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Teach Homeschool Language Arts

Teaching Homeschooled Boys How to Read – When to Panic!

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

When I began to teach Mr. Senior 2013 how to read, I had read that teaching homeschooled boys how to read was a lot more challenging than teaching girls.  Guess what? It was true in my case but certainly way easier after I learned a few secrets, which I want to share with you today.
Too, sharing my experiences now after my second son is about to graduate, I feel my experiences that I may have shared early on in my homeschooling journey may have been a bit shallow.

When beginning to teach boys how to read, I needed more specifics and to not be told, “Oh well, they will just learn at their pace.”
While that statement is true, there are other specific things I did and did not do to nurture my boys’ love of reading.

Boy-Friendly Environment

Reading a lot about why boys lag behind girls, I understood early on that the learning environment I created could possibly be part of the problem.
In other words, the environment we create may cater to girls that love to sit still, color for hours and otherwise listen.


Of course girls can be wiggly too, but I am speaking generally there are differences in the genders that can be spotted early on.
I had to balance my need for an environment or school room that was organized with my boys’ need to learn out of the box.

The most important thing I had to let go of was thinking that because my boys had the need to move, learn hands-on and have a lot more physical activity that something was wrong with them.

Embrace a boy’s natural desire to get rough, move and be rowdy when teaching them to read.
I see that I had to let go of reading activities that required very little movement and include more creative tips for learning their letters and sounds.

Some boys learn well on a iPad, Kindle and leap pad, but again because of their need to move, physical activities have spanned the years as far as the best tips.

Look at some of these tips I did when letter burnout loomed overhead.

  • Use balloons. Can’t say enough good things about them.

What is there about punching anything that makes a boy get interested?

Yes, it took some time to blow up the balloons, but I got a lot of mileage out of them.

I would write letters on them with a marker and they would have to hit them up in the air while saying the letter.

Then I used them for vowel sounds, or diphthongs and later on for recognizing numbers.

  • Boys like hopscotch too. Either use chalk if you do this outside or use tape if you have to do this inside.

Tape off a section and use tape for the letters to go inside the hop scotch squares.

Too, I went and got discontinued carpet square samples and wrote on them with a permanent marker for sight words, letters or sounds.

  • Giant Puzzles.

Just to sprawl out on the floor and move around to put together a giant puzzle that is related to what you are learning was something that two of my sons looked forward to.

  • Empty plastic bottles equals endless games.

Again, anything that requires a crash and burn like throwing a ball or rolling a ball into empty plastic bottles marked with what I wanted my boys to learn was an all time favorite.

  • Never, never forget the ball in a hole activity also.

I remember one cold winter in teaching Mr. Awesome to read that the kid just loved shooting hoops anytime.

I bought a new clean plastic trash can and lots of small balls that I labeled with sight words. As he shot the ball in the basket, the word “bam” always followed the sight word on the ball.

  • Jumping off the couch, clapping their hands in the air and yelling the word.

Letting go of the no jumping off the couch rule when we schooled, Mr. Awesome thought this one of the most awesome things we ever did for the day.
It was like he was getting away with something when I let him jump off the couch, clap his hands in the air while saying the sight word I flashed at him.

Not every activity we did had to be so action packed but it always helped to sprinkle moving activities in with quiet time after sitting still.

No amount of worrying on my part could hurry the process of being ready for reading. Unless your son has a learning disability, it is normal for boys to read anywhere from between 5 to up to 9 years of age.
One of the biggest mistakes I made was focusing so much on how to read and not setting enough of an example of how to enjoy reading.
What you do not say is just as important.  Quickly, I figured out that I wanted my boys to view reading as pleasurable and not a chore.

Do not fill your reading time with always laboring over letter recognition, sounds and sight words.  Make that a part of your day, but also make part of your day reading something that your sons want read to them.
Boys do have a timetable to learn to read on and it normally is not in sync with girls.

Teaching reading is very similar to their developing into young man.

I have no control over the timetable of when my sons would have a deep voice, shave every day now and have broader shoulders but can only savor the moments of being a partner with my sons as they have grown to just not being avid readers but to young men who truly love reading for the sheer enjoyment of it.

What about you? What boy friendly activities work for you?

