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3 Beginner’s Tips: Homeschool High School Literature

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

I have easy beginner’s tips for teaching homeschool high school literature. Also, look at my page How to Homeschool High School.

As if entering the high school years wasn’t daunting enough, you’re expected to be instantly informed about how to teach high school literature.

I began gathering teaching tips and resources for my first high school son.

However, all I could think of was my own high school years, and that was a long time ago.

Gradually, my basic plan for a starting point has changed as each son entered high school because my own high school experience was not much help.

3 Beginners Tips for Homeschool High School Literature. Look at this quick and easy overview to give you a heads up about what to expect. Click here to scoot by and read the AWESOME tips! #homeschool

Today, I want to clear away some of the mystery surrounding how to teach literature because I want to give you a beginning point.

Also, teaching high school literature is a very comprehensive topic.

Instead of taking you to the glazed-over-eyes point I want to stick to a basic foundation, which I think is more helpful.

Try to remember as I share the three beginner’s tips that you can build on them each year.

Try not to sock it all to your teen like I did in the beginning.

Look at my 9th Grade Homeschool High School – Avoid the Sock It to Them Attitude.

ONE/ Hone your definition of what is high school literature.

Literature is any written material.

That doesn’t help much so you need to help your teen understand what is the importance of studying literature.

Battle for the Mind

Try this.

Literature is any written material, but it normally means works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama which having artistic value and makes one think.

In addition, classic literature is written work that transcends time or has outlasted current thinking.

Too, great literature or masterpieces are written works that gives shades of meaning to their topics. Opinions, feelings and emotions will vary.

Whether it’s a short story with limited characters or poetry that reflects the author’s world, they all share identifying marks which are to move you and make you hate or delight in the undertone meaning.

And like one of my boys said, they just keep talking to you today.

Whether the material is about showing a stylistic technique or it’s an unusual genre, it’s a battle for the mind.

TWO/ Introduce literature through American, British, and World authors.

Something else I did wrong was to be all over the place when selecting curriculum.

No matter how organized my first high school teen was, I frustrated him because I didn’t have a method to my planning.

Dividing up grades or semesters by reading and analyzing poems, novels, and short stories from different parts of the world and different time periods gives your teen a well-balanced view.

3 Beginners Tips: Homeschool High School Literature. Look at this easy starting point!

For example, a study of World literature would obviously include authors from all over the world, but it should coincide with the different time periods of history.

This way you’re covering some of the greatest material from different ages.

Don’t forget the timeless tip of using one history book for analyzing literature while reading about history.

For example, when I read the novel by Dickens of A Tale of Two Cities with my boys, it gives a good view of the Victorian period and the French Revolution.

You’ll want to add to it by having your teen research a bit about the French Revolution unless he has already studied it.

Understanding the world the author has created or is writing about places your teen right in the middle of the conflicts.

The conflict of two distinct classes, the rich and the poor, along with the way Dickens explains sad times gives your teen a preview of not only literary topics, but history.

THREE/ Literary devices or terms need to be your framework.

I never required my boys to do a book report when they were younger, but I did require critical thinking skills and a broad understanding of literary devices in high school.

I would hear moans of how boring it was and I tried not to make it boring.

But, this is high school literature and the skills taught at these grades should equip your teen at the least to think like an adult.

Whether you’re preparing your teen for a college prep course or not, he still needs to learn how to think beyond black and white.

This is the time when your teen forms values, opinions, and beliefs and you need to look beyond the idea that you’re mutilating a good read.

How to Reflect on American, British, and World Literature

Making the connection to our belief system during our study time as we discussed it together was an unexpected benefit.

What I mean is that this is not just the time to read about boring literary devices, but the time to understand the message that the author is illustrating through literary devices.

Sometimes, it’s necessary to memorize definitions like rhyme, meter, or sonnet, but it’s more engaging when you and your teen understand why poetry was written in that style.

Digging into why ancient poets wrote how they did gives your student a richer understanding of the world around him.

You want your homeschooled teen to clearly state a verbal or written response to the topics of today’s world. It begins by analyzing a great book.

I hope this simple beginning and quick glance will give you a good foundation to begin your planning. In my upcoming posts, I will be sharing resources to help guide you and your teen.

Do you think you would like that?

Look at these too, you may like to grab the tips there.

More Homeschool High School Literature Tips

What You Must Know to Teach High School Unit Studies

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

Until my sons reached high school, I didn’t know if my unit study approach would meld with tracking credits and courses. Check out my how to homeschool high school page for awesome tips.

