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Shakespeare Unit Study Starters

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I have a few ideas and Shakespeare Unit Study Starters. Also, look at my post Shakespeare Unit Study.

Stepping back from our routine of how we normally do language arts, I wanted to teach Shakespeare differently than I had with my older boys.

I have been using the book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare with Tiny and we have been loving it. I have a post coming up soon about how easy this book has made it to teach about Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Unit Study Starters @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

How to Teach Your Children About Shakespeare

Today though, I have rounded up some Shakespeare unit study starters that will spark some ideas to make learning about Shakespeare fun and interactive.

tempest

teacher guide

Then of course, if you tie in history with learning about Shakespeare, then it makes total sense to us.

So grab this free teacher guide on Julius Caesar, which has some super helpful teaching tips.

This next idea is plain hilarious, but typical of what interests our kids. From the site Ye Olde Official Shakespearean Insult Kit: “With this handy-dandy SHAKESPEAREAN INSULT KIT,you can have the spleen of The Bard at your disposal! The next time someone cuts you off in traffic, or a clerk behaves rudely, stun them with your lexicographical command of vituperation.” Just click on a pull down menu and a few of these expressions will at least evoke a conversation with your teen about The Bard.

This next site has an online handy reference for learning, which is a good resource for learning about the theatre. The Globe Theatre: A Study Guide.

Also, grab this free 18 page lesson planning guide for scenes from Romeo and Juliet as a way to introduce kids to Shakespeare.
This Did Shakespeare Write His Plays video makes another great unit study starter or at least a debate.

Also, I have this free huge Renaissance Lapbook and Unit Study.

Grab this free Renaissance Lapbook at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Then you have to scoot by and check out this huge page about music.

Hopefully, a few of these links will help you to make a great start to studying Shakespeare.

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

 

10 Tips When Teaching Grammar to Your Homeschooled Child

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

10 Tips When Teaching Grammar to Your Homeschooled Child @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

When should you start teaching grammar? How much grammar is enough or too much? What is the purpose of grammar?

When I started homeschooling, I had more questions about grammar than I got answers for when I was in school. And though I would not call myself a total grammarian, like Kelley, who feels like all writing is the beginning of a treasure hunt to unearth errors (oh the sheer delight), I do love me some grammar.

Look at these 10 tips when teaching grammar to your homeschooled child because I hope to lighten your load about the stress of teaching grammar and give you some helpful insight.

1. Grammar is not too late when you start later.

Although I started teaching grammar in third grade, quickly I learned that teaching grammar could have waited until fifth or sixth grade because it’s easier then to grasp complex issues of grammar rules.

It does not mean that the mechanics of writing like spelling and capitalization should not be immediately corrected. Modeling correct grammar is a good teacher.

2. Grammar is not really about improving ideas for writing.

Yes, I know this may sound far-fetched. You can, however, have a child that is an advanced writer but lags behind in grammar structure. A child or an adult may clearly communicate his thoughts but may not be aware of proper tenses.

Too, roles can be flipped. For example, I know people with a linguistic background who can make my writing shine in no time. Their eye to detail is unmatched and I love that about them.

However, they would also be the first one to admit that knowing technical details doesn’t always mean that you can write well or with confidence.

Creating worthy and valuable writing content is a learned skill.

I often wonder if people with a strong English background fear writing less or more than somebody that does not have a strong grammar background? It still intrigues me.

3. It is important to learn the vocabulary of grammar.

The vocabulary of grammar was something I did not learn in school. And like any language, English too has beginning vocabulary terms like is what a basic tense and advanced vocabulary terms like conditional tenses.

This brings me to my next point.

4. Advanced grammar helps with learning foreign languages.

When teaching Latin to my first son, I realized that if I had not used Memoria Press, which guided us with basic grammar tips and then connected basic information to advanced, I would have struggled notably with helping my son study a foreign language.

What I am saying is that it is hard to compare a foreign language with your native tongue if you don’t have a full scope of advanced English terms.

The beauty of learning grammar is clearly shown when you start teaching and learning a foreign language.

In helping my son study a foreign language, I learned more details about my native English language than I did in just studying it each year.

5. Writing classes can improve grammar.

Writing classes should focus primarily on content, creativity of ideas and clarity.