Also, look at these other tips. What Makes Reading Painful for Homeschooled Kids. Let Go of Busywork to Raise Lifelong Readers, Help! I Can’t Teach My Homeschooled Child How to Read – 5 Step Checklist and Teach Your Homeschooled Child How to Read in 20 Easy Lessons.

Hugs and love ya,

Tina 2015 Signature

Letting Go of the Homeschool Language Arts Stranglehold

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

Covering homeschool language arts and no other subjects for the day is not just dull, boring and unbalanced but it can also suck the life out a child’s desire to read and write every day.

Letting go of the homeschool language arts stranglehold is not easy.  Wanting our children to succeed in life and not wanting them to miss something vital in the area of language arts, many parents, including myself, have unintentionally piled on double the subjects in language arts.

Letting Go of the Homeschool Language Arts Stranglehold

Instead of feeding a child’s natural eagerness to learn through language arts, we create resistant learners.

e;”>Understanding the elements of language arts keeps them from over taking hands-on science activities, history projects or art projects that our children can’t wait to do.

Key to covering language arts well, but keeping it balanced with the other activities is being sure we know what the subjects are.

It is hard to know if you are covering the essentials when you use such a broad general term like language arts.

Homeschool Language Arts – Think Communicate

Because I was not a public school teacher in my LBK (life before kids) and because I always need to compartmentalize before I can tackle a job, today, I want to help you clearly identify and categorize which subjects make up language arts at each level.

Language arts is a term used to cover how we communicate, whether it’s spoken communication or written communication.

In each grade level, language art subjects will vary but the subject will cover one of those two areas.  You don’t have to have a public school teacher background to figure it out.

For example, at the beginning level, teaching phonics is about teaching our elementary children how to read.  At the middle school level, teaching our children composition is about teaching them how to communicate their ideas efficiently. At the high school level, language arts can take a different turn and it’s about how to teach our high school students to orally communicate effectively.

As just a mom, I don’t like the term language arts because it is too broad and does not help you to grasp which subjects to teach at which grade levels.
Language arts can be a whole host of subjects but most of them fall into these 5 subcategories.

Reading

Writing

Spelling

Grammar

Oral

Identifying them each year and then filling the need, keeps language arts as a subject that is not only thoroughly enjoyable to learn about, but keeps it balanced.

Look at this list of a whole host of subjects and teaching techniques used interchangeably that make it seem almost impossible to organize.

Phonics, word study, narration, dictation, grammar, literature, English, speech, penmanship, drama, public speaking, poetry recitation, memory work, composition, spelling, reading comprehension, speaking and listening and outlining are just some of the subjects that I have seen through the years.

While some are subjects like composition, which have numerous ways to teach it and various genres and some are techniques like copywork, which teach a whole host of skills, they all generally fall into reading, writing, spelling, grammar or oral categories.

Too, one subject can teach multiple language arts skills.

Elementary Homeschool Language Arts

Look at these samples below of how I categorized subjects or teaching techniques.

This is not an exhaustive list by any means because there are an overwhelming amount of superior teaching techniques as well as excellent language art curriculum that we can seize for the year.

I just sorted through some of them to show you how I organize them both mentally and most of the time in my planner so that I keep a balanced plan.

Middle School and High School Homeschool Language Arts

Too, I haven’t even touched on how language arts skills can be honed by using novels, poetry, science and history topics.

The point of today’s blog post is for you to rein in the numerous techniques and subjects in language arts that constantly bombards us.

It helps to see that many years were are either meeting or exceeding standards for a grade level.

Some years, I have very slim language arts curriculum and more reference type books because language arts is taught through another meaningful subject like history.

For example, if you have a boy that does not like writing, he can see the value of learning it while he can write about ancient weapons. A reference book to guide him on his subject is of more value.  If you have a girl that would rather read about fashion or horses than write, then a reference book about creative writing will inspire her to write her own story.

How Do You Keep Homeschool Language Arts from Choking Out Your Other Subjects?

Did I mention that covering language arts while study science, history or the history of art is the simple trick to balancing language arts while still getting in your much loved subjects for the day?

Covering only language arts for the day and not finishing until 2:00 p.m is a recipe for disaster.

