MANY OF YOU have children who are pre-writers. Their busy young minds are bursting with ideas, and their often-hilarious stories and ideas pour forth to the amazement—and amusement—of friends and family.
But since they can’t write yet, what happens to these little tales? We think we’ll always remember them, but before we know it, our children’s words have floated away on the breeze.
What do you do when young age, immaturity, or lack of skill with a pencil prevents your littles from recording their own brilliant thoughts? Simple! Act as their scribe as they narrate to you.
Here are five fun activities to get you started:
1. Illustrating a Story
As your child dictates a sentence or a short story to you, write it at the bottom of a large sheet of paper. Next, have him draw or paint a picture at the top of the page to illustrate it.
Alternatively, have him create his picture first, and then ask him to tell you a story about his work of art. Write it beneath the illustration.
2. Retelling
A young or reluctant writer may feel more comfortable retelling a familiar story than trying to plan an original story of her own.
Read a paragraph or short book or excerpt to your child. Have her orally tell the story back to you in her own words. Help her by asking questions (Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?).
As she narrates her story, write it down word-for-word. Sometimes she will give such a mature-sounding narrative that the only thing to remind you of her young age will be words like “catched” or “brang.” Not only will you have recorded her story, you will have a treasured memory of her early speech habits!
3. Narrating a Wordless Book
Using a wordless picture book, your child can make up a story either orally or in writing to accompany the illustrations. Consider some of these:
Let your child narrate his account into a tape recorder or digital recording device. When his writing skills have developed sufficiently (perhaps by 2nd-4th grade), you may want to have him write his story from dictation. He can stop and start the recording as he writes his own words on paper.
5. Narrating Letters
Your child can dictate letters to friends or relatives, greetings to missionaries, thank-you notes, etc. If she is old enough, correct grammar and spelling with her and let her recopy the letter in her own writing. To apply this to your schooling, she may write a letter about a field trip she took, a book she read (or you read to her), or an exciting science experiment you did together.
What are the benefits of these simple exercises?
They teach young children important skills such as retelling a story, observing their world, and organizing their ideas.
They boost confidence and pave the way for later writing.
Early writers can share the pencil with you, dictating what they cannot write by themselves.
Reluctant writers experience the freedom to put together ideas without the limitations and fear of having to write them down.
Often, a child’s speaking vocabulary is more advanced than his ability to write. You may find that even your older children’s stories are more colorfuland descriptive when they dictate them to you from time to time.
Why not try a narration activity today? You might just open up a whole new world of words for your pre-writer!
Your Turn
What are some of your favorite ways to incorporate narration into your schooling?
The idea is simple: select a poem you love during National Poetry Month then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends on April 26. “Poems from pockets will be unfolded throughout the day with events in parks, libraries, schools, workplaces, and bookstores. ~Poet.org
Ideas to Try
I love these little-known but oh-so-celebratory holidays, and there are many clever ways to embrace Poem in Your Pocket Day! With a little bit of simple preparation today, you’ll be all set to celebrate tomorrow.
Keep a short poem in your pocket. Look at it often and memorize it.
Type up and print some favorite poems and pass them out in your community.
Distribute bookmarks with your favorite immortal lines.
Post a poem on your blog or social networking page.
Add a poem to your email footer.
Text a poem to friends.
Tweet a poem using the hashtag #pocketpoem.
SHARE!What poem will you keep in your pocket on April 26?
10 Classic Poems - Some of the world’s most popular classic poems
Poetry Foundation – Browse for poems by title, poet, or subject matter such as ”Animals” or “Stars, Planets, Heavens” (both found in the Nature category).
Interactive Word Mover - Using this online too that’s similar to magnetic words, children can move individual words around to create original poems.
Poetry + Letter Writing = Fun
Not only is April National Poetry Month, it’s aslo National Card and Letter-Writing Month! Here are two ideas for incorporating poetry and letter writing.
Write a Letter to a Poet - Let the poets who you are reading know that you appreciate their work by sending them a letter.
Put a Poem in a Letter – Next time you send a letter or holiday hello, treat the addressee to a poem as well. You can put a poem directly into the text of your letter or include a typed or handwritten copy in the envelope.
Your Turn
Have you ever memorized a poem? What is one of your favorites?
special spring savings for our spectacular supporters
Have you been thinking about ordering for next year? From now until April 30th, 2012, you can save 15% on your order from the WriteShop store using the coupon code SPRING15 at checkout.
The last week in April is going to be busy yet rewarding! If you are attending the SHEM homeschool convention in Springfield, Missouri, I’ll have six sessions packed with tips and encouragement for teaching writing. Please stop by and say hello!
