handwriting

5 Creative Ways to Boost Handwriting in Older Kids

April 18, 2020 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Whether your kids have been in public school where handwriting or cursive was not a priority or your kids are humdrum about the whole penmanship process, I have some tips to help with handwriting in older kids.

First, there are three things you need to decide as you go through your homeschool journey which would have helped me keep things clear as I taught each kid cursive.

If you think there is a learning disability, go slower or cut lessons to half, or switch to typing. Also, check out the checklist below for dyslexia.

It can be a game changer to learn to type when penmanship holds a kid back from essays or composing.

Next, you need to decide what is your standard for what is acceptable penmanship.

My standard was at least one well-written assignment each day. I didn’t exact it on every assignment.

Penmanship for Older Kids

I encouraged a neat standard or my kids best every day, but accepted close enough many times when there was more of a struggle on a particular day.

What I learned was that although I preferred neat on every assignment, my kids set a bar of excellence for themselves once they mastered the neatness of handwriting.

Third, adding to the cloud of confusion for handwriting, some educators today want to tout that cursive or a lot of writing will be a thing of the past and it will be replaced by tablets.

That mindset wasn’t the majority when I first started homeschooling, but changing times in education doesn’t always equate with better or an upgrade.

In homeschool, you set your standard for excellence in education.

Me? Because reading and writing have always been connected and I see that connection in my own 20 years of experience, I will continue to advocate penmanship, legible handwriting, and cursive as the hallmarks of a well-educated man.

In addition, I will support creative ways for kids to express their thoughts who have disabilities.

We don’t have to make a choice of either or in homeschool; we homeschool so we can have the best of both worlds.

Look at these 5 (okay I have a bit more) creative ways to encourage and boost the penmanship in your older kids.

ONE.
Short cards and letters still work!

The excitement of receiving a card or short letter from a friend can still get an older kid giddy.

One of my teen sons was delighted to get a card from his best friend. I was shocked of course thinking he had outgrew letter writing, but receiving a card was personal. It works.

Too, because a greeting card can be short, it’s not overwhelming for a kid who struggles with writing to pen a few thoughts.

Knowing that receiving a card was an object of affection I used that short card for easy handwriting lessons. It was different too when he received that versus a card from grandparents. I think it was because it was his peer. Whatever the case, it worked.

TWO.
Combine art or science with writing.

Art uses a lot of fine motor skills in a natural way.

Don’t underestimate the value of drawing or studying art while a kid improves his cursive or print.

Art gives a fun slant to what may otherwise be considered a boring skill to master. Look at Art History Kids to combine art and writing.

Also, look at the series Pictures in Cursive which is a cursive writing program based on picture study of classic works of art.

It’s a useful way to reinforce cursive while not doing baby-ish work. The different levels of the program correspond to letters and not grades so you can decide the placement for your struggling writer.

If you have a science lover, labeling and working on a science journal gives value to the need to write legibly.

THREE.
Quotes, knock-knock jokes, journaling, and poetry work too.

A few more things I pulled out of my arsenal are inspirational quotes, knock- knock jokes, and journaling.

If you’re a Bible reader, the Proverbs are filled with words of wisdom and are great for small passages of copywork.

Also, motivational quotes can be powerful for kids who want to succeed, but may feel defeated because of their lack of penmanship.

Tips to Improve Handwriting in Older Kids

This site Everyday Power has 150 inspirational quotes for kids to reinforce a positive mindset each day while brushing up on their penmanship. Like us, kids want to empower themselves instead of always being told.

Then, I had another son who struggled at one time with his penmanship. He is our fun loving kid.

Instead of taking a serious note, I turned to a knock-knock joke book. They’re short, pretty corny, and just what a kid who is taking himself too serious needs. Laughing the whole time while writing was worth every bit of him telling me the jokes, over, over, over, and….okay.

Most kids love journaling when they know it’s not going to be criticized. Journaling was one way I could tell how my kids’ penmanship was naturally developing or not.

My kids never knew why I insisted on journaling because I never insisted on grading it.

If I saw a weakness like a letter sloppy or not formed correctly, I could work on direct instruction with them or work on another daily assignment showing correct letter formation and not grade or criticize the journaling which was from their heart.

Journaling stayed fun while giving me a glimpse each year of how their penmanship was truly developing.

