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3 Things to Avoid When Teaching Homeschooled Kids Beginning Composition

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Penmanship, copywork, and composition can be quite confusing understanding the purpose of each when you are new to teaching composition.

Cultivating the Creative Process

Penmanship is learning how to write and form letters, while composition is composing or crafting sentences to convey thoughts in an organized and logical way.

1. Practice does make perfect. Avoid Stop and Start.

The physical act of learning how to write comes before being able to pen words into beautiful thoughts.

The mistake made by many moms is not knowing in the beginning if your child is struggling with the actual physical act of penmanship or if it’s the actual process of of forming his thoughts down on paper in a coherent way.

You don’t know that until you sit down together and start writing.

3 Things to Avoid When Teaching Homeschooled Kids Beginning Composition @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusToo, a lot of schools don’t have time to teach cursive anymore or think that writing will be obsolete soon. Assuming that your child has decent and legible handwriting before teaching composition is a common mistake.

There is nothing more frustrating for a new writer than to struggle with the physical act of writing with the added pressure of composing ideas.

2. Process over Product. Avoid Rushing the Flow of Thought Just to Put “Something” on Paper.

As I mentioned, composition is a mental process of learning how to organize thoughts and convey words that are easily understood. Handwriting is a physical process.

As you can see when a child is still struggling to write, then your expectations for a 5 paragraph essay may not be met. It is very laborious and children need a lot of encouragement.

It is important to emphasize to your child that writing is a process. Don’t assume they know that from the curriculum you are using.

Excellent composition curriculum has a way of taking them down a path to model that process, but some kids need to understand the big picture so they know what they are striving for.

Look at these steps to a good masterpiece:

  • Pre-writing;
  • drafting;
  • revising;
  • editing; and
  • publishing.

This takes time.

You can help by being consistent and choosing quality over quantity in the beginning.

It is better to write a few sentences each day than to go days without writing and then expect your child to sit down and go through the 5 step writing process.  Too, I’ve used many writing programs through the years and each one having something I needed at the time. I used WriteShop when my kids were young because it breaks the writing process down for me. In addition, an added perk for me is that it’s written by a homeschool mom. That means she understands my background is not in teaching. So plenty of hand holding, background information, and tips are given in the currriculum.

WriteShop Junior

3. Manageable Chunks. Avoid Handwriting in Areas that are not Important.

Also, cutting back writing on subjects that don’t matter like workbooks or working math problems orally will save the hand and brain power until composition time.

Copywork is also a valuable aid for any writer and not just new writers.

Is Writing Obsolete?

Copywork means to learn by mimicking good writers and copying short passages.

This trains the child to see and hear how well crafted passages, verses and prose should flow.

It is not meant to keep your child busy, but it is about him taking his time and learning by copying great writers of the past.

The mechanics of writing like punctuation is another part of learning to write correctly.

A visual picture of where commas, periods, and capitals are placed in the sentence helps your child to pay attention to the details in his writing.

WriteShop Primary

Understanding the basics of composition will help you to avoid common mistakes of teaching beginning composition.

What do you think? Have you already started to make a few of these mistakes?

Look at these other tips:

Hugs and love ya,

Check out these posts too:

Teaching Handwriting When Schooling the Early Years Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

How a Homeschool Mom Grades a High School Essay

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

When the boys were in younger grades, I felt so confident grading their writing papers.

Confidence is suppose to soar with use, right? But when it came time to grade my first highschooler’s essay, confidence lacked.  Like anything else, inexperience makes you feel less prepared.

How a Homeschool Mom Grades a High School Essay @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusOn the other hand, having homeschooled my first high schooler from the beginning, I knew that I had a unique advantage knowing my son’s strengths and weaknesses and could use that information to help me form a grading standard.

Compulsory vs. Freedom

The thinking that a teen gets to choose topics all the time was the first thing I left behind.

For the most part, I did my best to be a reasonable teacher to my teen, which meant he got to choose the topics he wanted to write about. I learned early on that the very mention of some writing topics, especially controversial ones made for eager writers.