Applying grammar to troubled areas like their vs they’re and our vs are makes grammar a crucial part of writing. But this doesn’t mean that writing curriculum should stifle the creative writing process or overshadow it with many rules.

Is this why so many kids hate writing? Again, grammar should enhance writing and help a budding writer choose words more carefully.

6. A well-written grammar course can be completed by 10th grade or so.

Using Rod and Staff English in high school helped me to understand that studying grammar as a separate subject didn’t have to span all four years of high school.

Of course, stopping a formal study of grammar would depend on how much previous grammar instruction your child had in school.

Grammar is Alright (oh, oh, scratch that, I meant) All Right

Too, I learned that if I chose an advanced grammar course in the beginning high school years, then the next few years could be focused on helping my student find his writing voice while applying grammar as a priceless tool.

7. Attack grammar with the same powers of observations used in science.

I vividly remember a tip shared many years ago by an intuitive homeschool mom. She said studying grammar should be like a scientist examining something under a microscope.

By magnifying a feather, salt or sand, a scientist brings items up for a closer look. Zooming in on them gives them a different perspective and shows how the pieces fit the whole.

Attack the parts of grammar with the same enthusiasm that a scientist scrutinizes infinitesimal pieces under a high powered lens until you get comfortable teaching grammar.

8. Basic grammar is vital to an excellent education.

Don’t get caught up in all the hype of advanced grammar that you don’t teach your child the essentials of grammar.

Teaching concepts like the parts of speech and effective sentences and paragraphs are mainstays of grammar. From there, a child can build on it in later years.

Fearing that I would make a mistake in each sentence I wrote, I overly stressed about writing. That mindset trickled down to teaching grammar.

9. Don’t make grammar boring and blah.

When grammar is learned through games and with a group, it can be fun.

I did treasures hunts in my home for the parts of speech when the boys were little.

We still do mad libs when we have had enough of formal grammar and I buy copious amounts of grammar games at conventions when I can find them.

10. Practice good grammar every day.

Don’t let the fear of grammar hold you back from letting your writing ideas overflow or trickle. Practicing good grammar each day makes it easier to pen your thoughts to paper or to share what you know with others.

I still struggle with grammar but the basic human need to communicate is a powerful motivator to learning complex grammar concepts. Find the joy in teaching grammar because it should be exhilarating and not exhausting.

What has been your experience with teaching grammar?

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

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How to Put Together a Homeschooled High School Writer’s Notebook & Free Resources

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How to Put Together a Homeschooled High School Writer's Notebook and Free Resources

With two move overseas in the last two years, we have been slowly catching up on subjects. Tiny is still straddling middle and high school, but his writing has been at high school level. Because we had to set up his high school writer’s notebook after our move back, I am sharing it with you today along with some free resources.

WriteShop

I have used many writing courses with my boys through the years and I have genuinely enjoyed each one. One that we really enjoyed which was created by homeschool moms because it worked and made teaching writing easy is WriteShop.

In another post, I will be sharing some things we liked and didn’t like so much about writing programs because today I want to stick to showing you an easy set up for a writer’s notebook.

Really, this set up would work for a middle school kid too.

I. Outside Cover

Notebooks can be made out of anything, like a file folder, composition book or even a binder.



Your teen can design his own cover and coloring is cool now even for adults and young teens, which is why at the bottom, I listed some free and cool looking coloring pages.

I ask Tiny if he wanted to color or design his cover and he rolled his eyes. I took that as a no.

Instead, he found this handsome and dare I say elegant, houndstooth-ish looking Divoga black and gold notebook in late December when we arrived back in the states.

Handsome looking notebook 1

I believe it may have been seasonal, but you can look at this picture below to see the other ones they have.

They are pretty impressive looking if you have a teen boy or girl that wants a more professional look.

And it helps if the binders are on sale because a teen can change their mind often when it comes to expressing their individuality in their writer’s notebook.

II. Superb Writing Tools Equals a Master Writer (okay, well maybe, but it doesn’t hurt)

Next, the pen zipper pouch is important because I make sure Tiny has a variety of pen colors to work with.

When they boys were younger, we used the skip line method when writing so that there is a line to write on under the first draft and to rewrite the next draft or to change a word.

