There are many different stages in my personal relationship with writing. I call it a relationship because it’s had many ups and downs. We’ve broken up a time or two, but somehow I keep coming back.
Do you remember writing in elementary? I do. I loved it, actually I loved writing all the way up until it turned into writing research papers. So what drives that love desire to write? I started deeply thinking about this when I began to homeschool my children.
First and foremost I think that language in general is so amazing! I know I probably sound crazy, but I tell this to my children all the time. I explain to them the power of words and how having a heavy arsenal of vocabulary heightens their abilities as writers and speakers. The general consensus was, “ugh, sure mom.”
I understood, put plainly like that, I guess it is boring to a 7, 10, & 14 year old. So when I first started homeschooling I made up what I call “language codes.” You wouldn’t believe how much more interesting the lesson became. The “language codes” included the “secret 5,” which are the who, what, when, where, and how’s, these bad boys are used in everything from unlocking a story, to writing an adventure. Boy, did I get their attention then! Suddenly it sounded like we were about to conquer something, swing from a rope, and trail through the jungle…. well almost.
Besides making up all that, we’ve starting blogs, journals, used writing topic generators, let them write their own books, and that is just a few. On a random note…how is it that kids never stop talking, but still somehow are at a loss for words when writing a story? My children will tell me an in-depth story full of adjectives & action, then to put it on paper it was, “the boy went to the park.” That has been my mission, to capture that I excitement and put it on paper.
So the latest idea, blogging, is current. I let them pick the topics, and I even let them make grammatical errors… boy that is hard! I figured it would capture the evolution of a writer. If kept up, I will get an ample amount of data, it’s only a small sub-sample, but hey! Have you looked at our nations report card for writing? Only 27% of 8th & 12th graders score proficient or higher in writing! You wouldn’t imagine the difference between the scores and gender. Boys on average score substantially less than girls, which is even more of a reason why I want to push my 3 boys to write, write, write! If you want to look into the statistic side of writing , check out this NCES document (granted the study was from 2011, but that is the MOST recent information) or follow the link below:
What ways do you try to get your children to write and to write well? I have been using a website that helps with sentence structure and grammar. So far it is going very well. The site is easy to navigate through and it gives you the option to track the student’s progress. You can have multiple “classrooms” to incorporate different age groups and it has a separate login username & password for the student’s. As the “teacher” I have the ability to add agenda items to their tasks on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. I have only used it for a short time, so I am crossing my fingers that it is overall a keeper.
You can check out the website here:
If you are interested in supporting these young writers, because having “fans” is very EXCITING! Here are the current blogs we have:
Thanks for reading! I enjoy your support as well, because I am also still evolving as a writer, and every other duty I currently have!
If you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments below.
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