Mr. Senior 2013 wrote most high school essays on things he wanted to write about which were about topics like injustice, the life of writers he admired and a few other frivolous topics he found fascinating.

However, I also am reminded to not abandon my homeschooling goals in high school, which means that I want to form my son’s worldview and Biblical view. That is done through research and expressing his creative thoughts in written word. So some topics were mandatory to write about.

His last essay was mandatory for a completed grade. My instructions called for him to break down each verse of 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 that talks about the meaning of love.

Not only was it important to grade him on his creative words, but it was important to me to fill his mind with something worthy of remembering since it was the last time.

Give your teen freedom with his high school essays but don’t give up guidance.

Completing a mandatory high school essay is the first part of my grade.

Forget Grading Like a Public School Teacher.

The next thing I had to learn was to not grade like a public school teacher.

No, I don’t mean to not use some of the same standards, but to not directly attack my son’s writing by all the red marks.

Homeschool Writing in Early Grades @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusI did that in my son’s younger years and regret it.

Though my oldest son is not as sensitive as my younger sons, I could see that my red marks and my writing on his page took some of the fun out of the process.

What I did learn early in my homeschool years was to write notes in the margin or at the bottom of the paper. I still practiced this in high school.

Writing in Early Years of Homeschooling @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

(Learn from my mistake and leave behind all the red pens and red marks that we think we need to do on writing. Writing notes at the bottom of their page was a keeper for communicating to my sons.)

The example above is how I did it when Mr. Senior 2013 was in the younger grades.

I followed this same example on high school essays.

Specificity counts.

This is one area where my strength for detail can be utilized for high school. Teens are just like us. They want to know specifically what you liked about their writing.

As home educators we are very specific about what we don’t like about our teen’s writing. Praise should be equally vocal.

As I mentioned, the last essay assignment I assigned for Mr. Senior 2013 was about love and how it is shown. He not only gave his opinion of why it is the strongest motivator in the universe but he supported it with Biblical facts and things he had real life experience with.

I specifically praised him for supporting his writing with solid facts.

Developing Clear Writing.

Then the next part I look for in my son’s writing is to determine how clear he expressed his thoughts.  Developing clear writing is not something we achieve.

Expressing thoughts through writing is a developed art.  It is not achieved in high school, but I do expect my teen to use what he has been taught through the years like supporting his facts, illustrations, topic sentences and sticking to his topic.

Secondary: Spelling and Sentence Structure

Try to remember that we are nurturing writers instead of spellers.  You know I love spelling and grammar, but writing is about expression, communication and breathing life into our artfully contrived words.

Don’t stifle it by counting off more for the mechanics of writing than for expression.  Clearly cut writing that moves you is worth more than grammar and mechanics errors.

Homeschool Mom Grades a High School Essay

Grading a high school essay is not only a satisfying job but a unique privilege.

All the instructions you have been given your child for years turns now into a beautiful masterpiece.

Don’t give up your homeschool goals when you grade high school essays.

What writing topics our high school teens fill their minds with as they get ready to finish their tutoring with you is just as important as you adopting traditional standards for grading.

What are you afraid of most when grading high school essays?

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

Also, check out:
Should We Give Grades to Our Middle & High School Homeschooled Kids
9th Grade Homeschool High School – Avoid the Sock It to Them Attitude

Linking up @these awesome places:
Thoughtful Spot|Making Your Home Sing Monday|Mom 2 Mom|Mommy Monday|Good Morning Mondays|Tuesday Talk|

When Should I Start Teaching Spelling in Homeschool?

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

Spelling is more than just associating letters with sounds and deciphering them. Spelling is an essential element to writing clearly and convincingly.

Although I valued the usefulness of spelling prior to teaching my sons how to spell, it wasn’t until I started actually teaching that I was able to see that learning styles affected how each of my sons learned to spell.

I couldn’t possibly understand the struggle of spelling at the beginning of my journey because Mr. Senior 2013, like me, is a visual learner. He looked at words, formed a mental map in his head, and spelling came naturally for him.

I taught him phonics and he began to write the letters he knew associated with the sounds. Pretty easy I thought. Rocking along thinking that I was actually teaching spelling, Mr. Awesome came along and everything I thought I knew about teaching spelling could fit in a button.