Also, there didn’t really seem an abundance of prepared high school unit studies.

Between determining if unit studies were a good fit for high school and understanding record keeping, it was a lot to wrap my mind around.

Until my sons reached high school, I didn't know if my unit study approach would meld with tracking credits and courses. Also, there didn't really seem an abundance of prepared high school unit studies. Click here to read these 3 must know tips!

Sorting out myths from truth, I hope these 3 tips will help you to easily homeschool high school with unit studies. Or at least give you a beginning place.

3 Tips for Teaching High School Unit Studies

ONE/ Understand first that high school is just a continuation of the lowers grades – really!

Yes, it’s true that you’ll need to track credits and courses, but before stressing out about them, plan high school subjects like you’ve done in the lower grades.

That’s right. Begin with what you know.

In my article How to Choose the BEST Homeschool Lesson Planning Pages for THIS Year, I not only give you tips on how to do that, but each lesson plan form lists subjects by general categories; math, language arts, science, history and electives are the framework of well-rounded out high school courses.

It’s not hard to plan when you understand that you’re covering the same basic subjects albeit in more depth analyzing views instead of just a question answer format like your child did in younger grades.

TWO/ Look for resources which teach 2:1 or two-fer resources.

A two-fer resource is another secret tip to homeschooling teens.

Using a resource which teaches two subjects is vital when your child enters high school.

You don’t want your time wasted and neither do teens.

More important though is the reason that unit studies rocked in the younger grades is the same reason which holds true for high school.

Learning makes more sense when subjects are tied together instead of studied as separate subjects. Additionally, unit studies have always been a research-based approach.

This is a skill which is needed on into adulthood.

Living Books for Unit Studies

Resist giving up your unit study approach because it may require a bit more time to put together.

Sure, it’s easy to assign a text book and move on, but you and I know that high school is just hard sometimes. It’s a challenge to plan but still doable.

Begin again with something you know. Look at these things you may already know how and are doing with your kids in the younger grades.

  • Reading history living books and having your child choose writing topics based on history.
  • Reading science living books and choosing writing topics based on science.
  • Reading math living books and having your child choose writing topics based on math.

Now that you understand that high school courses fall into general categories and understand to look for two-fer resources, here are some examples of how to put it together.

We love the book Undaunted Courage.

Just a side note here.

When I look at a book which can serve as a springboard for high school unit studies, I note 3 things:

  • that it’s a living book,
  • that it’s high school level so that I can legally note on my high school transcript that it’s a high school level resource,
  • and I mull over how hard it will be to add external resources to enrich the study.

Not only is your teen covering part of his credit toward history when reading Undaunted Courage , but he is covering credits for literature too. Writing is part of a literature credit.

So your teen is covering 2–3 subjects at once depending on what credits you’ve lined out for the year.

Because covering literature in high school means more than just reading, you’ll want to have a variety of resources for analyzing literature and for guiding your teen how to write well.

A literature-based unit study which has a history setting has been the easiest to start off with at the high school level.

For example, I find it a challenge to round out a history book with literature analysis than a great book suited for literature analysis.

How to Put Together High School Unit Studies

It’s been easier to add history and science of a time period to a great read.

One super helpful resource we only discovered this year and that is the Thrift Study Editions by Dover. 

Not only are the books for high school level, but each one comes with a study guide in the back. 

For example, while reading A Tale of Two Cities, we studied about the culture of France and England and learned about the issues of the French Revolution.

With a resource like that, doing unit studies are a cinch at the high school level. This brings me to the third point you want to know.

THREE/ Fill your teacher nook with specialized how-two books for you and your teen.

Tackling how to teach a subject with out a curriculum can be daunting, but you can go from research to reward if you choose specialized teaching books.

Here are a few of my favorite resources. You don’t need all of them, but I’ve used them at one time or another to round out our unit studies.