It keeps a child from erasing, which should be completely ruled out in writing, but kids have a hard time  doing that.

WriteShop Junior


If they learn to eradicate erasing when they are young, then as they grow to a teen writer, it helps them to learn the writing process faster because writing is the culmination of many mark ups and deletions.

superb writing tools 2

As the boys get older, they get the choice of whether they want to keep skipping lines and/or use different color pens to identify the different stages of writing like initial draft, revise and final draft.

Tiny likes black ink for writing and red ink for correcting. If it is needs to be completely rewritten as a draft, he can choose another color, like blue or green. I think Tiny keeps the pencil in his zipper as a good measure.

Tiny and I both tend to like the Zebra z grip, medium point.

And Z grip has the other colors too.

He also likes keeping highlighters in his zip pouch because when he has finished his thoughts, he can return later and substitute a more colorful adjective or word. At the time, I encourage him to keep his ideas flowing. He will highlight real quick and keep moving.

He loves the Yoobi highlighters like I do and grabbed mine, but we have been eyeing these mini yoobi highlighters.
A few paper clips  for keeping his pages together and some post it notes and he is set up for referencing his pages the way he wants to.

How to Help Your Teen to Find the Best Words for His Ideas

Next, I keep a heavy duty top loading protector page with fresh paper in it. It is by Wilson Jones.

This just keeps fresh paper in the front and he can easily see when he needs to fill it up again.

Then,  we set our tabs up in a variety of ways.

So we set up some of the tabs the same way, but not all of them. Remember, your teen still needs your help in organizing their notebooks.

III. But It’s the Inside That Matters.

We have five sections and they are:

One| Outlines/Compositions.

This is where Tiny keeps his outlines and drafts. He likes keeping his final compositions at the very end of the notebook. He also likes to keep the model he is working on here under this tab and not under a separate tab.

Two| Structural Models.

At this point, I want you know how important the order of the tabs are because it helps your teen to go through the writing process in a logical order.

For example, some teens like to correct spacing and grammar before they are finished writing their content. This is not only exhausting to do, but can be both stressful and a waste of time when their focus needs to be first on content.

This is an important part in helping a teen organize his thoughts. Your teen needs to understand that before he focuses on the mechanics of writing, he has to clarify his thoughts.

Put models in this section which you want your teen follow.

Three| Style Charts.

Put words or lists here that help improve his technique of writing. We like list of adjectives and adverbs.

Again, these three tabs helps a teen writer to not forget the very basics of writing like having a beginning, middle and an end, that writing using noun and verb is solid writing and wordiness is a waste of good writing.

Four| Banned Words.

Though this section for me could be part of Writing Helps, it is a section that Tiny needs to focus on this year. Keeping it a separate tab reminds him to narrow down his word choice carefully. Banned words, however, could easily fit into the Writing Helps too.

Five| Writing Helps

Tiny needed help with the details of his writing so we named this part Writing Helps. Placing this at the end of the notebook he is reminded that punctuation and grammar helps can now be focused on after he has made his choice of ideas.

That is the strength of making each writer’s notebook to fit their unique and immediate needs.

Because we have had many interruptions with our writing, I need to be sure that he has some of the basics like parts of speech that he learned in his younger years.

In addition, he needs to expand the way he connects thoughts so I have printed off a transitional words list.

parts of speech 3

Instead of constantly reminding him about them, it is his job now to check his work for that.

These helpful sheets that are free and that I list at the bottom are nifty for shoring up any weakness of a teen writer.

Free Homeschool Writing Helps

This is just an awesome site. I have referred to it often throughout the years. It has a number of free printables and helps for kids ages 3 to 13, but I think some of them can be used as a reference for older kids too.

Then I love this site because we have used some of her printables and they are especially for teen writers. I like the story brainstorming questions and it helped my boys to hone some of their thoughts.

A plethora of free helps and downloads here. I like the 475 Writing Prompts (be aware I have not read all of them, but a lot of them) and the templates for printing.

If you want to make your own notebook, your child can color a picture for the front of their notebook and glue it on a composition notebook or print the character sketch template.

Check out the wonderful graphic organizers and journal topics.

