Teaching writing is one of the most intimidating obstacles for many homeschoolers! One of the hardest parts of this daunting task is figuring out how to get started and finding your groove. The more laborious it is, the less fun it is for the parent and the child, and the worse the situation becomes. When a subject is hard and frustrating, everyone dreads it.
What is the best way to overcome the blues of teaching a child how to write?
Make it fun
What started out as a way to help my youngest learn the parts of a sentence turned into a favorite writing prompt for everyone, including those in middle school and high school. Each of them benefited from seeing, hearing, and experiencing the delight that came from constructing detailed sentences. I believe an appreciation and enjoyment of the written word has to be nurtured while teaching the mechanics and structure of writing. Putting thoughts on paper can be very hard for many people, especially our kids who struggle with dyslexia or dysgraphia. Even those kids with incredibly vivid and active imaginations can struggle to find the words to really say what they see in their mind’s eye. When we approach it in a fun way instead of a "let's just get this done" way, our enthusiasm rubs off on our children and they start to enjoy the learning, even if it is hard. If you struggle in this area or just want a new idea to use in your homeschool, check out one of my favorite methods; Evan Moor’s Write a Super Sentence.
Parts of Speech to Basic Sentences
The parts of speech fit together to make our sentences engaging and entertaining. In the early years, it is enough to teach kids that every sentence has a “who” or a “what” and an action. As they grow, it begins to get more interesting as we add describing words and dress up words. Write a Super Sentence starts with some cards that we separate into individual jars.
Nouns – car, truck, dog, cat . . .
Verbs – ran, jump, roll, skip . . .
Adjectives – green, happy, crazy . . .
Places – in the garden, at the playground . . .
Times – in the morning, after lunch . . .
Then you start making up sentences and arranging the cards. We all had fun making many combinations and we continued to add to them until we found ourselves with jars full of dozens of cards to choose. By picking a card from each of the five jars, we could create hundreds of sentences and never have anyone write the same one.
Basic Sentences to Paragraphs
These silly sentences turned into hilarious stories as the older kids began adding more content. We would spend about twenty minutes writing at whatever level they were capable and then we would read our sentences or stories aloud. This fun time of reading our stories aloud incorporated public speaking skills, listening skills, compassion and empathy, and fostered a connection with their siblings.
Add Humor
To change it up on some mornings, each of us would write only a basic noun and a single verb on a strip of paper and then challenge the others to make the sentence interesting and engaging. These were always wide open to interpretation and sometimes had to be clarified with more than a sentence. We shared many great laughs over these sentences. Did you grow up playing Mad Libs? This is one version of that game and everyone enjoys the twists and turns the story takes.
One Fun Example
I challenged my kids to make “thunder rolled” an interesting sentence. My various ages children came up with:
The loud thunder rolled with the lightning.
Or:
Thunder rumbled and rolled across the cloudless sky.
Or:
Thunder galloped swiftly across the field and rolled in the dirt.
These writing exercises taught my kids that words can be fun as well as taught them how to construct an interesting sentence with various parts of speech. I hope you will try it out and enjoy a pleasant morning playing with words.
Michele Moore is a Homeschool Coach with Statheros Academy and she has a deep love for books, reading, and writing. You can work with her one on one for customized homeschool help and support. You can learn more about Michele and schedule an appointment with her here.