do for 9th grade writing. Last year we used Cover Story and the kids continued doing a lot of independent writing. They also had to do some writing for history, but we hadn’t delved much into formal essay writing. It was time for LD to start writing more polished pieces, but I wasn’t quite...
The past couple of days, the kids have been writing their own Haikus during our writing workshop time. Your family might have fun with this too! What is a haiku? It is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. These seem simple as they are only three lines, but the kids found it to be tricky! A haiku has 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5...