Then this site has been around for years and I have used it at various stages of my boys’ writing to help them visualize and organize their thoughts. It works fine for an older student too and especially if they are a visual learning.

The Worksheet Place, under the category Writing Worksheets, also has very helpful sheets. Under persuasive worksheets is where I found the transitional words worksheet, which I printed off for Tiny.

As I mentioned before, each one of my sons had things they struggled with or needed help remembering. I want their notebooks to be a place that not only helps creative thought processes flow, but to be especially helpful.

A writer’s notebook should reflect each writer’s personality and making the notebook feel personal helps.

The grading process stays with me, but as Mr. Senior 2013 did more writing he wanted to see how the paper was graded and so I added helpful rubrics for writing to his notebook. You can grab them here.

Right now, Tiny is not interested in that as he is beginning high school and he has different goals for this year.

Does this give you a good starting point for your homeschooled teen writers’ notebook?

You’ll love these other helpful tips:

What else do you like to include?

Hugs and love ya,

Help! I Can’t Teach My Homeschooled Child How to Read – 5 Step Checklist

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Help! I Can't Teach My Homeschooled Child How to Read. Check out these 5 problem solving tips. @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

A child struggling to read despite giving what seems like your all to the process is enough to bring any great homeschool parent to their knees. Beyond the tears (both child and mom), teaching a homeschooled child how to read can be overwhelming.

Help! I Can’t Teach My Homeschooled Child How to Read

Look at these 5 points and use them as a checklist in a fresh start to assessing your situation.

Sometimes you just need to know if your situation is normal and if other parents have been struggling like you. (They do. You’re not alone.)

Only you will know the answers to these questions, but they give you a checklist to isolate the problem and more importantly find a solution.

ONE |  APTITUDE OR ATTITUDE?

Before you can go to the next step, initially it’s important to know whether or not your child is struggling to read because of a problem or because they don’t want to learn how to read.

Even if it’s attitude, a love of reading has to be nurtured and cultivated.

For boys that means it has to be tied to something that they want to read. Girls can be same way, but tend to have a bit more patience than boys do in the early reading stages.

Look at What Makes Reading Painful for Homeschooled Kids. Let Go of Busywork to Raise Lifelong Readers.

I have seen immediate results in some new homeschoolers that I have helped when the reading police doesn’t show up.

Sure, it’s important to monitor what goes in our child’s mind, but a child will never be able to catch the reading bug if we don’t let them make some choices.

Reading is like planting seeds.
20 Best Tips for Teaching Reading and Spelling
It starts slow and sometimes grows slow, but it GROWS each day. Don’t give up if your child has not caught the reading fever.

After you determine that your child may truly be struggling and they are not copping an attitude, the next step is to start whittling away at possible problems.

TWO |  CONFUSED ABOUT LETTER CONFUSION?

Letter confusion was one area that made me feel like biting my nails because I wasn’t quite sure when the struggle should stop. The old I-am-going-to-ruin-my-child-for-life doubt creeps in too and doesn’t help your confidence.

This is what I have learned; though some children may have a learning disability, it is very common for children to struggle with letter confusion and sounds even up to 7 years of age.

It’s true that some children just need more time for the reading process to make a connection in their brain.

Just think about all the connections going on in their active mind.

The reading process is an amazing process because it should not be your goal to just teach sounds, but for your child to understand what he is reading.

Stepping back to look at the bigger picture helped me. More is going on in a child’s mind than just trying to figure out which letter makes which sound.

Too, I would have my sons draw stick figures or pictures of what we were reading and have him “read” it back to me. Why? Because I wanted them to understand that reading is about pleasure. It is about unlocking the meaning and savoring the story.

How Do You Know When to Skip Ahead?

That technique of drawing (i.e. writing) helped each of my sons to keep putting forth effort to learn because there was a reward.

When a child reads what is before him, but more importantly understands it, he is very much on the great road to reading.

THREE |  SKIP THE FIRST GRADE READERS

When teaching one son to read, he just about skipped any beginning reader steps.

I was both taken back and amazed at the same time.

First, he wasn’t interested in reading (or so it seemed) and at the age of 7 was still pretty unmotivated.