Literature Unit Studies

  • The Design-A-Study series are timeless. This series of books about science, history, and composition gives an overview of what to cover in each grade.  Instead of giving you subjects, it’s helpful because it gives you the big picture of what your child needs to know from K-12. A resource like this is especially helpful if you want to cover a skill or topic that your highschooler may have struggled with in the earlier grades.
  • Warriner’s English Complete Course. This set of books have been around for years and helps to hone writing. Christine Miller of Classical Christian said, “This excellent reference can be used throughout all three years of the dialectic to teach writing. It thoroughly covers grammar in detail, which provides a nice review for those children that need it, or for those children that missed some grammar instruction in the grammar stage. It also covers writing in detail, with a complete section on writing mechanics, usage, writing correct and clear sentences, paragraphs, and papers, the research paper, using references, and even public speaking.” Read the rest of her review here. Before we started using Rod and Staff high school levels, we used Warriner’s. Rod and Staff’s Communicating Effectively I liked one year because I felt like it was more streamlined. It helps to.understand that I used Rod and Staff in the younger grades and their grammar is very rigorous and by 8th grade formal grammar is completed. When you click the link above you can see the sample of their English and what is covered in the high school years.
  • Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School. Don’t get overwhelmed by this book. There is no need to have to read all of it. Focus only on the grade level for this year. Having a handy reference like this will guide you to subjects for each grade.

In an upcoming post, I’ll show you how I plan credits now that you can see how easy it is to satisfy two to three subjects using carefully selected resources.

What You Must Know to Teach High School Unit Studies. Click here to grab the tips!

Also, check out Diving into Homeschool Unit Studies: The Dos and Don’ts and 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together and Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School.

Hugs and love ya,

How to Teach Science Through A Story – Middle & High School

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

When you teach science through a story that is powerful. Using storytelling as a powerful teacher is not a new concept to homeschoolers. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school and how to homeschool high school page for more fun tips

Not only do we love reading stories but we understand their power to captivate and convince readers.

However, until I started using Beautiful Feet Books I wasn’t so confident that teaching science through a story or through biographies would benefit my kids all the way through to high school.

Using storytelling as a powerful teacher is not a new concept to homeschoolers. Not only do we love reading stories but we understand their power to captivate and convince readers. However, until I wasn’t so confident that teaching science through stories works for all ages of my kids. Click here to read 7 creative ways to teach older kids!

I stalked the mailman waiting for these books from Beautiful Feet Books. I was given this product free and I was compensated for my time. However, paid for my time does not mean paid off or that a company will receive a glowing review. I don’t roll that way. ALL opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. When I do accept a product it’s because I’m giddy to tell you about it. Read my full disclosure here. Now on to the fun stuff!

First, I need to back up and explain what curriculum we’ve been poring over.

For the past couple of months, it has been a delight to use the History of Science.

I knew it was geared toward the 3rd to 7th grade level.

But we were over the top excited to ditch the science textbook and learn the history of science through living literature.

Besides, science biographies can be used for older kids.

And when you have a guide any study can be fleshed out for older grades. It was a great guide.

History of Science Living Literature

In addition, I had already figured out that my worksheet approach, as academic and bookish as it sounds, didn’t work because my boys retained lessons better using a learn-by-doing approach.

Next, early on in my homeschooling journey, I had stumbled upon Early American History with my then first kindergartner.

After using it with him, I learned that other equally important elements which stir a child’s thinking are living literature and absorbing history through a story.

There has not been a more enriching way to teach him or my other sons to high school than a literature-based approach.

What I’m saying is that storytelling, learning-by-doing, and living literature are inextricably linked.

Using those same elements while teaching science are the same ones used in teaching the History of Science and used for teaching an older child.

7 Creative Ways to Adapt Curriculum for Older Homeschooled Kids

Learning how to adapt a multiple age curriculum for upper grades can be challenging, but look at some ways I did this with the features of History of Science.

They are the same tips I used with my sons all the way through middle school and into high school.

