This week, in The Wild Robot, a very dramatic event occurs on the island and it makes for a perfect opportunity for kids to write a newspaper report based on the event. Included in this week’s study guide are handy tips for writing a newspaper report and newspaper report planning sheet, and a newspaper report template. Kids will actually have […]
Now that the Non-Chronological writing project is completed we can turn all of our attention back on the story. This week we will be focusing on the ever important skill of giving and writing summaries. We will also be sequencing events, focusing on using comas when listing, and homophones. Writing summaries can be a difficult […]
Types of nouns, common nouns and proper nouns, noun Pictionary, a descriptive writing activity, spelling the long ‘a’ sound using ‘ei, comprehension questions, and activities to learn and consolidate vocabulary. This is what you can expect in this weeks The Wild Robot literature study guide based on Chapters 9-13. Welcome to the second week […]
Buy The Wild Robot on Amazon (paid link) Jump to the contents for all of the posts and accompanying weekly literature study guides published so far. For our English lessons, we are going to kick off this year with The Wild Robot. Not only that, I have actually gone full throttle and planned a compete […]
In this post I will be explaining: I have also created free downloadable resources to write non-chronological reports: Reading and writing doesn’t just have to be about fiction. Sometimes we forget that every subject has specialist vocabulary, every subject requires writing. Teaching your child how to write notes, summaries, reports, and essays will give them vital skills […]
The reality is, reading doesn’t equal understanding. Reading comprehension is a complex skill for children and it helps for us homeschoolers to have some strategies up our sleeves to teach our kids reading comprehension skills. It can often be the case where our kids, who can confidently read, struggle to understand the underlying message. We invest countless hours […]
In this post I am going to share 5 easy, effective and practical strategies that you can start doing now for incorporating Charlotte Mason practices and living literature into your homeschool curriculum. But first, why would you want to use Charlotte Mason practices and living literature in the first place? Good literature is powerful. I’ve always loved good […]
This is Step 7 of the seven steps to story writing success, a step-by-step guide for teaching children how to write stories. In this post, I will share my experiences and insights on how to effectively edit writing with your child. I will be explaining why children (and you) should pause and revise and edit their […]
This is a review of the Galore Park curriculum and textbooks for use in the homeschool. We’ve been using Galore Park Textbooks for a few years now and really love it for its thorough subject coverage and the progressive way it develops and deepens essential subject skills and knowledge. Two of my kids are currently […]
This post is all about getting children to write so that they pull people right into their imagination. In other words, this post is all about getting your child to “show not tell” in their story. Welcome to Step 6 of our seven steps to story success writing guide where I am going to share […]
In this step kids will be considering how to spice up their writing- make it more effective, interesting and meaningful by intentional use of Vocabulary, Connectives, sentence Openers, and Punctuation, in short VCOP. This is Step 5 of my Seven Steps to Story Success – A step-by-step guide to teaching children how to write stories. Accompanying […]
If you missed the previous steps you can catchup here: Step 4-Character Development In this step kids will describing the characters in their story more detail. They should not only note physical aspects of their characters, but also more personal details such as their back story, strengths, skills, weaknesses, and motives. Accompanying character development activity page can be found towards […]
This is Step 3 of my Seven Steps to Story Success – A step-by-step guide to teaching children how to write stories. In this step -planning the plot, children will visually render the main parts of their story. Accompanying worksheet can be found towards the bottom, available to download and print. If you missed the […]
This is Step 2 of my Seven Steps to Story Success – A step-by-step guide to teaching children how to write stories. If you missed the previous step, or want to browse all of the steps you can catch-up here: Step 2-Sort Out the Nitty Gritty In this step kids will explore and pin down the key […]
In the post 5 Products That Give Your Child a Strong Writing Foundation, I detail how I homeschool English during the primary years, up until my kids are about 12 years old. I also mention how freewriting is an essential part of how we do English in our homeschool. The Brave Writer freewrite method is […]
It is so easy to get overwhelmed when confronted with the numerous curriculums and ideas out there for teaching English in the homeschool. In this post I am going to give details of the only 5 products we used for our English curriculum from the ages of 5-11 in our homeschool that has provided a […]