I had tried so many CVC readers that I was literally mouthing them myself every day. They didn’t really seem to work.

However, after about 7 years of age, I pulled out the second and third grade readers and he went right into them.

What I learned from this process was that most readers up to the third grade level are pretty similar.

The beginning phonics readers just have less text and more repetition. But in teaching an older reader, he moved quicker through the second and third graders. Too, with more text and a longer story, it gave him a reason to read.

Lesson learned. I should have stressed less and realized that constant exposure to sounds and words was working.

When the reading bug hit him, he was reading chapter books within a few months.

He was soaking up all the learning. Trust that your teaching reading every day will produce results.

Sometimes you just need to go on.

FOUR |  FOCUS MORE ON BLENDING, LESS ON  /cccccccc/ /aaaaaaa/ /ttttttt/ (ugggg)

Another mistake I made in teaching my sons to read was to focus too much on letter sounds instead of moving on and modeling blending.

You and I both know kids have common sense.

And when our teaching is out of balance because we focus too much on sounds like /ccccccccccccc/ instead of moving quickly to blend it with /a/ and /t/, nonsense can stifle their motivation to read a new word.

Children are pretty hardy at the learning to read stage and can forgive (forget) a number of teaching errors.

Again, learning to read should be an exciting time and struggling with each sound by sounding out every word is tough if you have to do it for every word.

There are many strategies that teach a child to read a group of sounds at one time. My go to reading tip has always been to introduce word families right away.

Have you seen this nifty and super helpful reference book? The Reading Teacher’s Book Of Lists: Grades K-12 is a book I use to help get a broad picture of the reading journey.

However, I have utilized it more when I identified a hole in my teaching and could use it to shore up some of my sons’ weaknesses.

By teaching one sound of many letters like /at/, your child quickly sees how learning one group of sounds empowers him to know more by substituting a different consonant in front of the sound.

Don’t forget to add fun rhyming books to your reading program.

With one son, I moved too fast past the nursery rhymes.

I didn’t realize the value of not only seeing the patterns, but hearing them. Nursery rhymes are about more than just fun. They help your child to see the pattern in reading and hearing the rhythm.

Too, do not underestimate the value of flip books, games and focusing more on word families instead of individual sounds.

FIVE |  WHEN TO GET OUTSIDE HELP?

Then sometimes, you have done all that you can do and you and your child still feel defeated. There is a time when you may need outside intervention.

Struggling is part of learning how to read, but their are tell-tale signs of when to seek professional help.

  • Age.

Though I had one son who read by 5, I just knew that my son that read by 6 or 7 years of age had a reading problem. He did not. That is why it’s called reading readiness.

You have to wait for them to get ready. However, when a child is older like beyond 9 and is still struggling, then there may be a problem.


It may not be necessarily a reading problem, but it affects their reading. For example, it could be a visual problem.

  • Same problem over and over.

If the problem your child has is generally struggling with the reading process, it probably is not a special need.

However, trust your gut if you see that it’s the same type of problems over and over again. That is another sign that a learning problem may be present.

Forgetting letter numbers and sounds is very normal.

Remember, there are many things jumbled up in their mind. Letter sounds, letter names, word families, punctuation, comprehension and inference.

However if the same problem or traits shows up again and again, like confusing letters over and over again then you may want to speak to your pediatrician first.

Did any of these tips help you to isolate a struggle you’re having?

Also, look at :

Hugs and love ya,

 

Also look at:

5 Easy Steps to Putting Together Your Own Homeschool Phonics Program

Are You Following Me on Pinterest? I Share More Wonderful Reading Tips as I Find Them.

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Should I be Teaching Spelling to my Homeschooled High Schooler?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Should I be Teaching Spelling to my Homeschooled High Schooler @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Now that two of my sons have graduated, I have tweaked my thinking about spelling several times throughout the years and want to share a few tidbits of my experience.

I have been asked, “Should I be teaching spelling to my homeschooled high schooler?” Well, it depends.

I know, maybe not the exact answer you wanted to hear. But then again, we are homeschooling to teach to each child’s strengths and weaknesses and that same mindset goes for teaching high school spelling.

Should We Do Away with Grade Levels in Spelling?