I hope that by simplifying some of the subjects and techniques for you that you will see that you are probably more than just meeting the basics each day.

Most homeschoolers I have helped have way too much curriculum in language arts and do not realize that language arts spans just about any other type of subjects.

Whether you are learning about art, history, science or the Bible, you have to read, decipher sounds, infer, follow directions and explain or tell back what you have learned and somewhere along the way write down instructions, follow directions, label and diagram.

Sorting through my language arts curriculum each year helps me to isolate curriculum to fit within the categories of the big 5 (reading, writing, spelling, grammar and oral).

Too, it helps me to not over plan but to realize that I will cover different parts of language arts through our love of other  subjects.

How do you keep language arts from choking out the other activities you have on tap for the day?

You’ll love these other tips:

Hugs and love ya,

 

20 Ideas for Bringing Writing Alive through Unit Studies About Ancient Civilizations

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

I have 20 ideas for bringing writing alive through unit studies.

Whether we are teaching handwriting readiness to our younger kids or how to form a coherent paragraph with our middle school or high school kids, writing is an essential skill to communicating.

Try explaining the value of this vital skill to a reluctant writer.

20 Ideas for Bringing Writing Alive through Unit Studies About Ancient Civilizations

Normally the conversation just ends in moans and groans.

Unit studies have been a way to curb the fear of the writing process and blank paper syndrome in our house.

Today, in sharing 20 ideas for bringing writing alive through unit studies, I want to share ideas for writing assignments.

They not only make writing a joy but create value in the eyes of your budding writer.

As teachers sometimes we are all too eager to get our kids to meet our expectations of the mechanics of writing instead of instilling a passion for writing in the beginning.

The trigger for getting a writer to mind the details or mechanics of his writing is to get him to write something that is relevant to the subject he is learning.

But also to give him freedom to write about what stirs his soul.

Whining or Winning Your Way Through Writing

Writing is a subject where unit study topics are powerful motivators,

Too, the unit study approach has an enormous edge over other homeschool learning approaches.

If you have included your children in the process of selecting a unit study, you already have a topic they eagerly want to know about.

Unlike boring workbooks or programs that focus first on the mechanics of writing and the subject or topic of writing is incidental, it is opposite with a unit study.

Choosing a topic for writing already has a palatable start.

Your child had a choice when planning your unit study theme. 

Your child’s freedom to choose a unit study topic gives you the necessary starting point.

Too, you take a potentially stressful subject to teach and turn it into something they look forward to.

Instead of grouping writing ideas by grade level, from kindergarten to high school, I will leave that up to you. 

You know whether your young writer is doing more advanced work or if you need to have your highschooler focus on the basics of writing.

Too, from the list below, I want to encourage you to continue to give handwriting priority in your day instead of feeling defeated.

BRINGING WRITING ALIVE THROUGH UNIT STUDIES

Look at this list of ideas as I use my unit study theme, Ancient Civilizations, as an example to plan related handwriting or composition topic.

Ancient Civilizations.

  • Describe silkworms; explain the silk making process;
  • explain the process of becoming a Samurai warrior;
  • how would you compare the lives of Egyptian Pharaohs and Queens to the common people;
  • list 3 facts that you learned from the life of Jonah;
  • research about the animals of Africa and label the parts of an animal;
  • write a quality paragraph about the art of mummy making;
  • describe Hannibal’s trek across the Alps with elephants so that your reader can experience it and picture it;
  • color an animal by number to strengthen fine motor skills or color an animal by letter recognition;
  • write an essay about the Punic Wars so that each part of the essay is clearly distinguishable, which are an opening paragraph, three detailed body paragraphs and a closing paragraph;
  • observe nature and write about the flora of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon;
  • show the relationship between Shang script or Chinese writing to cuneiform and hieroglyphics;
  • do Ancient Greece copywork; use reliable and quality resources to research about Egyptian Gods; use time order to explain the days of creation;
  • outline how to build the pyramids of Egypt;
  • describe pieces of art from Ancient Civilizations;
  • have a younger child edit a paragraph written by an older sibling;
  • choose scriptures to narrow down a topic about the pagan practices of Ancient Civilizations;
  • creative writing by using If I lived back in the times of mummies . . . or If I traveled back to the ancient land of Greece … or What I would wear to be part of the high fashion society of Greece . . . or What my weapon would be if I were training to be a Roman Legionary Soldier and copy one sentence or quote like “All Roads Lead to Rome”.

