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Year: 2010

How to write a Christmas carol haiku

How to write a Christmas carol haiku

For a holiday twist on the traditional haiku poem, invite your children to use the familiar pattern to write a Christmas carol haiku.

English is confusing

English is confusing

Unless I'm typing in my sleep, I'll probably never confuse its with it's or your with you're. I'm pretty handy with a hyphen, and I'm confident that I'm not prone to apostrophe catastrophes. But I'm the first to admit that I don't know all the rules---and I have to...

Make an ABC book

Make an ABC book

Do your older children have a hard time thinking of what to give a younger sibling for a birthday or Christmas gift? Why not encourage them to create a scrapbook-style (or digital) alphabet book for a fun writing project with a real purpose? Make an ABC Book...

NaNoWriMo – Are your pencils sharpened?

IT'S HERE! NaNoWriMo starts TODAY! Short for National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo is an amazing writing event that takes place every November. I love that NaNoWriMo also has a Young Writers Program that's open to children 17 and under. The challenge? Pump out a...

Avoiding common usage errors in the English language

Alexis Bonari is joining me today as a guest blogger here at In Our Write Minds. Today, Alexis shares some helpful tips on commonly confused---and misused---words. It’s difficult for any teacher to contradict the overwhelming number of usage errors in everyday...

Same story, different twist

Same story, different twist

When assigning writing to your children, you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel with a brand-new lesson. Sometimes it’s fun to approach a familiar assignment in a fresh new way. For example: Tweaking an existing lesson instruction by adding different elements....

From the mouths of babes: Pre-literacy writing

From the mouths of babes: Pre-literacy writing

Alexis Bonari is joining me today as a guest blogger here at In Our Write Minds. I know you'll enjoy trying this activity with your pre-writers. On the path to inspiring our children to love reading and writing, we often overlook the fact that there was a time when...

Choosing correct ending punctuation

If your child struggles to choose the correct punctuation at the end of a sentence, do this fun exercise together to help him learn what each punctuation mark sounds like when spoken aloud.   1.  Write the following words, phrases, and sentences on index cards or...

Is your child a budding novelist?

Ever heard of NaNoWriMo? Short for National Novel Writing Month, it's an amazing writing event that takes place every November. I love that NaNoWriMo also has a Young Writers Program that's open to children 17 and under. The challenge? Pump out a novel in 30 days....