Did you know that WriteShop has a booth at the Virtual Homeschool Convention? Unlike other conventions, this one is open 24/7, and you can attend without leaving home. Peruse the shelves and learn what our writing curriculum has to offer your homeschool.
CONTENT, style, and mechanics all play an important role in creating a strong essay, story, report, or article.
When we communicate on paper:
Our goal is to be thorough, accurate, concise, and concrete.
Our writing needs to flow well and make sense.
We have to guard against misspellings and sloppy grammar, which can distract the reader and dilute our message.
Writers have dozens—even hundreds—of tips and tools at their disposal to make this process easier and improve chances for success. From time to time, I pick different ones to help you or your students plan, write, or edit more effectively. Here are six tips to try out:
1. Brainstorm Before Writing
The purpose of brainstorming is to plan ideas and jot down details to jumpstart your writing. Brainstorming can take many forms, including clustering, mind-mapping, lists, grids, and formal graphic organizers.
Instead of writing full sentences, it’s better to make lists of words and short phrases. Later, as you refer to your brainstorming sheet during writing time, your list of concrete words and other details will jog your memory and keep your writing from taking tangents. Brainstorming keeps you on track.
2. Use Different Kinds of Sentences
Try a combination of simple, compound, and complex sentences to add variety and improve the style of your writing. Here’s a helpful quiz on sentence types.
3. Choose Strong Words
Vivid, active, colorful words have the power topaint clear mental pictures and stir the reader’s emotions. When dull, vague, or overly used words clutter up your writing, replace them with stronger, more precise ones.
Dull:Isabella made a nice dessert. Interesting:Isabella whipped up a rich chocolate mousse.
Watch out for boring words such as fine,nice, orgood. Is it a good book, good friend, or good weather? Then express it more specifically.
riveting book, faithful friend, balmy weather
Avoid vague verbs such as cried, said, or went in favor of concrete ones:
The orphan sobbed, wailed, or wept.
Dr. Cooper ordered, whispered, or agreed.
The horse galloped, trotted, or raced.
Check to see that you haven’t repeated main words too many times, using your thesaurus to find appropriate synonyms.
Finally, when picking the best words for saying what you mean, don’t choose them based on how long they are or how clever they make you sound. Otherwise, you run the risk of sounding pompous or stuffy.
4. Include Subordinating Conjunctions
Sentence variations can add interest and maturity to any piece of writing. Using subordinating conjunctions is just one way to vary sentence structure, often by combining sentences like these together:
I shop frugally. I save several hundred dollars each month.
Example 1:When the subordinating conjunction begins the sentence, a comma follows the dependent clause.
Because I shop frugally, I save several hundred dollars each month.
Example 2: When a dependent clause beginning with a subordinating conjunction comes at the end of the sentence, don’t separate the two clauses with a comma.
I save several hundred dollars each month because I shop frugally.
Either way, you can see how using because to combine two short sentences results in a single but more interesting sentence.
Avoid pesky misplaced modifiers—phrases or clauses placed near the wrong noun. Make sure to position a modifier close to the word or phrase it should modify to avoid confusion.
Incorrect:Hiking along the overgrown path, a tree stump tripped Fernie.
Why is this wrong? Because the sentence implies that the tree stump was hiking along the path!
Correct:Hiking along the overgrown path, Fernie tripped over a tree stump.
6. Revise Everything
Everyone’s writing improves with editing, so no matter how great you think your article or story is, let it breathe for a day and then scrutinize it for clarity, conciseness, concreteness, and errors.
I’m excited to welcome Mystie Winckler as a guest blogger today as we continue celebrating National Poetry Month. You can follow Mystie’s musings at her own blog, Simply Convivial.
POETRY IS a wonderful component to add to our homeschools. It develops language patterns, listening skills, and complex thinking ability. Andrew Pudewa writes:
There is perhaps no greater tool than memorization to seal language patterns into a human brain, and there is perhaps nothing more effective than poetry to provide exactly what we want: reliably correct and sophisticated language patterns.
But poetry can also be intimidating.
Here are some simple steps that my family has taken to incorporate poetry:
Sing. We often forget that most hymns and folk songs and other good songs are poetry set to music. In ancient times poetry was almost always recited with musical accompaniment. Don’t discount singing together as a family.
Particularly when the children are elementary and younger, focus on introducing and enjoying poems together. Don’t worry about analysis or interpretation or even comprehension. Just let them experience and enjoy poetry at their own level.
Allow the time and space for love and taste to develop before teaching content and analysis. Then the analysis in later years will be more like sharing thoughts about common friends and less like dissecting a dead frog.
Mystie Winckler is a wife, mother, homemaker, and home-educator. Mystie has been married for ten years to her only sweetheart, Matt, a software programmer and web developer; both Matt & Mystie were homeschool graduates themselves. Now they raise & educate their four-going-on-five children. Mystie blogs at Simply Convivial on homemaking, home-educating, reading, and organizing.