Another son of mine loved poetry. Poetry is supposed to be read outloud and it’s meant to be enjoyed.

My suggestion is when you’re not studying poetry formally, then copying favorite passages not only strengthens fine motor skills, but feeds creativity.

The Charlotte Mason approach encourages focusing on a single poet for a year or term. If your older kid found one particular poet fascinating like mine did with Edgar Allen Poe, then copy the famous works of that one poet.

Handwriting Tips for Older Students

It not only feeds an older’s child’s desire to learn what he wants, but it associates enjoyment with the art of writing.

Look at my tips in The Ultimate Guide to Poetry for Multiple Ages (For the Intimidated).

FOUR.
Direct handwriting instruction creative? Maybe.

Coming in sideways is one way to teach, but some kids need direct instruction too. I liked this next resource because it does teach cursive in a more simplified format.

Unlike teaching a child cursive from the beginning, most older kids like adults have already established some form of writing that is normally a combination of print and cursive.

So, teaching traditional cursive to an older child can backfire. A simplified version of cursive can be a better fit for an older child.

This workbook uses a form of cursive that is more free of the extra loops found in most traditional cursive. It’s less intimidating when teaching teens.

FIVE.
Lists, copywork, short stories, and topics kids love no matter how silly give value to learning how to write well.

Teaching kids life skills rates high for most of us as homeschoolers. And making lists can be taught as a life skill.

This was one area hard for me because I tend to organize everything in our school and home including the grocery lists or any other lists. I’m a list maker.

I used to create food lists on the refrigerator then that morphed into using lists on my phone. For a while I went back to paper lists so my son could use his writing for a useful purpose.

In addition, we made lists of adjective and verbs to keep in his writer’s notebook as reference pages for his composition.

It was a great way to sneak in more handwriting and way my son felt was useful to him instead of just being assigned some tracing work.

One of the best ways that worked hands down for all my writers no matter what age is copywork.

Modeling is a great teacher. The beauty of copywork is that if your child is not minding the details of handwriting like commas or capitalization, then copywork helps him to look at the details.

Copying beautiful passages or from sources that a kid loves whether it’s history, poetry, science, or even jokes, boosts his spelling, grammar, and the mechanics of punctuation.

When he models the writing of great writers of the past or present, he sees a pattern to follow and can set a standard for himself.

Whether your kids have been in public school where handwriting or cursive was not a priority or your kids are humdrum about the whole penmanship process, I have some tips to help with handwriting in older kids. CLICK HERE for these AWESOME tips! #homeschooling #handwriting #penmanship

Don’t give up on your older kids or make each day about head-butting.

His lack of skill is apparent each day to him. He needs creative ways to strengthen his fine motor skills and need to pay attention to the details of letter formation while enjoying his everyday work.

Let me know what other creative ways have worked for you!

You’ll love these other great tips!

Hugs and love ya,

How to Teach Cursive and Composition With A Fresh Perspective

December 28, 2017 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When pioneers were going west, ruts served as a guide in following others. Ruts are not necessarily a bad thing. However, when you need to veer off the beaten path when teaching cursive and composition because your well-worn path is not working, then you need a fresh perspective.

The first shift in my mindset that I had to overcome when teaching cursive and composition is to realize that they are two very different skills. As teachers we can forget that they’re related, but different.

Cursive is a fine motor skill and requires physical dexterity while composition is a mental process.

When both work together, it is an out of body experience as my son told me one time. Okay, okay, it is a total body experience.

Bottom line is that it can be flat out hard. Telling your child to pick his pencil up and start writing can be the demise of him.

For example, a child may be mastering fine motor skill, but needs help with ideas on what to write.

On the flip side, a child may be excited to write creatively, but his fine motor skills are holding him back.

Both skills are needed for a child to be an effective writer.

Honing both skills need to be done simultaneously as well as individually for both to emerge strong.Let me get one more idea out of the way too. Cursive is both hard to teach and to learn, but print can be harder.

As the parent, you are the only one to know if the problems you’re having with your child are because of attitude or aptitude.

Some children do better when typing, but before you give in to teaching only typing, read on about my experience.

Cursive takes patience, consistency, and fortitude to teach.

Devices today are suppose to speed up the time we have, but they don’t. They can make both children and adults overly anxious.

They also teach us to instantly master whatever it is that we’re learning.