First, I think it’s important that as homeschool moms of high schoolers that we abandon spelling mold thinking.

Though teaching and mastering advanced levels of spelling is ideal at the elementary grades, sometimes a teen just needs more time.

One mindset that we need to not be swayed by as moms of teens is that spelling should only be taught at the elementary grades.

Too, it’s important that we teach our teens to do a self-analysis of their spelling strength or weakness.

High school teens need to learn to not follow what is considered the norm for teen learners either.

For example, one of my boys told me he would just use spell checker when typing. Maybe so.

But as I have learned through the years, as I graded their essays; learning how to spell correctly is inextricably tied to advanced vocabulary skills and writing skills.

High school years are where the most basic of skills really count as teens get ready to emerge into the adult world.

We can’t tout on one hand that a teen can only use spell checker and on the other hand that we want extensive writing practice in the high school years. It can be a partnership. Embracing technology cannot cost our highschool students to use it.

In my case, I had a teen that couldn’t even get close to the right word when using spell checker and that is how it works. So it was of no use to him at certain times.

What are we to do as moms who want to prepare our teens for the adult world where spelling counts?

Look at these 3 tips that helped me.

Don’t grab a spelling program so quickly.

With some families I helped through my New Bee Homeschooler program and that was the same in my case was that my teen had a few spelling rules causing the problems.

In my case, my teen had problems with the ie/ei rules. Also, he was confused with their, there, and they’re.

Knowing this, he kept a notebook and when he had problems with a word when writing, he would note that word in his notebook.

Instead of him feeling defeated and thinking he needed a spelling program, he honed his problems and focused on those areas only.

Too, he felt like he could keep making progress and this gave him a sense of accomplishment with spelling.

I didn’t want him to be an adult and hate spelling. I did, however, want him to tackle his weak areas with the same positive attitude he tackles other things that he doesn’t do as well.

Copywork is great for high school too.

Something else I did was to have him pick a book of his choice and do some quick copywork.

His choice was within reason though because it had to be a book with good literary quality. This gave him a break from writing like it use to when he was a little boy, but it still provided a model proper spelling, use of apostrophes and punctuation.

Just a few well written sentences each day was a nice change to the day and reinforced correct spelling in addition to the reading he did each day.

Keep the focus on writing.

Another reason I chose to not use a formal spelling program was because there are only so many hours a high school teen has in the day and time needs to be doled out wisely.

With more time to practice writing and not worrying about having to do “another subject”, my son could actually focus on spelling more because he could use it in its natural context.

At the high school level, learning spelling separately did not help my son as much as increasing his reading and writing.

Too, for a teen who wants to make his own choices about what he wants to read and write about, this was a perfect solution. He could increase his spelling skill and write about what interesed him.

Holding him responsible for errors by making him correct his spelling mistakes then in his draft was key at the high school level.

When I was teaching him how to write and teaching him beginning composition in the younger grades, I didn’t hold him responsible for spelling errors.

I don’t regret doing that because if had I held him responsible for spelling errors then too, it would have completely quashed any passion for writing. The focus in the earlier grades was on fostering a love of writing.

He loves creative writing to this day and so I know my method of handling spelling errors worked for his age at the time.

The bottom line is that you simply cannot work on every skill in the younger grade and expect your child to be a master of them all.

Some skills can wait to high school to hone.

Besides with the age or maturity of high school, my son could both laugh at himself when he made a spelling mistake and didn’t view spelling as another nonsense and useless subject to learn.

One book I did use and let the boys use as a reference for their independent learning was The ABC’s and All Their Tricks: The Complete Reference Book of Phonics and Spelling.

Both of them seemed to like it and used it as a reference when they didn’t search on line.

If you feel like your teen would benefit from a spelling program, then discuss it with him and use one. Remember, if it’s a subject they struggle with, then we need to forget what the rest of the world thinks is the norm and do what is best for our child.

However, most of the time I have found that normally a few rules or sounds cause the spelling confusion and with a heightened sense of awareness, a teen can usually correct the problems.

Does your high school teen struggle with spelling?

What tricks have you pulled out of your hat?

Hugs and love ya,

 

Also, check out:

When a Homeschooled Sophomore Struggles
How a Homeschool Mom Grades a High School Essay

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