From a Word Rookie to Word Wizard

Don’t be afraid to put aside composition assignments that are meaningless in favor of choosing a topic with a meaningful message to your child.

Also, setting aside laid out curriculum and grabbing helpful reference books will allow you to create writing assignments for your family.

One resource I have used over the years and still use is Great Source Write Source. 

Matter of fact I like all their books.  It has been easy to assign written work we choose following the composition types in these books.

Also, for a teacher reference, I really like The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes and refer to this probably more often than some other references.

Another one that is timeless and has stood teaching all three of my sons with the fads of books coming in and out is If You’re Trying to Teach Kids How to Write . . . You’ve Gotta Have This Book.

Writing topics are sparked from themes that make sense to your child.

Why? Because they are based on what topic you are learning about.

Smothering the Embers of Beginning Creativity

When emphasis is put first on the engaging process of the topic then a tool like grammar can be applied afterwards. 

Kids can feel crippled when they have to think about the mechanics of writing when thoughts should be flowing.

Working on the mechanics of grammar like the who and which clauses.

Too, study nonessential and essential clauses.

Focus on narrowing down topics, planning paragraphs and editing can be done after the child has composed what he finds entertaining.

Don’t stifle the love for writing by focusing first on the rules. 

Keep the teacher mom reined in for this subject.

Rules of grammar are important and you want them to be important to your children.

The necessity of the rules can be seen when applied to something personal, which is their writing. 

Rules for the sake of rules without validity never made sense to anybody.

Does this list spark some creative ideas for writing on your present unit study? Do you want me to create lists like this for each unit study on my blog?

20 Ideas for Bringing Writing Alive through Unit Studies

Check out these other posts:

 

 

What You’ve Got To Know About Teaching Reading Comprehension

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

Today, in what you’ve got to know about teaching reading comprehension, I will share surefire ways to rekindle the love of reading. More important these tips will help your child understand what he is reading.

When I took Mr. Senior 2013 out of public school for the short time he was in Kindergarten and started homeschooling him again, I realized that he had changed from adoring his reading time to abhorring it.

Reading Material Matters. 

I am always astounded at how children naturally figure things out and they know when something they are reading matters.  One book I had chosen to focus on my son’s reading comprehension was called Bags The Lamb.

Okay, not very inspiring title and so I soon learned that my first mistake in helping my son to care about what he was reading was to make it matter. 

One stepping stone to having your child lap up reading is to give him a meaningful purpose.

For Mr. Senior 2013 that meant reading a comic book or a non-fiction book about science or history. 

If you are using a reading program that has dry, boring books that do not matter to your child, then use a book they choose so it matters to them. 

What You’ve Got To Know About Teaching Reading Comprehension

This is the first step to encouraging them to make meaning of what they are reading.

A Skillful Teacher Models the Process. 

Then there is one pet peeve of mine that we unknowingly do in a lot of subjects that we teach and that is somehow by osmosis we expect our kids to know what we want.

I too made this mistake in thinking my son knew how to skim the material, ask questions silently and look for answers in reading material.

Switching my approach, I focused on one paragraph in the book that he chose and talked out loud while he was sitting with me.

I would continue to talk out loud asking who is this character or I would say this reminds me of so and so whom we both know.

In talking out loud, I was helping my son to make a connection with what he knew right now and otherwise question what he was reading.

He soon learned that it was okay to have questions and that questions are the beginning to understanding what he was reading.  It is not necessary to

have all the questions answered, which is what Mr. Senior 2013 was doing.

Reading comprehension is about weighing and identifying facts though not always having the answers until the end of the story.

Slow Down Your Reading Pace Mama! 

Another mistake I was making was allowing my kindergartener to read the whole story in one gulp. 

What good did that do him if he didn’t understand the first paragraph?

He had me fooled because he was such a good reader, never mind the fact that he didn’t understand too much of what he read. 

I realized he was hyper focused on rapid reading and correct pronunciation instead of understanding what he was reading.