My second child was not a visual learner, but a hands-on learner. Laying the foundation for spelling, which is phonics instruction took longer with him.

The Difference Between Readiness and Formal Spelling Instruction

Look at these these tips that I learned and want you know when you formally start teaching spelling.

Don’t be so quick to add formal spelling to your day.

Some programs start testing children right away like at Kindergarten level.

Teaching spelling is one thing and testing spelling is quite another thing.

Before you can test output (which is making the letter or letters the sound makes) a child needs enough time for input.

We live in an educational society that is impatient on seeing results. We have instagram and instant messaging, but there is no such thing as instant education.

Children need enough time manipulating letters and sounds in the formative years or before Kindergarten.

Phonics is the springboard to spelling.

I feel you should be very selective as to when you start testing or beginning a formal program; I feel equally important that stringing letters together to form words should not wait.

Teaching phonics early even before a child can write is foundational to strong spellers later.

One thing I did right in teaching my sons how to spell was to spend a great amount of time on manipulating letters.

Look at these activities that I mean by manipulating letters:

 

Do not let your child’s fine motor skills hold your child back from stringing letters together to form words.

When I started teaching Mr. Senior 2013, one of the very best investments I made was to purchase Spell Time.

 

It was pricey but I knew that I had at least 3 kids ahead of me to teach phonics and using it with each child for several years, I got 6+ years use out of it.

A few things that I loved about it was that it was portable, had several letters of the vowels and I could grab a few letters to teach one child spelling while my oldest son could play with the letters and put them on the mat.

The mats are self-teaching meaning that on the back of the letter tiles are pegs which fit only in the correct spot on the word mat.  It is self-checking because another letter won’t fit.

Bottom line, Mr. Senior 2013 could practice spelling alone while I was teaching the other boys.

Using this great teaching tool, I was able to give them a strong start to phonics before they learned how to write.

Spelling rules are just tools.

Remember too that in English the pronunciation of a word at times gives very little help as to the spelling.

Through the years, I feel I have swung like a pendulum back and forth between constant memorization of rules to very little work remembering them.

I have learned that balance is needed instead of swamping them with too many rules or not giving them any.

Your child needs to understand that though beginning phonics is easy, the English language is not predictable all the time.

Giving my middle son not only direct phonics instruction but memorization along with the rules armed him with tools he needed to encode (spell).

All About Spelling

So it takes time for a child to understand those rules and this is best done after they have been immersed in phonics instruction.

Most spelling programs as I mentioned earlier are focused solely on the testing part of the program instead of activities like games, songs, stories, puzzle word search and fun unscrambling exercises to help a child learn through all senses.

It has been my experience that waiting to the end of first grade or the beginning of second grade to introduce formal spelling, which requires output immediately, gives your child a lot of hands-on practice with sounds.

Natural spelling through writing  and copywork were also key things I did in our day.

By delaying formal spelling until second grade, my middle son came in armed and ready to tackle the tests.

He even jumped two levels in spelling one year because we were immersed in letter fun.

Do immerse your children with the fun of sounds and don’t be so quick to add a formal spelling program if the emphasis is on constant testing.

When Should I Start Teaching Spelling in Homeschool @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

 

 

 

 

 

You’ll love these other tips:

What grade do you start formal spelling?

Hugs and love ya,

 

Why It Is Hard to Teach Homeschooled Kids Writing But Not Impossible

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

Today, in sharing why it is hard to teach homeschooled kids writing but not impossible I will share some background information on how to teach writing. Also, look at my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter for more tips!

First, let me tell you my story.

In public school, I had a middle school teacher that I adored.

She understood my preference of communicating orally where I could look into the eyes of the person I was talking to, give them a gentle pat or flail my arms out long when talking fast.

But she also encouraged me to give my written words the same gravity.

It wasn’t until I started teaching my boys how to write that I truly appreciated what a difficult task it is to teach my boys how to write.

Understanding the process of any skill that I am teaching has always helped me to find a solution to any problem we are experiencing.

