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Faith-Neutral Homeschool Grammar and Writing Program

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

Today, I have a faith-neutral homeschool grammar and writing program.

Although I had an engaging English teacher in eighth grade, my loathing for grammar and writing was already ingrained.

It wasn’t because I didn’t like language arts, but grammar and writing seemed like a mist. Nothing was clear to me, or taught to me in a logical order.

I seemed to take a self-guided writing tour in my elementary years.

I was looking for a homeschool grammar and writing program which taught the process in steps, and took the struggle out of learning grammar and writing.

So I was tickled to find Growing with Grammar and Winning with Writing by JacKris Publishing.

Before you read on, I want to be sure you get a heads up for the awesome giveaway below!

I was given these products for 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. ALL opinions are my own and 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!

Writers – Born or Made?

This was not my first introduction to Growing with Grammar; however, it was my first look at Winning with Writing.

We used Level 8 in both the grammar and the writing program. At this time, Level 8 is the highest level available and levels equate to grade levels.

Whether your kids are middle school or high school level, mastery of language arts is the foundation for all other subjects. 

Teaching the rules of grammar, and teaching an inexperienced writer how to articulate ideas through written words requires repetitive work.

Small and simple changes are best, but again it takes time. Kids and even some adult authors get impatient with the process. Short and straight forward explanations with examples have always worked best for us.

You’ll love this faith-neutral homeschool language arts, Levels 1-8, if you’re looking for a grammar and writing program which teaches the process in steps and takes the struggle out of learning grammar and writing. Click here!

As I mentioned, I returned to Growing with Grammar. There are several reasons:

An Overview of Growing with Grammar and Winning with Writing

  • lessons are only 3 times a week,
  • it includes diagramming and I like that because I have kids that are visual learners,
  • it’s based on a 36-week school year which is a standard school year,
  • it reminds us that grammar is achievable because there are not really a lot of rules,
  • it is a worktext (more on this in a minute), and
  • examples and explanations are used as models when applying grammar to the writing process.

Grammar is the rules of a language and I feel it’s best learned while writing; however, a separate short study of the rules of grammar helps any struggling writer to cement the rules in his mind.

Teaching grammar only 3 times a week aligns with my experience in how grammar is best learned.

Learning rules separately from writing or oral speaking has limited value. Application of rules makes the most sense while learning to write or while speaking in public. Grammar is valued then as a practical life skill.

Although writing is a progressive skill, it doesn’t have be tedious. Look here at how the writing process is laid out in Winning with Writing:

  • lessons are daily meaning it follows a 5 day week,
  • lessons are short,
  • it’s based on a 36-week school year,
  • it’s a worktext which means it teaches by example, models, and illustrations,
  • it takes a two part approach which are the outlining process and the drafting process,
  • it has incremental review which writers need, and
  • once you learn the the straightforward process it works for a single paragraph or book.
Faith-Neutral Homeschool Grammar and Writing Program

Too, I know you want to know what the writing program contains because that is the hardest part for me in judging whether this level or another level will work for your struggling writer.

I hope you find this look at the table of contents helpful.

Level 8 Winning with Writing First Semester Topics

Lesson 1 Main Topic, Details, and Staying on Topic
Lesson 2 The Writing Process
Lesson 3 Sequence of Events and Time Order Words
Lesson 4 Personal Narrative
Lesson 5 Personal Narrative
Lesson 6 Review of Lessons 1-5
Lesson 7 Spatial Organization, Comparing Objects, and Comparing Characters
Lesson 8 Similes, Metaphors, Analogies, Personification, and Sarcasm
Lesson 9 Alliteration, Onomatopoeia, Hyperbole, Oxymoron, and Pun
Lesson 10 Descriptive Writing
Lesson 11 Descriptive Writing
Lesson 12 Review of Lessons 7-11
Lesson 13 Parts of a Creative Story
Lesson 14 Quotations, Dialogue, Point of View and Voice
Lesson 15 Creative Writing
Lesson 16 Creative Writing
Lesson 17 Creative Writing
Lesson 18 Review of Lessons 13-17