Teaching and learning cursive rubs opposite of the educational grain being thrown at us today. It’s a slow process and not instant gratification. Parents are left wondering if their child has a special need when in fact they may be developing fine.

How to Rock Teaching Cursive

Look at these tips for teaching cursive from a fresh perspective.

1.) Don’t teach cursive later. Big mistake. I hear it all the time: “I’ll wait until my child is in 3rd grade or 5th grade.”

The best time to teach cursive is soon after he gains control of his fine motor skills. The rule of thumb is about half way through first grade.

One side note is that your child is still malleable and willing to learn cursive the younger he is.

By the time, he is in third grade or later, he may be too embarrassed or not patient enough to learn.

I started each child halfway through first grade and had plenty of time to teach it. Later is not better in this instance. Of course, this means if your child has no developmental issues.

By 3rd grade, my kids had a good handle on cursive and of course I expected them to use it all the way through to high school. And yes, they learned to type along the way.

2.) Don’t teach cursive and composition at the same time.

Direct teaching is very different from practice.

For example, in the beginning while your child is learning cursive don’t make him agonize in how to spell or how to be creative. Just give him the answers and move on while he focuses on the physical part of writing.

3.) Don’t teach composition or cursive back to back in the day.

Whatever you do, don’t do two back to back heavy assignments.

If your child is struggling with both of these skills then space them out in the day.

Do cursive practice work first thing in your day.

Then, switch gears and do other subjects. Add in composition later after your child’s hand has had time to recover.

4.) Strengthening fine motor skills goes beyond practicing cursive.

Coloring is a great way to naturally strengthen skills. And coloring something worthwhile like science pages or history pages will make learning time productive. Check out the 10 Westward Expansion History Fun Coloring Pages and 20 Ancient Civilization History Coloring Pages.
Copywork is timeless for teaching beautiful penmanship and again worthy of your child’s learning time. Poems, scriptures, history, or science are straight and clear prose which are practical for copywork. Look at my article, Free History Copywork – A Roundup of History Resources.
Drawing and writing. Be sure to not criticize, judge, or grade these fun activities. But make sure they do BOTH writing and drawing. My sons wanted to draw a picture first and then the words swelled up from the inside as they viewed their magnificent drawings.

Teaching composition is equally teacher intensive. There are no short cuts. Learning how to express ideas clearly doesn’t just happen. It is modeled by the teacher.

It reminds me of summers I spent with my granny when she was alive. I watched a southerner master cook whip out the most delicious recipes I fondly remember to this day. As I stood beside her, I wrote down her ideas.

I added a few ingredients to her pot under her supervision and then learned to cook delicious meals like her.

Teaching Composition that Goes from Limp to Life

Composition can be the same way. Don’t make it an event where all life goes limp. Make it a time that is memorable for the right reasons. Tears are not a good sign.

Composition starts off as a shared project when your kids are just learning.

You start the “pot”, let them stir it by adding a few key ingredients.

As you model how to write, your kids learn by watching and participating.

Look at these ways to teach composition that are out of the box.

Take a week and brainstorm topics instead of writing a composition. In order to have your child’s ideas flow abundantly, you take control of the physical act of writing.
Let your child record his ideas on his phone. Then play them back and write them down. This breaks this hard process down into two steps.
Have your child use his phone or your phone to take pictures of objects that might interest him. Go on a scavenger hunt. Scrolling back through the pictures is not only fun, but gets your child excited about what to write.
Also, I would find a funny picture or some other picture that I thought would evoke a strong emotion and muse with one of my sons about what the title should be. How many titles or ideas can your child come up with?
Make writing a group effort. One activity we did was to have each child write part of the story. This is not only fun, but it takes the pressure off of coming up with the whole story.
Another thing I did was to write story starters on a strip of paper and have each child draw a topic from a jar. Some kids like the element of surprise and challenge.
For one son, he loved it when I wrote as he dictated to me. He had beautiful prose, but his handwriting held him back. So I would write as he focused on his thoughts. When I finished the draft, he would copy it. Eventually, his physical dexterity caught up with his creative mind.

Also, there are many writing programs that I have used through the years, but one of my favorite writing programs that not only taught writing well, but gave me support is WriteShop.

WriteShop has a unique way of helping the homeschool parent because it was written by homeschooling moms.

Not only does it have a fun way of helping the littlest budding writer, but it gives you practical tips in how to teach.