How to Teach Science Through A Story - Middle & High School
  • With a yearlong program geared toward 3rd to 7th grade, there is a lot of room to allow exploring topics in more depth. Using a yearlong program is key. Your time is valuable and by using a curriculum that is laid out for a year, you have more than enough ideas in place to use as a springboard for all the ages of kids you’re teaching.
  • Even though the biographies are geared toward a lower reading level, they are likable by an older child. Many essay points can be gleaned from each biography. For example, previous to studying this curriculum, we hadn’t researched much about George Washington Carver. Reading about this American Pioneer and his many uses of peanuts made for a fun rabbit trail or research project. Even though your younger kids can join in the project to list the many uses of peanuts, I had Tiny delve deeper into this since it piqued his interest. I required that he explain the history of the peanut. I had questions like what is the history of the peanut, why was Carver encouraging farmers during the American Civil War to break away from cultivating just cotton, and explain the growing process of the peanut. For example, he had to know that it wasn’t a peanut at all but a seed and understand that the boll weevil could devastate cotton crops.
  • Another fascinating point to glean from the History of Science is understanding and seeing science through the eyes of great scientists. We use this concept for history all the time. We want to learn history through the eyes of a character who lived in a particular time period. Learning science through biographies of Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, George Washington Carver, Wright Brothers and Albert Einstein keeps kids equally inspired to learn about the wonders of science instead of dry, boring facts.
How to Teach Science Through A Story - Middle & High School
  • In addition, with many notebook pages, vocabulary words, and hands-on ideas the study guide is just that. It’s a springboard for you to use and add your own ideas. I really love how the guide is laid out because if it was totally scripted it’s hard to use that for older kids or younger kids. A guide on the other hand gives me a nudge or jump to another teaching concept that my son is interested in.
  • After I abandoned my wrong and stereotypical view that hands-on learning means no learning at all, I’ve been touting for years how hands-on learning needs to be used through to high school. The best books have been culled through and selected for easy hands-on activity that can be used for a variety of ages. Not only did we start our science portfolio notebook, but we did many hands-on learning activities like this one Day 4. Ancient Greece (Hands-on Science) 3 EASY Activities, ice cutting, and writing the Greek alphabet.
How to Teach Science Through A Story - Middle & High School
  • One more fun way to engage older kids through a story is to let them learn through a timeline. A timeline is a visual and natural way to learn. Kids can race ahead and place figures on a timeline while they read about scientific discoveries, events, and biographies. This is another key benefit to this curriculum. The timeline can stand on its own. It can be used completely separate. Instead of quickly placing the key events or scientists in order, challenge your older kids to learn about them before seeing the dates. Which significant event happened first, next and so on? Your middle school kids can memorize the events in order. It’ll give your kids foundational pegs as they fill in with more information with each time period.
  • Another tip that makes this curriculum especially useful to me is that it has scientists from different time periods. It’s organized into 3 parts that coincide with history, which are Ancient Scientists, Medieval & Renaissance Scientists, and Modern Scientists. I can easily add one section in depth this year and come back to this resource another year to focus on a different time period.
  • One last tip I do is to completely turn the teaching guide and everything over to my older kid. When you’re finished with the younger kids, let your middle or high school kid work through the lessons at their pace or at their will. For example, Tiny skipped all over the place when it came to reading and what interested him. That is such a liberating feeling for any learner and it’s the way to encourage independent learning. A lot of Beautiful Feet Books curriculum can be used that way, which is why I’ve been a user for a long time and couldn’t be more pleased.

The last thing I know you want to know about is whether it’s Christian or secular. I guess that depends on your definition of those two concepts.

It’s easier to tell you that it’s very friendly toward both type of views which I appreciate.

While it has some parts that ask your child to write a Bible verse, you can leave it, use it, or add your own. That part shows they support a Christian view.

However, their goal with their curriculum is to leave it up to you as the parent to add your worldview.

I can say it’s more easily done with this curriculum than many I use which saturate their curriculum with their Christian or secular worldview and makes it almost impossible to tweak.

If you’re wanting to use curriculum that teaches science through storytelling with a focus on hands-on learning by using a part unit study approach and part Charlotte Mason, you’ll love this curriculum like I do.

Read about the other curriculum I’ve used here at Early American and World History which is not available anymore and revamped, the Medieval History Sr. High levels and Medieval Intermediate Pack.

How to Purchase It.

►Product Name: History of Science
►Website: Beautiful Feet Books – BFBooks
► Don’t Miss: The Getting Started page. It’s been such a helpful guide for me through the years.
►Type of product: These is a physical product but the study guide is available as a digital download too. From their site: Our newly revised and updated History of Science is a popular and exciting read-aloud approach to the study of science! Rebecca’s course uses biographies to tell the life stories of famous scientists like Archimedes, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, George Washington Carver, Einstein, and others as well as hands-on experiments to prove the scientists’ theories and test their discoveries. An enriching way to introduce biology, chemistry, and physics. For grades 3-7, this one-year study will cover basic scientific principles and the history of scientific study beginning in ancient Greece and continuing through the 1990s. Contains 85 lessons, dozens of experiments, lab reports, and much more.

3 Ways to Homeschool the BIGS (a.k.a. Older Kids)

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

3 Ways to Homeschool the BIGS (a.k.a. Older Kids). Don't give up some of the ways you taught your kids when they were young. Just add some new ways. Click here for the sanity-saving tips!

If a totally perfect guide on how to homeschool older kids existed, it could instantly become obsolete because of the changing body and mind of an older kid. Unlike the younger years where kids are more compliant, older kids are ready to flex their decision making muscles.