Level 8 Winning with Writing Second Semester Topics

Lesson 19 Facts and Opinions, Emotional Appeals, and Advertising
Lesson 20 Thesis Statement and Transitional Sentences
Lesson 21 Compare and Contrast Essay
Lesson 22 Persuasive Writing
Lesson 23 Persuasive Writing
Lesson 24 Review of Lessons 19-23
Lesson 25 Documenting Sources
Lesson 26 Biographical Essay (Part 1)
Lesson 27 Biographical Essay (Part 2)
Lesson 28 Explanatory Essay Cause and Effect (Part 1)
Lesson 29 Explanatory Essay Cause and Effect (Part 2)
Lesson 30 Review of Lessons 25-29
Lesson 31 Bias, Reliable Sources, and Taking Notes
Lesson 32 Informative Essay Problem and Solution (Part 1)
Lesson 33 Informative Essay Problem and Solution (Part 2)
Lesson 34 Informative Essay Research Report (Part 1)
Lesson 35 Informative Essay Research Report (Part 2)
Lesson 36 Review of Lessons 31-35

Do you see any writing topics that your middle school kid struggles with?

Faith-Neutral Homeschool Grammar and Writing Program

Writing at the higher grades tend to focus solely on the essay.

While that is a normal progression, all writers benefit at looking at the basic process from sentence writing to paragraph to essay. This takes time to teach without making it monotonous.

Again, Winning with Writing aligns with my experience in that it takes 5 days of short lessons.

My Reasons for Returning to Growing with Grammar and Winning with Writing

Earlier I mentioned about the worktext.

You may or may not know the differences between workbooks and worktext, but I appreciate the subtle differences the longer I’ve homeschooled.

A worktext not only has a place for your student to record his work, but gives explanations, samples, and even background information right in the book. It’s like writing in a textbook. I have one kid that really likes that concept.

Promoting independence at the middle and high school levels is smoother when a student has everything to learn a new concept within one book.

You will notice that Answer Keys are provided, so a comprehensive teacher’s manual is not needed. All of the explanations, plus a space to record your student’s answers are kept together.

Although this was a far-fetched idea to me, I learned that Tiny is not as motivated to learn a new concept while using a teacher’s manual as he is when it’s in the student text.

It’s a learning practice he set up for himself; he is motivated when material is laid out. For me, it was a huge revelation and significant as I wanted to foster independence in my writer.

Besides material being presented in a way beneficial to my flourishing, but novice writer, mastery of concepts was equally important.

Remembering I felt alone while learning the elements of writing in my elementary years, I’m delighted that Growing with Grammar and Winning with Writing break concepts down into cycles — 3 day cycles and 5 day cycles respectively.

You noticed on the table of contents that review was added incrementally.

This makes a full circle back to what is fundamentally important for any level of writer — repetition and review.

Additionally, JacKris Publishers is faith-neutral whether you want to add your Bible content or keep it secular. That is an important feature when you want more control over when and how to teach your worldview.

Growing with Grammar and Winning with Writing may be a good fit for your family:

  • If you want a straightforward no-thrills and frills approach
  • If you want short lessons
  • If you want planned short days
  • If your writer craves independence
  • If your writer needs review and repetition
  • If your writer needs clear and concise directions
  • If your writer prefers to keep all of his work in one place
  • If your writer needs to learn the outline and draft processes
  • If your writer is not organized

While my son is certainly at the level where he can write independently, the worktexts are easy enough for you to use to guide a struggling writer.

The whole array of language arts products by JacKris Publishing are thorough, easy to use, and student friendly.

How to Purchase It.

►Product Name: Growing with Grammar and Winning with Writing
►Website: JacKris Publishing
►What they want you to know: Although they love all of their products, their Starting Line Stories are new and they’re excited for you to use it. From the site: Each Starting Line Stories book contains 70 story starters and 30 writing prompts.  Unlike a formal writing program, these activities are designed simply for students to express themselves through creative writing. 
►Grade Levels: Levels 1 – 8; Levels equate to grade level.
►Type of product: These is a physical product and you can click on the product to see a SAMPLE lesson.
►Prices: Vary by product.