A lot of writing programs can assume that you have a professional background as a teacher. I do not.

From the time you open the curriculum and read about setting a realistic schedule and see a visual of one to how to grade upper grade compositions, WriteShop guides you in every step.

Ruts can be valuable to a routine, but they can also hem you in.

Fresh ideas in how to teach cursive and composition need to be nurtured. Try one or two of these ideas above and let me know how it works for you.

What do you do when you need a fresh perspective?

Also, I know you’ll find these other posts super helpful!

Hugs and love ya,

3 Ways to Choose the BEST Writing Curriculum (for a Growing Homeschool Family)

July 11, 2017 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

It’s a scary feeling choosing a writing curriculum when you don’t have a professional background in education. Knowing that thousands of parents embark on teaching their children each year, I too made the leap to choosing the perfect writing curriculum. But you and I both know that perfect writing curriculum doesn’t exist, or does it?

Looking back now that two of my sons are graduated, there were some things I did right although I didn’t feel that way at the time.

Hoping to spare you the same agony I went through because of my aversion to teaching writing, I learned 3 ways to choose the best writing curriculum for a growing homeschool family.

ONE/ Know that there is a right way to teach writing. No smoke and mirrors are involved.

A writing program needs to give you and your children structure and sentence variety. Short and compound sentences are only two sentence types but a beginner writer needs plenty of practice developing them.

Moving from basic sentence writing to a paragraph is foundational to strong writing skills. As your child matures, he widens out in his ability to write creatively, but the foundation is first.

Does your writing curriculum give numerous subject topics, practice with sentence variety and instructions to the non-professional educator?

(As I sort through curriculum each new year, WriteShop has been a constant in our homeschool writing journey.)

Writing Structure Gives Kids a Strong Edge

TWO/ As the moods of your children change, your writing environment can’t.

When it comes to scheduling, I could easily be known as a Nazi mama. I’ve been hard on myself through the years so that I don’t push too hard. But years later, I’ve learned my structured environment was key to my boys learning how to write well.

I fully appreciate now that relaxed homeschooling is not lazy homeschooling. Finding balance is key to being a good writing teacher.

A well-rounded out writing curriculum should give you guidance through each step of the writing process and tips to accommodate your kids changing needs and moods.

For several years, my sons needed to write about boy topics. Getting them in touch with their warm and fuzzy feelings didn’t work for them. An excellent writing curriculum really needs to serve the needs of both girls and boys.

In my inexperience, I learned a valuable nugget which is that a structured writing environment nurtures creativity. It worked just opposite of how I thought it would be in the beginning.

Instead of focusing on the grade level, a writing curriculum needs to give you a clear picture of the process. For example, does it move from planning, prewriting, drafting, revising to editing/publish? Does it help you to teach each step clearly?

If the writing curriculum is written for multiple ages, then you can teach to the writing ability for each child. It’s a costly mistake to buy a writing curriculum that does not give you abundant teaching tips at each stage of the writing process.

For example, just because a child is in middle school doesn’t mean he is ready to write high school essays. After all essays are just a lot of practice in paragraph writing combined to make a lengthy paper.

Practice in paragraph writing can span many grades and it’s more about maturity than age. When you’re given clear short-term goals and long-term goals of the writing process, your child can advance based on his maturity or simmer at one level for a while.

Again, teaching writing from the novice to the accomplished is about giving kids a structured environment which should be one of the important details in your program.

Writing, like math, is a skill that needs to be practiced each day. Skipping writing for numerous days and then asking your kids to write 5 paragraphs in one setting is pure torture.

Like other skill subjects, writing quickly becomes boring if a child is not writing about what interests him.

Does your writing curriculum give you writing prompts or ideas, encourages your child to write about topics that interest him and remind you to give praise for your child’s good communication skills? It should.

THREE/ Lessons need to be geared toward ensuring writing success.

Writing programs aim for writing success, but many miss the mark. Not having a teaching background makes me require more of a writing program than just telling me about the writing process.

Look at these key bullet points to help you gauge a top-notch writing program.