Whether tweens or teens, homeschooling older kids can be like navigating new homeschool waters each year.

There are some tried and true tips I’ve learned that will help you to keep older kids passionate about learning all the way through to and including high school. It’s not easy, but grab these 3 tips for your arsenal.

One/Plan monthly field trips targeted especially for older kids. This one time don’t think about your younger kids. (Okay, maybe just a little.)

Reject the thinking that field trips are just for younger learners. Until Mr. Senior 2013 did part of his Kindergarten in public school, I didn’t know that field trips are almost non-existent in any grade past Kindergarten.

From playmate to lifelong friend

Although field trips are important when kids are younger, they are vital as kids get older.

Don't just plan homeschoo field trips for younger kids. Plan them for older kids too!

(Federal Reserve Bank field trip for older kids)

Look at these reasons why field trips are essential as your child grows.

  • Kids need to learn how to make friends and have them outside of the family. I’ve always believed that as parents we are our kids foremost and best friend. However, kids can’t learn how to make lifelong friends unless they experience other personalities. A field trip with like-minded individuals sharpened my boys sense of self-worth and it also showed them how they didn’t want to be.
  • Field trips with other families which have our same family values sharpened my sons’ values.
  • Although as a parent I was glad we went to the field trip at the end of it, some moms felt like we really didn’t need it. Older kids are not like us. They need and want friends. Loneliness can run rampant among young people. Don’t forget that just because you have made your friends and are comfortable with your circle, that may not be the case for older kids.
  • Nurturing a love for a new hobby, course or career happens at a field trip. If a kid spends his summer outside at the beach learning about science which he may love then that can feed his desire for a career or college track in biology.

Two/ Move away from the books!

To say as kids get older that they can be moody is an understatement. In the same day they can be relaxed and restless. With their bodies changing, it means that their brain is not always in gear for learning. When we had days like that we just put away the books.

Don’t worry about the stress of high school. There are many more days that your kids will have good than bad. So ease up on them and savor the days of homeschooling them while they’re older.

Unit studies are my way of giving my sons control over their learning.

When they could control very little in their day, it gave them a sense of empowerment to study something they chose. Not only did it break up the day, but it kept the joy for learning while they hit the lows and highs of hormones.

Look at just two of these hands-on middle school unit studies which a highschooler who needs a break would enjoy soaking up.

Zoology: Amazing Animals and Estuary Ecology are both great for hands-on learning and for getting older kids out of the house to learn.

Three/ They need to get physical. (And no, it doesn’t have to be an over the top class or activity.)

Getting past the younger ages, I just knew my boys energy level would settle down. In one way it did and in another way, they needed more physical exercise.

Although I don’t consider myself an exercise enthusiast, we do love to walk and stay active. We’ve always had some kind of exercise in our daily routine. But it was nowhere near what my boys needed.

One year my boys had asked to be around other young homeschooled teens more,  I also knew they needed more movement, and we needed another one-half semester credit.  I combined all three needs into one and chose ball room dance lessons as my teacher mandated elective (ha).

Moans could be heard far and wide because ball room dancing was not for macho men – right? Or at least that was their preconceived notion.

The Mr. backed me up on my new brainstorm and we gave our teens no choice. We were reasonable and told them that if they didn’t like it after the first month, we could do something different.

It took only one lesson and they were hooked. Did I mention to this day, they all love to dance?

They are not the shy boys at the party, but the ones soaking up fun times and dancing the whole time they are there.

Prior to that, I had to clear out the garage for a couple set of weights and benches. Sharing my garage with exercise equipment is a small price to pay for the boys to have a place to stay physically and mentally fit.

These are just three easy things that have worked with my boys through the years. I have a few more things to share in my arsenal.

What works for you?

You also may want to look at my tips at how Teach Your Homeschooled Teen the Art of Studying (without nagging), When Homeschooling is Not an Overnight Success (Is it Worth the Risk?) and When Homeschooled Kids Are Not Excited About Ordinary Days.

Hugs and love ya,

 

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

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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. Also, look at my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter.

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?

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

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.

WRITING CURRICULUM

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.

1. 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?

2. 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 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.

Easy Writing Curriculum Tips

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 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.

3. Lessons must 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.

Writing Structure Gives Kids a Strong Edge

  • 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 teaching writing 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.

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.

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.

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

What is working and not working for you right now?

More Writing Curriculum Tips

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

It’s a scary feeling to choose 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. Click here to grab the 3 tips on how to choose the BEST writing curriculum.

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