No wonder he didn’t like reading at the time because it became more about reciting meaningless chants instead of savoring the satisfaction that comes from filling his mind about the fascinating world around him.

From that time on, I assigned my 1:1 reading time with him for just one or two paragraphs each day. 

Implementing my tip on modeling the process, I read the paragraph or two aloud the first time. 

Pausing at commas, and emphasizing important words by the inflection in my voice helped him to see how he should be reading. 

This tip significantly improved his reading comprehension in the first few months.

Besides forming a close bond with him, to this day he has never forgotten the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from understanding what he is reading.

The rest of the day as a Kindergartener he spent with alone reading time, but I could hear him off in the room practicing some of what I had modeled.

By taking this 1:1 crucial time with him, my reader who once loved reading prior to sending him to public school returned to a love of reading.

Visualize and Imagine. 

Too, I had not tapped into my son’s love of visualization. 

Boys especially need to use this strategy. Again, he was a very visual person, but I had not helped him to see that he needed to use that strength to visualize the characters or place.

I had read somewhere that we should teach them like it’s a movie going on in their head. 

It’s true.  I helped him to see that if he could picture what a character wore, how he sounded when he talked and where he lived that those things would add to his understanding of what he was reading. 

It worked. Simply explaining that to my son and helping him to make that connection was all he needed to rapidly improve his reading comprehension.

I learned again that we need to tell and give our kids those strategies specifically instead of thinking or assuming they learn those things by absorbing them. 

Too, let them turn their imagination loose even if you don’t see a fact in the reading for their imagined thought. 

Just the fact they are imagining shows they are attempting to make connections with what they are reading. 

It adds to the intrinsic value too of making reading a lifelong habit.

Too, don’t break down every reading lesson into a chore, but choose carefully when you want to apply the strategies above. 

In the beginning, I did it every day, but after a few weeks, I applied these strategies about 3x a week so that it didn’t become boring. 

Remember, changing from repeating words or phrases over and over again because a child may be intensely focused on phonics or how-to ready instead of meaning takes time to slowly change.

Many children are afraid in the sense they think they are not pleasing you if they don’t read rapidly. 

Every bit of time I have put into helping Mr. Senior 2013 slow down and absorb what he was reading had paid off with tremendous benefits to him as a young adult now.

On many days, he reads more than I do and my heart leaps because of his fondness for reading knowing he has carried this into adulthood. 

There is nothing more satisfying to me as the teacher!!  Give one or two of these tips a try and you’ll see improvement.

What You’ve Got To Know About Teaching Reading Comprehension

Look at some of these other articles:

What You've Got to Know About Teaching Reading Comprehension

Teaching Handwriting When Homeschooling the Early Years Part 3

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

Today, in teaching handwriting when homeschooling the early years part 3, I’m showing you samples of our transition in handwriting from the beginning of kindergarten to second grade.

But first, if you missed Teaching Handwriting When Homeschooling the Early Years Part 1 , I wanted you to take away the fact that you want to create a print rich environment and trust the natural process that a child has in wanting to learn how to write.

Warning: Lots of pictures and a long post here!

You know I can’t talk to you unless I have lots of pictures.

Too, I wanted to keep the formal part of how to teaching writing all in one post so it’s easier for you to see the progression.

Teaching Handwriting When Homeschooling the Early Years Part 3-1

Sometimes the process does not always require a lot of intervention on your part.  Think of yourself as a partner or coach in the writing process.

In Teaching Handwriting When Homeschooling the Early Years Part 2 , it is important to allow plenty of time for your child to focus on strengthening the fine motor muscles.

This happens through a lot of play and NOT asking your child to write on a line at the preschool ages.

Teaching Writing the Early Years

Scooting down through the years now, we want to begin what I call the “formal” teaching writing years, which is about kindergarten to first grade. 

Obviously, children will continue to work on improving the legibility of their penmanship in the later grades.

But today is about focusing on the nitty-gritty of teaching handwriting.

Teaching Handwriting When Homeschooling the Early Years Part 3 Kindergarten Sample

The reason we want to pay attention to these grade levels or years (not necessarily ages because all children are different) is that children can undergo a significant change during this time. 

They can go from writing illegibly at the beginning of kindergarten to some beautiful beginning cursive by second grade.