Equipping teachers with scripted lessons is the start to creative writing. Like cooking, not everybody needs a recipe but sometimes you need exact measurements. However, in the beginning an inexperienced cook starts with a pattern or recipe and adjusts a recipe as she hones her skill. She adjusts a recipes to fit her family’s needs. Teaching writing is similar. Learn from seasoned writers by carefully following a script and then adjust it to meet your family’s needs.
Providing detailed instructions for budding writers is an essential component. New writers seem to have no fear when it comes to ideas. They need structure and guidance daily. The challenges are quite different for a more mature writer.
A program should ensure writing success for older writers who have more experience in life but may have experienced many writing failures. They may lack confidence. If a writing program fails to ensure that each writing adventure is a success, why would you choose it?
Ample ideas for editing, revising and giving feedback are necessary. My boys never responded to the red pen marks on their paper. It didn’t take many times for me to do that until I realized that writing is very personal. Tips in my curriculum like discussing topics beforehand, having my child explain his thoughts to me prior to writing and having my child listen and watch me as I thought outloud while writing were key teaching points I learned.

Teaching Kids to Write Clearly and Creatively Without Crushing Them

One year when one of my sons was in middle school, I thought he was a very creative writer. At least more so than I was at his age. What I was helped to appreciate from WriteShop was that my son needed to make a point with his writing while entertaining readers.

Having eight pages of words which sparked his imagination was beautiful and creative, but honing it for meaning is equally important.

WriteShop is the one program that I’ve used through the years.

As a mom of bright boys, I refused to believe that just because boys came later to the writing table that it meant they were delayed. They were not, they just needed more entertaining than girls. A boy’s need to wiggle, move, and use up their energy had to be incorporated into the lesson plan.

WriteShop was written by homeschool moms for homeschool moms. And WriteShop was the program that Mr. Senior 2013 chose to use through to high school.

I’m not telling you that teaching writing is easy, but it can be less intimidating when you choose the best writing curriculum. Take your time choosing one and ask a lot of questions.

What is working and not working for you right now?

Also, look at how to teach writing with these other tips.

Cursive Matters; Handwriting Style Doesn’t + Free Resources, Homeschool Tips for Teaching a Young Writer to Take his Ideas from a Trickle to a Waterfall, 3 Things to Avoid When Teaching Homeschooled Kids Beginning Composition and Teaching Handwriting When Homeschooling the Early Years Part 1, 2, 3.

Hugs and love ya,

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.

Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

Cursive Matters; Handwriting Style Doesn’t + Free Resources

August 25, 2016 | 20 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

For years we have been told that storing information in digital form is safer than paper, however, that process is not without problems. Technology is rapidly changing. And hardware and devices, which store vital information from paper can become obsolete. Businesses scramble to constantly update their systems as important paperwork could become lost.

Should cursive be lost to the same vacuum of the modern digital age? It’s not easy to answer that question unless you know how to teach cursive.

Is Cursive Obsolete for Homeschooled Kids?

If you have never taught cursive, it can be easy to cast it off or to think that a child is not capable of it.

Will we be doing our kids a disservice if we skip the cursive and keep the keyboard? You may think so, but not so fast.

Look first at a few of these points of how cursive should be taught to make it easy and more importantly the value of it.

Also, I have some free resources at the bottom for you to use to teach cursive because it doesn’t cost a lot to get a beautiful return.

ONE/ Teach cursive first, before print.

When I taught cursive to my first son, he already had learned the ball-and-stick method that I taught him in Prek and part of Kindergarten.

Switching quickly and teaching him simplified cursive at the end of Kindergarten and in first grade were key to him successfully learning cursive. Teaching my first son cursive, I learned that it was easier to teach him cursive first because the letters were connected and flowing.

I also learned a valuable lesson as a teacher which is to not have my son unlearn the ball-and-stick method he had been taught. That is not the way I wanted to teach.

As he progressed, I noticed that with the ball-and-stick method that he could get confused with letter direction. At that point, I had him do all his work, including crossword puzzles in cursive. By the way, fun crosswords puzzles was a fun way to teach him to practice writing individual cursive letters while his attention was focused on the fun of the puzzle.

As he progressed through the years, he quickly recaptured knowing how to print and it turned out beautiful.

(My son’s cursive at the beginning of second grade so I could judge his progress.)

When my second and third sons came along, I taught them cursive first. Their letter reversal struggle was just about non-existent because they didn’t learn to print them until they were older.

As they have progressed through the years, I find it ironic that as they have grown, they developed their own order of how to write some numbers and letters.