More importantly, I have a direction to follow.

For example, it’s easy enough to understand that when teaching reading we need to start with a set of letters that express sounds.

After that, we build words, sentences and we are off to teaching our kids how to read.

Finding a starting point for writing, however, can be more elusive.

Why It is Hard to Teach Homeschooled Kids Writing But Not Impossible @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Word Writing Scramble

One reason I found writing hard to teach was that I didn’t appreciate that it is a learned art to fashion words on a page that are appealing.

It’s almost like playing word scramble or in this case sentence scramble when teaching our kids to write.

Immature readers can create awkward sounding sentences because of their lack of experience in life.

For that matter, awkward sentence that don’t flow smoothly can happen to even the most experienced writer too.

That is why it is important in the early stages of writing that children have plenty of time to mull over words, thoughts and arrangement of ideas.

Ideas like creating and writing in daily journals, playing word games and vocabulary games are important to arming children with the creativity they need to write.

When I started teaching writing, my oldest son felt almost paralyzed when I would ask him what topic he wanted to write about.

That was my first ugly encounter with writing after teaching him how to write his ABCs.

Mature Writers Born?

I taught him how to write his ABCs, how could this not be just as easy or so I thought.

My next mess up came because I was expecting maturity and experience with writing topics from a 5 year old.

Experiences and maturity come just from that, age and life experiences.

How could I equip my 5 year old with opportunities for writing experiences?

It is the same answer that equipped him at 15 years old, which is reading to the rescue.

I had heard many times that a reader is a writer and we read every day.

But other than pleasure and reading to find out what we wanted to know about, I under estimated the value of it in gaining experiences outside of what we were learning each day.

There was a connection between the books we were reading and writing topics that swirled around in my son’s mind.

I didn’t have to rush childhood, nor would I want to so that he could learn the art of self-expression.

Drawing out of him experiences that he read about either in his books and daily living were the keys to overflowing topic ideas.

Are You Making this Mistake?

There is just no rushing content, facts, ideas and details, which is the foundation of writing.

Content is the next biggie that kids are afraid of.

As if struggling with the structure of creating delightful sounding words is not enough, they have to think about content, topic sentences, details and a strong conclusion.

There is no getting around it, our kids needs our expertise when it comes to helping them with their writing.

In the early stages of writing especially, our kids need us to supply content and it is okay to do this.

We don’t want to ever put our kids in a sink or swim situation when writing.

It does absolutely no good and it can create a kid who hates writing and carries that feeling to high school.

It is important to continue these building skills through to middle school.

That is the time to continue to reinforce what was learned at the foundational level and to hone outlining and note taking skills.

Though I didn’t know as much then when I started teaching my kids to write as I know now, I did know that certain valuable skills could not be overlooked.

Look at these basic things to include in teaching everyday writing.

  • Copywork
  • Dictation
  • Outlining
  • Constantly reading back what they wrote
  • Journal writing to not be corrected but to use as practice for self-expression.

More Homeschool Handwriting Curriculum Tips!

Keep reading for a list of 8 handwriting curriculum and the benefits of each.

Homeschooled Kids Who Read – Pastime Pleasure or Professional Prerequisite?

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

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

In the early years of homeschooling much of our time is focused on how to teach reading and rightly so.

Today, homeschooled kids who read for pastime pleasure or as a professional prerequisite is about giving you a bird’s eye view of reading.

Being in the homeschool reading trenches, it is important to glance up every now and again to hone our reading vision.

Look at some tips to remember on your reading adventure.

Make it your aim to associate reading with pleasure in the early years.

How do you do this? By not just teaching phonics and then stopping for the day.

I know your time is stretched thin when the kids are all little but one attention grabbing story can capture the attention of 3, 4 or more young children.

Too, another tip I did along this same lines was to start a chapter book or long book like Charlotte’s Web instead of reading just a short children’s book that could be read in one setting. 

Don’t worry about the higher vocabulary in chapter books.  Just explain the meaning and move on. 

I piqued their attention for the next chapter or the next time we sat down together. They didn’t want to miss what happened next in the story.

Environment matters too.