I say second grade because that is the end result of the formal teaching which is happening in kindergarten and first grade. 

Again, remember it does not mean penmanship is completely mastered.

But you will see the beautiful transition as they keep fine tuning what they have been taught.

Teaching Handwriting When Homeschooling the Early Years Part 3 Middle of First Grade

The metamorphosis in penmanship during this time was always amazing to me with each son. 

Too,  Mr. Awesome and Tiny progressed close, but not exactly to this same timeline. 

Each child is different like I mentioned but wanted to repeat that again because teaching each child has not been an exact science.

Teaching Writing to Homeschooled Students

I know too that when I was new to teaching handwriting that seeing actual samples of penmanship progress and understanding the growth process would have helped me more. 

Providing that here for you, I am hoping it will help to give you a gauge for when you are teaching penmanship.

In addition to working on fine motor skills in kindergarten, I worked with each son on beginning sentence writing. 

I would start the sentence and write it down. 

Then, they would copy it, think of the ending and write the word or words.

  I know it sounds a bit crazy, but the less I knew about homeschooling the better teacher I was at the time.

After I read about so many different learning styles and about how I was suppose to teach writing, I started thinking I was a public school teacher. 

I forgot the teacher mom part of me. 

In other words, I didn’t even know about copy work and was already doing that when teaching kindergarten.

Teaching Handwriting When Homeschooling the Early Years Part 3 Middle of First Grade 2

No, I couldn’t leave well enough alone because I was afraid Mr. Senior 2013 would be behind. (I hated feeling this way at the time.)

So I started as a good teaching momma, then turned Nazi momma.

I focused more on teaching him “penmanship” than just the skill. 

What do I mean by this?

Well take a look at the picture below. 

Instead of teaching him how to write, I had to now push him to learning how to compose sentences. 

Teaching Writing to Homeschooled Students

So I moved from what I knew to do naturally, which was having him to copy what I wrote, to thinking I was running a classroom. 

And though composing and penmanship are linked, I couldn’t expect him to learn something that I had not modeled or introduced to him yet. 

I guess I expected him to know what a title was for his beginning compositions by one of those Vulcan mind melds they do on Star Trek.

Teaching Handwriting When Homeschooling the Early Years Part 3 Beginning of Second Grade-1

I did allow him to transition between print and cursive up to this time. 

All the while I was teaching cursive, he was still using his print. 

Looking back now, I should have focused on one or two well written sentences using his beginning cursive instead of insisting on 5 well written sentences, which is a lot for this age.

Too, I corrected his spelling, no doubt in red (awful, awful momma) on his page. 

How to Teach Writing from Prek to Second Grade

Though you do want to correct spelling errors as they are writing, it’s better not to jump ship and teach yet another skill like spelling. 

Simply showing him how to spell ski on a separate page and not on his writing like I did in the picture above, then going on would have been much better to do. 

Of course, I expected him to compose, spell and learn penmanship at one swallow. 

A TRUE mistake of a FIRST TIME homeschooler!

Teaching Handwriting When Homeschooling the Early Years Part 3 By the End of Second Grade-1

Though Mr. Senior 2013 survived my teaching him writing, I shed a few tears here and there as I think how hard I was on him. 

He  excelled and wanted to learn NOT because I needed to constantly poke and prod him, but because he loved me.

As the teacher mom, I realized I held a lot of power over my little guy and that because of his love for me, he always showed up to try his best. 

Thankfully, the other kids that come after the “first” get the full benefit of your experience.

More Writing Curriculum Tips

Only another homeschool mom can know the utter feeling of sheer delight by you when you have taught a child the writing process. 

Yes, I made plenty of mistakes, but learned in the long run to trust my natural instinct. 

Staying balanced about what I learned about the how-tos of penmanship and not always applying it to my family has been important too. 

Sometimes all the tips just did not apply to my situation at the time.

Preschool Letter Recognition

I hope you do the same thing with what I have shared here with you and apply only the tips that will benefit you. 

I would love to celebrate your tiny triumphs with you when you have taught a child how to write. 

Have you had the honor yet?

I am not done yet with this topic.

I have one more post to share about some of the activities we did and and supplies I used in teaching my crew how to write.