Also, you’ll love these other tips:

YIPPEE! HAPPY DANCE! !

GIVEAWAY

Terms: Over 18. U.S. residents only

Please don’t think you’ll not win! I have to give this sweet giveaway to somebody! Go ahead and enter below.

May the Force Be With You! ha 
3 Winners to Choose ONE product (any level) from JacKris Publishing

You’ll love this faith-neutral homeschool language arts, Levels 1-8, if you’re looking for a grammar and writing program which teaches the process in steps and takes the struggle out of learning grammar and writing. Click here!

How to Teach Cursive and Composition With A Fresh Perspective

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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.

How to Teach Cursive and Composition With A Fresh Perspective. 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. Click here to read these valuable tips!

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.

How to Teach Cursive and Composition With A Fresh Perspective. 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. Click here to read these valuable tips!

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.
WriteShop

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.

WriteShop Primary

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.

How to Teach Cursive and Composition With A Fresh Perspective. 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. Click here to read these valuable tips!

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,

How to Easily Add Poetry to Your Homeschool Subjects

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

How to Easily Add Poetry to Your Homeschool Subjects @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusPoetry has always been important to me during my homeschooling journey. Expressing emotion through artfully contrived words though, I feel, can be a lost art in homeschooling because of the sheer number of subjects that creep up into our day. We have savored every lesson as we used The Art of Poetry Bundle.

Beautiful words have a way of painting a conversation with so few of them. I have always admired such clear thought that can be dwindled down to a few lines of poetry. The Art of Poetry captures not just the common elements like rhythm and meter, but can lead you step by step to understanding and skillfully teaching poetry.

I have added a snippet above of the table contents for you to peek at. By breaking each element of poetry down into a chapter, you and your children have more than enough time to relish each word, line and punctuation.

Poetry unlike reading prose calls for an unhurried pace so that all the parts are analyzed for beauty and hidden meaning.

Using figurative language and metaphors is not something we always use in everyday writing. At first, studying poetry can feel strained until you realize that writers have to write with their hearts and not just their minds. So The Art of Poetry  begins by helping you to understand the importance of paying close attention to reading, then covers the elements of poetry and gives you a history and timeline of poetry.

A very useful feature and one we enjoyed  is the short biographies of poets that is in the back of the book. Helping your children to appreciate that poets are real people and their lives, their environment and opinions influences their emotions and enriches our understanding of each word. 

Whether a poem is silly, happy or sad, our children see that other poets may have experienced some of the things that we do.

When we received The Art of Poetry, both the Student Text and Teacher Editions were bound beautifully. You know my obsession by now though. I need books that lay flat on my table. So I coil bound both the Teacher’s Edition and Student Text and began our lessons.

I heeded the suggestion given right away and that is to begin by reading Chapter 8:Putting it All Together.  Using this with both Mr. Awesome who was high school level at the time and Tiny who was elementary level, helped me to get an overall pulse of their understanding of poetry up to this point.

After each poem there is a set of questions in the Student Text for you to consider. The Teacher’s Edition is a must have because of the sheer volume of teaching tips and answers to the questions. It is more than an answer sheet. More on that in a minute because I certainly want to give you more details on it.

At the end of the chapter there are activities that vary anywhere from reading a poem of your child’s choosing, to hands-on activities to writing a poem.

There were more than enough activities to choose from at the end of each chapter so that I could mix and match for both levels.  Also vocabulary words and their definitions are provided throughout the Student Text.

It did not take long for Mr. Awesome and Tiny to understand that poems are about laughter, enjoyment and they can also bring tears. They are about unveiling emotion that we only thought oral conversation could do.

We did several of the activities suggested in each lesson plan. As suggested in one of the activities, I found free emotion facial cards online so that Tiny could pick the emotion he was feeling as Mr. Awesome read the poem.

I also received Disk 1 from the DVD. The quality, sound and clarity of the lessons was superb.

