Writing for rest of the school year

[FreyaO]

Help me think through writing for my 7- soon-to-be 8-yo. This is our first year homeschooling, so we are still both adjusting and learning. We've been using MCT Island for ELA and it's been a great experience. Enjoyable and productive at the same time. We are almost at the end though, so I'm looking for something additional for the next 3-4 months. Kid is an excellent reader and we all read a lot outside of "school". She learned a lot of grammar this year and we will keep doing a few sentence analyses weekly, so these parts are covered. 

 

In short, we have some time and I do want her to keep up with some regular writing activities. I'm not sure we necessarily need a full detailed curriculum, but structure is generally helpful for both of us. Kid can write a decent sentence when inspired, but is usually reluctant towards writing, especially starting writing. 

Any input appreciated!

[8filltheheart]

That is a fun age to do a family magazine or ezine.  My kids have done spring nature studies and drawn pictures and little stories or reports to go along with their pictures.  They can create fake advertisements.   If they are involved in outside sports, music, theater, etc., they can pretend to write a news report about it.  

Then scan or mail copies to family members.  We have great memories from those.

Another idea is incorporate something she really enjoys playing.  One yr 2 of my daughters had created this elaborate American Girl Doll set up where they were from different countries.  They created travel brochures for their different locations and had them pretend to be international penpals (so they wrote letters back and forth to the different dolls.)  

Another idea is time traveling journalist.  Have them create a newspaper about something they are studying in history.  They can write news reports pretending to be an eyewitness.  Again, they can include ads, pictures, etc.

Writing can be anything you want it to be.  

Edited March 7, 2023 by 8filltheheart

[Farrar]

I love 8's ideas above. But also, if you want a structured set of those type of ideas, then Jot It Down from Brave Writer is a set of projects in that sort of vein for this age group. You're supposed to do one per month.

[Pintosrock]

You could absolutely make it up, but when we take a break from our main writing curriculum (writing with ease) we've used a story starters book or the Writing and Rhetoric workbooks. 

[FreyaO]

On 3/7/2023 at 7:58 AM, 8filltheheart said:

That is a fun age to do a family magazine or ezine.  My kids have done spring nature studies and drawn pictures and little stories or reports to go along with their pictures.  They can create fake advertisements.   If they are involved in outside sports, music, theater, etc., they can pretend to write a news report about it.  

Then scan or mail copies to family members.  We have great memories from those.

Another idea is incorporate something she really enjoys playing.  One yr 2 of my daughters had created this elaborate American Girl Doll set up where they were from different countries.  They created travel brochures for their different locations and had them pretend to be international penpals (so they wrote letters back and forth to the different dolls.)  

Another idea is time traveling journalist.  Have them create a newspaper about something they are studying in history.  They can write news reports pretending to be an eyewitness.  Again, they can include ads, pictures, etc.

Writing can be anything you want it to be.  

Thank you for sharing! I'm more of an analytical, systems person than an imaginative, creative one, so although I have it in my mind that one can create projects... they don't come naturally to me. I will give it a try though! The first suggestion fits our circumstances, we have family away, so kid may buy in too.

[FreyaO]

On 3/7/2023 at 9:10 AM, Farrar said:

I love 8's ideas above. But also, if you want a structured set of those type of ideas, then Jot It Down from Brave Writer is a set of projects in that sort of vein for this age group. You're supposed to do one per month.

Thanks, I know this is popular and I actually subscribed to her website and received a few samples. I read her general hs book too. I don't necessarily disagree, but let's say our brains function in different wavelengths 🙂 

[FreyaO]

On 3/7/2023 at 9:35 AM, Pintosrock said:

You could absolutely make it up, but when we take a break from our main writing curriculum (writing with ease) we've used a story starters book or the Writing and Rhetoric workbooks. 

I was considering the W&R workbooks. I think above all my kid will benefit from regular practice, the specifics may not matter that much. 

[Farrar]

32 minutes ago, FreyaO said:

Thanks, I know this is popular and I actually subscribed to her website and received a few samples. I read her general hs book too. I don't necessarily disagree, but let's say our brains function in different wavelengths 🙂 

I love Brave Writer, but I understand why some families have a lot of trouble implementing it. Your kids are super young though. I would just say that no matter what you do, it's all good at this age. Writing skills circle, so it's just a long term, slow process.

[FreyaO]

43 minutes ago, Farrar said:

I love Brave Writer, but I understand why some families have a lot of trouble implementing it. Your kids are super young though. I would just say that no matter what you do, it's all good at this age. Writing skills circle, so it's just a long term, slow process.

Thanks for the encouragement, you're right of course! 

This thread is helping me think through the question. I'm realizing what I want is for her to write a bit regularly (maybe twice a week?) so that she gains stamina - gradually becomes more familiar with putting words and sentences together - experience some pride and satisfaction every now and then to gradually increase confidence. But we need some hooks, or else, it will be weeks or more before each effort which ends up being discouraging.

[Clarita]

If you can get Games for Writing: Playful Ways to Help Your Child Learn to Write by Peggy Kaye from the library. That books has great writing activities for younger kids.  I say borrow because your child would be at the older end of this book so maybe half the things from this book wouldn't be helpful.

I like that some of her activities have the children make small pieces of writing and then take those to make bigger pieces. 

[Nm.]

I like funschool journals for exactly that.

[Nurit]

I listened to Susan Bauer's lecture on writing, which you can buy for $3 in the WTM store...I found it fascinating! The main point I took away is that writing is difficult for majority of kids, and especially 'creative' writing which asks a kid to come up with the content. Kids have trouble with that for even one sentence! So we have implemented a system for my 7 yr old where she only writes 2 sentences based on a book she has read or I have read for her, maybe once a week. The rest is copy work. I base the type of sentences she writes on the method found in the book The Wiriting Revolution which I do not see mentioned on this forum but is extremely good for structured writing and to help reluctant writers. I also recently got WWE for the narration part (as the copywork is a little too easy for my DD...she copies whole passages as the moment with ease, and handwriting has improved markedly since we started.)

Edited March 11, 2023 by Nurit
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