For example, in writing the number four, one of my sons writes the longer side first (the part on the right) and then he writes the part on the left side last. Of course, this is opposite of how we teach our kids to print the number 4, but it’s his handwriting style. Of course, I remind him how to form the numbers and letter easier, but I don’t fuss too much over it. More on that in a minute.

TWO/ Understand the three broad strokes of cursive.

To understand the simple way to teach cursive, you need to know the three broad strokes, which are a downcurve or sometimes called up and down, an overcurve and an undercurve.

When you see how to tame cursive, it becomes very easy to allow kids to make huge curves and loops.

For our first lessons in teaching cursive, my sons wrote real big on butcher roll paper. Understanding that most children don’t have control over their fine motor skills until about half way through first grade, I didn’t expect them to write small cursive letters.

I did allow each child to write a lot of big strokes, up and down, loops, curves and circles, which they like to do anyway.

From there we progressed to lined paper in first grade.

After teaching all of my sons cursive and resisting the print first tradition, which can confuse children, I learned that when letters are connected and flowing, it’s easier to learn to write.

When a child has to decide where to place straight lines and circles as he is learning the ball-and-stick method, he can get confused and write letters backward.

Cursive built confidence in my boys because when they placed their pencil on the paper on the left side of the paper for the first letter each letter flowed effortlessly.

Instead of focusing so much emphasis on down up, around, lift your pencil up, place it back down, my sons focused on their spelling not the constant placing of where to begin and end letters or lines.

Penmanship was more legible because there was no guessing which letter faced forward or backward.

THREE/ Confusion where one word starts and stops was avoided by doing cursive.

Another battle I didn’t have to face though I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time was that my sons avoided the confusion of not being able to tell where one word ends and the other one begins.

This is not only important for new readers, but for anybody that wants their handwriting legible.

My sons’ reading and writing advanced quickly because cursive helped them to see which letters stayed connected to make words.

When my sons did start using printing interchangeably with cursive on some of their compositions, I noticed that some of the printed words ran together.

It was hard to read when two words ran together because they weren’t spaced properly. This is a common mistake for the child to guess where to start the next letter in a ball-and-stick method, which is why some words look like they have a few extra letters at the end of them when they are really the start of the next word.

What I have learned is that cursive matters because it has not only built confidence in my sons, but helped them to learn to read, spell and taught them the value of being proud of something uniquely theirs.

Each son has developed different handwriting styles that are as individual as their personality, which is another myth about cursive.

Cursive doesn’t have to be uniformed among writers. Persons who have mastered cursive can read different styles of it.

Can Homeschools Become Part of the Dumbing Down Movement If We Don’t Teach Cursive?

There is plenty of room for personality and differences. Some writers prefer more vertical writing and others prefer slanted writing, which is why handwriting style doesn’t matter because we are not trying to confine kids to a mold.

I am not telling you to not keep the keyboard, but I’m telling you that cursive goes beyond the value of teaching a child how to write well.

Free Homeschool Cursive Program and Resources

Look at some of these free resources which rock because they help you to teach cursive.

Direct Path to Cursive – The Quickest Way to Cursive
Cursive Handwriting Practice Sentences
Primary Language Lessons – 175 page download. Though this is an old book it is beautiful because it has sentences for copying and dictating.
Here is a 3rd grade 80 page free writing workbook, which I think you’ll love.
And also, I have free copywork here on my site and a lot of it is in cursive. Here is a roundup of some of my free history copywork.

Look at my articles Teaching Handwriting When Homeschooling the Early Years Parts 1, 2 & 3.

Are you still teaching cursive?

Hugs and love ya,

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.

Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

How to Rock Creative Writing When Homeschooling (and when you don’t feel like THAT creative mom)

May 31, 2015 | 8 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Have you ever fumbled your way through teaching a homeschool subject to later realize that you gave your children an amazing start?

It’s not a teaching method I tout because blunders don’t always turn out so productive.

However, teaching is partly influenced by what we were taught growing up and creative writing was a painful process for me.

In middle school, I wasn’t given a specific and detailed explanation of what is creative writing.

Being told to write creatively to a child that thrives with details, planning and wants specificity from a teacher who is naturally creative can be a lethal combination.

My middle school teacher thought I couldn’t relax and let thoughts flow or so it seemed. And I thought my teacher didn’t know how to teach because she was unclear in her assignment and didn’t mind the details or so I thought.