Try to move away from a stiff and formal atmosphere for reading.  Don’t do like I did with my son.  The minute he started rolling on the floor, I got onto him. 

Soon I realized there was a difference between moving and wrestling.  Too, when I asked him at 3 years old what we were reading about, he could still tell me in a few simple silly words.  He was listening.

I learned to relax by taking a lesson from my son who was relaxed while we read even though he was moving a bit.

Add in choral reading.

I never heard of choral reading before I homeschooled.

Shortly after reading about the benefits of it, I added it quickly to my reading schedule.

In teaching my boys to read, next to reading aloud, choral reading was by far the best teaching tip that spanned from beginner reader even to high school with my boys.

Homeschooled Kids Who Read Pastime Pleasure or Professional Prerequisite @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Choral reading is reading a short passage with your child at the same time.  The benefits are far from simple.

I had one son who equated reading with not breathing or at least it seemed that way. 

He read so fast without pauses because I had focused so much on getting up his reading speed that he wasn’t comprehending, much less enjoying anything we were reading.

When we started choral reading, he could see where I paused, where I put emphasis and how I took a longer pause at the period.

It wasn’t too long before his reading fluency changed and he could not only understand what we were reading, but his volume, diction and rate of reading improved quickly.

Since he is my Sociable Sam type of personality, it was always a fun time for us.  He liked the challenge of reading with me.

Homeschooled Kids Who Read  Lifelong

It was also a skill I practiced with my sons as they entered high school.

Though I had let my oldest two sons do choral reading together a few times, it ended up being competitive and one son would always feel like he was doing less. So that didn’t work in my circumstance.

You may have children that are spread apart enough in age that an older child could do it with a younger child and not make the younger one feel defeated.

Much later in the teen years and even into high school, it was a fail-safe practice because not only would my sons be reading for pleasure but understanding what they read in books would be the stepping stones to passing tests for any profession they chose as adults.

Create memory aids.

Visual person that I am, I knew that at least two of my sons were visual learners also.

In the beginning, I made story props so that each child could hold up the character or prop when he heard it in the story.

Using hands-on props helped me sons to remember certain parts to a story.

For older kids, letting them look at a timeline or visual fact card on the subject you are reading about is helpful.

Public reading aloud.

Public reading aloud infused my boys to take reading seriously and to see the value of it beyond pleasure. 

When reading for pleasure, it’s not really important to have to remember what you are reading.

When my sons took up public reading aloud, it is a form of reading that is done in the adult world or work place. 

Public speaking and public reading aloud helped my boys to prepare for the work force and equipped them with valuable study skills if they are pursuing college courses.

Homeschooled kids do not have to make a choice between a pastime pleasure or using their reading skills as prerequisite for a professional job.  They can have both.

Adding in a few of these tips to your reading schedule not only will make your child a better reader, but when he is an adult, he will be an avid learner.

Guess what? Things have become too serious around here.

To celebrate National Reading Month, we are going to PARTY!!!!

I LOVE giveaways and I am so excited for you about this giveaway.

I have joined a few of my fellow bloggers from iHN to give away a Kindle Fire HD 6 16 GB !  Oh yeah baby, it’s nice!

Would you like one FREE?

Just a few guidelines.

1. Open to U.S. residents only.

2. The giveaway is from 6:00 am EST Monday, March 16 until 6:00 am EST Friday, March 20.

 The winner will be announced on Saturday, March 21.

3. Follow the instructions closely on the Rafflecopter. 

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Scoot by and visit the other hosts and check out their tips about reading.

Starts at Eight: Children’s Books about the Library

The Heart of Michelle: 5 Ways to Encourage Reading in a Reluctant Reader

Our Journey Westward: 11 Tips for Raising Readers

Life’s Hidden Treasures: Family Favorites and a Kindle Fire Giveaway for National Reading Month

Hugs and love ya

Tina 2015 Signature

Look at some more helpful tips!

Teaching Homeschooled Boys How to Read – When to Panic!

Letting Go of the Homeschool Language Arts Stranglehold

What You’ve Got To Know About Teaching Reading Comprehension