I think one of the parts Mr. Awesome enjoyed the best about this program was watching the DVD as Christine Perrin teaches four students.  Mr. Awesome gave up his normal DVD laptop player and confiscated my computer with the bigger screen. Because he is high school level, he does get to use the Teacher’s Edition too if he needs it but just followed along in the Student Text as he watched her conduct the class. He felt a connection with the other kids there realizing they didn’t have all the exact words to express their feelings about each poem.

I have not forgotten to tell you about the comprehensive Teacher’s Edition. Just in case the homeschool world decides to start nominating candidates for the top of the line teacher’s editions and gives them a 5 star award, I will already have The Art of Poetry Teacher’s Edition nominated.

Previously I mentioned the timeline in the Teacher’s Edition, but I have to admit that some swooning was involved when I saw it. In our unit studies and everyday learning, I am always looking for ways to connect language arts to a history timeline.

In the Teacher’s Edition, there is a timeline that has time periods with the following four sections, except for the postmodern period: forms and genres, writers, literary value and historical context. It is a nice visual aid to enriching your language arts.

A Teacher’s Edition should equip any teacher, not just the ones who have a background or degree in that area, to explain clearly what is being taught. A teacher can’t do this if she is only given an answer sheet. Background information to edify the educator is a must too.

The Art of Poetry Teacher’s Edition contains gray bordered pages immediately following the lesson that gives detailed explications and background information where needed. That means this section clarifies and breaks down the process of teaching into the most minute pieces. We need that when we don’t know what we are doing or like me, if you want to pick up the curriculum and teach with minimum preparation time.

Here is what this Teacher’s Edition includes. I took this from the website so it is finely tuned.

  • Detailed and fascinating explications of thirty-nine poems from the student text
  • A complete answer key to accompany Anthology exercises
  • A poetry time line showing the different periods of poetry, including the period’s forms and genres, writers, literary value, and some historical context
  • A quiz for each chapter, a cumulative book quiz, and answers keys for all quizzes
  • An introduction for the teacher with tips and suggestions for teaching poetry
  • The entire The Art of Poetry student text

I have to add one more point though that is particularly valuable to me in using many, many teacher’s editions and that is how the student text page and teacher’s edition page numbers align. Though the table of contents lists the Teacher’s Edition last entry on page 271, there are well over that amount of pages in the Teacher’s Editions. However, because they retained the same page number alignment, you can easily tell your student which page you are on because you start on the same one. A small thing not so small in keeping me organized and saving time flipping through student texts and teacher’s editions that have different page numbers.

Effort counts in poetry. Turning thoughts into creative words is not an easy task, but any reader of poetry appreciates thoughts that are composed in an artistic way. Both Mr. Awesome and Tiny enjoyed the activities of not only writing their own poetry but sharing it with each other as well as their drawings illustrating figurative language. Closing our eyes and mentally reflecting on the sight, sound, feel, taste and aroma of each poem we read as we were guided along by The Art of Poetry has been some of our most pleasurable lessons so far this year.

I know you’ll love teaching poetry easily with The Art of Poetry .

Also, you can grab some free Ancient Greece Poetry, 24 Borderline Genius Ways To Relieve Language Arts Boredom and How To Teach Your Homeschooled Children Shakespeare.

Hugs and love ya,

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Teaching Cursive Handwriting Matters Style Doesn’t And Free Resources

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

Should teaching cursive handwriting not be a priority in this digital age. Also, look at my page Practical Homeschool Writing Curriculum from Pre-K To High School for more tips.

Is 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.

Teaching Cursive Handwriting Matters Style Doesn't And Free Resources

Businesses scramble to constantly update their systems as important paperwork could become lost.

Should cursive be lost to the vacuum of the modern digital age?

It’s not easy to answer that question unless you know how to teach cursive.

If you have never taught cursive, it can be easy to cast it off.

Or 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.

IS CURSIVE OBSOLETE FOR HOMESCHOOLED KIDS?

First, look at a few of these points to show cursive should be taught.

And more importantly the value of it.

Also, I have some free resources at the bottom for you to use to teach cursive.

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. 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.

Master Cursive Writing @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

(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.

The first is 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.

3 Broad Cursive Strokes to Teach

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/ Cursive avoids confusion where one word starts and stops and another begins or end.