Until I started homeschooling my own children, I didn’t really grasp what my teacher was excited about.

Hoping to bridge the difference between exceptional homeschool teachers who are naturally creative and those who can be when they clearly understand the assignment, look at three things I learned the hard way.

Freedom from the Homeschool Curriculum Box

Progress can be made only when both the homeschool teacher and student understand that creative writing is a natural inward expression of creativity unchained from rules.

That is powerful if you think about it.

It is about emotions, thoughts and self-expression. It’s about you and who doesn’t like talking (or writing) about their self.

In explaining creative writing to my boys, I used the example of a group photo taken by one of their friends.

When my boys’ friends show them the photo, can you guess what my boys look at first? Yep. They look for themselves first in the picture.

We can’t help it, it’s natural. We want to see how we look.

Creative writing is like finding yourself in that photo. Naturally creative teachers know that putting thoughts on paper is the outside of what is brimming on the inside of an individual.

Once explained to a child, he can bring comical thoughts, deep emotions and even fears to the surface for writing topics. Digging up those thoughts in a child’s mind may require effort on the part of a teacher.

Key to unleashing creative topics for your child to write about is reading aloud to your child. Not only will reading aloud foster their imagination, but it helps your child to find their inner voice for writing.

Though I didn’t fully understand all the benefits of reading aloud when I started homeschooling, I reaped the benefits of doing it each day.

When I turned my boys loose, my sons could write pages and pages of stories based on their wild imagination that was stimulated by excellent literature.

After they would would write pages and pages, I failed again. I switched to teacher mode. Correcting grammar and errors is what I thought writing was all about.

That wasn’t working because I almost created a resistant writer with my first son because I had stifled his creativity.

I learned after a battle of wills to not be part of the problem. Be part of the solution.

Thinking that my oldest son had to make a point to the endless stories he was penning was the second mistake I made.

Being a product of my schooling, I had been taught to be clear, concise and brief in my speech and writing.

Those qualities are important as I learned, but not to the extent that they diminish my son’s love for words and expressing emotions through artfully contrived words.

Being part of the solution is to let your child write without fear of being overly corrected, mechanical or trying to make their writing fit your boxed curriculum.

From my childhood and experience teaching my first child who was similar to my learning style, I knew that if told him that creative writing was like painting with no rules, he would add his flair to his writing. And he did.

Also, I learned to not bring my teacher mode to the table and start correcting his paper or in other words smother an ember before it becomes a flame.

And I always added in a good dose of reading aloud each day to help all my boys find their style for writing.

Adding creative writing to your curriculum can be challenging but having confident writers years later has been worth every effort.

But I learned a few more things too. I learned to use my teaching strengths as a spring board to creative writing ideas. And, I learned how to help my kids create and brainstorm for writing topics.

Later I realized that I don’t have to give up details, planning or specificity when writing. I will share specific details in an upcoming post about how I used my strengths to make creative writing flourish.

What about you? Are you afraid to step out of the box and teach creative writing?

You’ll love these tips!

You can do it!

Hugs and love ya,

handwriting

Penmanship for Older Kids

ONE. Short cards and letters still work!

TWO. Combine art or science with writing.

THREE. Quotes, knock-knock jokes, journaling, and poetry work too.

Tips to Improve Handwriting in Older Kids

Handwriting Tips for Older Students

FOUR.Direct handwriting instruction creative? Maybe.

FIVE. Lists, copywork, short stories, and topics kids love no matter how silly give value to learning how to write well.

How to Rock Teaching Cursive

Teaching Composition that Goes from Limp to Life

Writing Structure Gives Kids a Strong Edge

Teaching Kids to Write Clearly and Creatively Without Crushing Them

Is Cursive Obsolete for Homeschooled Kids?

Can Homeschools Become Part of the Dumbing Down Movement If We Don’t Teach Cursive?

Free Homeschool Cursive Program and Resources

Freedom from the Homeschool Curriculum Box

ONE.
Short cards and letters still work!

TWO.
Combine art or science with writing.

THREE.
Quotes, knock-knock jokes, journaling, and poetry work too.

FOUR.
Direct handwriting instruction creative? Maybe.

FIVE.
Lists, copywork, short stories, and topics kids love no matter how silly give value to learning how to write well.