What should we work on?

[OlgaLA]

I just brought home my son, and I am not sure what curriculum to use for LA. At this point, I am trying to figure out what skills he should work on. He seems to be fairly advanced in the area of writing. As an example, we started SOTW1 for history. This week (our first at home), he read chapter 1 and wrote a very good outline of it (his own initiative). He also read an Eyewitness book on early humans. I told him to write a report on what he learned. This is what he wrote:

 

Early Humans

 

Hello, today I will tell about the Old Stone Age humans. The Old Stone Age, also called the Paleolithic Era, ended roughly 12,000 years ago. It was

named the Stone Age because that is what the tools were made of: stone.

 

The old stone age humans strapped stones to sticks to make tools. Different stones made different tools. A curved rock might make a hoe, a straight rock

will probably make a spear, a flat rock might make a hatchet or axe. They also used stones to break nuts and seeds.

 

They ate food that they could hunt or gather. Women and children gathered nuts, seeds, honey, berries, leaves, and eggs. Men hunted and sometimes

fished when they settled near a lake or river. When they hunted for a while, the animals moved away and the people followed. Because they moved all

the time, they were called nomads, which means wanderers.

 

Nomads had temporary homes such as tents and caves. In these caves they painted pictures. Sometimes they drew pictures of a hunting scene or an

animal. There is a cave named Lascaux in France with many of these pictures. There is another one with many paintings in Spain called Altamira.

 

Nomads wore animal skins as clothes. Nomads made sure they didn’t waste any part of an animal. When there were bones they might have made

hammers and other tools out of bone.

 

That is what I can tell you about the Stone Age.

 

 

My input was minimal, and mostly pertaining to the content, like, add where they lived. No grammar corrections.

So, what would you work on with him? He is 8, btw.

 

ETA: Is there any book that describes as a list or stages the skills the writers should acquire? My own writing instructions were limited to grammar studies. After that it was just figuring everything out on my own and through critiques. I hope to offer something better to my kids, but so far I am lost. Nothing seems to work for my daughter, and my son picks everything up on his own. I need an education in this area.

Edited November 21, 2015 by OlgaLA

[Kuovonne]

He's eight?

He's definitely advanced in writing.

You don't need a formal writing program at this point.

Just have him keep writing.