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’s hard to read when two words run together. Why? Because they’re not 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 is not uniformed among writers.

Persons who have mastered cursive can read different styles of it.

CAN HOMESCHOOL 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.

MORE CURSIVE HANDWRITING TIPS

WRITING CURRICULUM TIPS

Cursive Matters; Handwriting Style Doesn't and grab some free AWESOME resources @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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4 Clever Ways to Store Writing in Lapbooks

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You know I’m not the crafty loving type of person, but I know that learning with lapbooks stick. Today, I’m sharing 4 clever ways to store writing in lapbooks. Not only are these good ideas for long term storage, but they are also out of the box ideas that nudge reluctant writers to put pen to paper.

First, look at these ideas that work for younger kids or even kids that are not so young, but hate writing.

4 Clever Ways to Store Writing in Lapbooks @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
List Making

Though there are three ideas on this one page above, I list them as one way to store writing because they are similar.

The lapbook above comes from one of our earlier frog lapbooks. One idea is the sandwich shaped book.

Any shape makes learning fun and lapbooks are perfect for creating shaped pages.

Not only is the shape of the sandwich book perfect for helping your child to remember what they are writing about, but the small size breaks down writing into bite (corny pun intended) size pieces.

Though I love shaped books for this age, list making is also another way to gently coax a writer to write.

And then, any book that folds up and fits into a pocket is just plain fun. The sheet in the pocket is a maze that one of my sons wanted to do and he colored the snake on the outside and we folded it up.

Look here at my post How to Turn Boring Worksheets into Fun Minibooks – From Boring to Interactive.

List Making Inside

The list making book and the sandwich book are attached by a brad. You can use one brad so that the book is flip up style or use two brads so the book opens from left to right or vice versa.

Really a number of these short books can be used for writers up until middle school.

2. Vocabulary Flip Book Open

The next way to store writing is through a vocabulary book with lift tabs.

This two page spread above is big enough for eight words.

Vocabulary Flip Book Inside

When the tab is lifted, the definition is underneath. I didn’t even create these books. It was a simple paper cut and fold.

The books are in our Plains Indian lapbook. Of course with these books, no brad or staples are needed, just paper and glue. They have held up nicely over the years.

Then the third way to store writing is shown below in our Westward Ho lapbook and unit study.

Word In a Barrel Sentence strips inside

I love this way we stored our writing, which is sentence strip style.

Some unit study topics or lapbooks are more suited than others for out of the ordinary shapes and our Westward Ho was one of them.

Inside view sentence strips

I made the Barrel of Words and the boys wrote on the sentence strips.The sentence strips are not intimidating looking when you want your child to love writing.

What I like about this third method of storing writing is that depending on my child’s age, I can have them write as many strips as I want them to. There is something about writing on separate strips that doesn’t make writing overwhelming. Of course, piece the strips together and your child can have one or two pages, but they don’t need to know that do they?

It is just another creative way for a child to not only love what he is learning about, but to feel that writing is manageable.

High School Writing Lapbook

This fourth way I stored writing now moves on to middle and high school level.

This short research paper comes from one of my sons in ninth grade and it is from our Amazon lapbook and unit study.

By this age, your teen really needs a normal size page to write on so you need to be a bit more creative.

High School Writing Lapbook Inside 1

First, I added another inside flap to the lapbook. Then again I used brads just because they are so versatile.

I added two brads at the bottom outside of the page protector and pushed it through the flap..

High School Writing Lapbook Inside 2

And then added two brads inside the page protector and pushed it through the flap.

By opening the page protector and only pushing the brad through the back side of the page protector, it stays open at the top so the research paper can be top loaded.

High School Writing Lapbook Inside

By also mounting the research paper on acid free paper and using good quality tape, it has kept the pages straight as they are pulled in and out of the page protectors.

Though tempted to use cheaper products, using higher quality products like acid free paper keeps precious things like writing looking awesome for a longer time.

There are more ways to store writing, but these 4 ways have been timeless for us and fit a variety of lapbooks.

How do you like to store your child’s writing?

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Hugs and love ya,