TODAY IS National Scrabble Day, and my mind has turned to word games. That’s right! Scrabble, the granddaddy of all word games, has its very own designated holiday, celebrated each year on April 13.
Celebrate National Scrabble Day
In honor of National Scrabble Day, why not join the fun by engaging your family in one of these Scrabble-themed activities or projects?
Scrabble – Play the official crossword puzzle board game.
Anagrams – Test your skills! An anagram is a word or phrase made by transposing the letters to create another word or phrase. For instance, MARCH is an anagram of CHARM. Scrabble players must rearrange tiles to create words, so anagrams make great practice!
Word and Letter Games – Find letter-matching games, Scrabble activities, Scattergories-type worksheets, and other skill-building games. Activities and printables. (This is an ESL site, but the activities translate well to native English speakers.)
Handmade Gifts for Scrabble Lovers – Even if you can’t actually make these crafts today, you can begin planning some serious Scrabble-themed Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and birthday gifts.
Pinterest Scrabble Craft Ideas – Find all sorts of great ideas for converting Scrabble elements into photo frames, wall art, Christmas ornaments, magnets, and more!
Tap into the Benefits of Word Games
Whether you play online—or with pencil, paper, cubes, tiles, or game boards—word games are great for building vocabulary and thinking skills. Besides Scrabble, there are other favorites too! Challenge your children with some of these stimulating activities.
Benefits: Improved language skills; social benefits
Your children will think they’re getting a break from school to play games, but you’ll know differently. Using word games and exercises that are stimulating, educational, and fun, you’ll be helping your kids give their brains a workout!
#WriteShopParty Fast-paced, fun Sharing, linking, chatting Twitter, friends … Virtual chocolate, real prizes Celebrating, learning, writing Festivity, merriment #WriteShopParty
You’re invited to a WriteShop Twitter Party on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 9:00 p.m. EST. We’ll have lots of door prizes and virtual chocolate too! Prizes include WriteShop goodies valued up to $100!
Twitter parties can move a little fast, so the easiest way to participate is by using www.tweetchat, www.tweetgrid, or www.tweetdeck. Follow the hashtag #WriteShopParty and @WriteShop to keep up with the questions and prizes.
To start the celebration off, here’s a party favor just for you!
APRIL ISNational Poetry Month. Here at In Our Write Minds, I’m posting a different poetry activity or tip list each week to help you incorporate more poetry into your homeschooling.
Pick one or two of these activities to do with your children to celebrate this special literary month. Together, discover the joy of poetry!
1. Write Magnetic Poems
Put up a magnet board (a cookie sheet works great) with magnetic words and encourage family members to create their own poems. Get them started by reading short poems together and posting some of them near the magnet board.
Check out several poetry anthologies from the library and keep them in a basket or on a shelf, along with pads of paper and pencils.
Encourage your children to read several poems each day, writing down the titles and authors of their favorites. When you return the anthologies, have each child check out a book of poems by just one author. For example, if your child wrote down a Shel Silverstein poem on her list, she may want to check out Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, or another book of poetry by Silverstein.
4. Host a Poetry Slam
A poetry slam is a competition where poets read or recite their original work. Host an open mic night or poetry slam where children are encouraged to share their own poems with family, friends, or your homeschool group. Enjoy homemade treats and present awards for “Most Original Poem,” “Best Use of Rhyme,” “Happiest Poem,” or “Best Alliteration.”
Give these a try! When you enjoy, share, and celebrate poetry, you begin building a lifelong appreciation for this well-loved genre.
Your Turn
Share one thing your family or classroom is doing to celebrate poetry this month.
You know, those annoying little things that don’t seem to irritate anyone else, but drive you positively insane?
I actually found a site— GetAnnoyed.com—that lists 500 pet peeves, including:
People who whistle when they are happy.
Greeting cards that throw sparkles, sequins or confetti on the hapless recipient.
People [who] don’t use coasters.
Keeping your Christmas lights up until February.
People who dress their pets.
Leaving the toilet seat up.
Cracking your knuckles.
Road maps that aren’t folded correctly.
People who talk on their cell phone at the movies.
Things sticking out of drawers.
I admit that the items on this short list draw different reactions from me. I think it’s silly to dress a pet, for example, but I wouldn’t call it a pet peeve. I can take or leave an incorrectly folded map. And I don’t mind happy whistling at all!
No, for something to qualify as a pet peeve, it has to drive me absolutely batty. Nuts. Fingernails-on-a-chalkboard crazy.
I have several—as do you (admit it). But let me introduce you to just one of them: the misplaced apostrophe.
The apostrophe has two uses: contraction and possession. Unfortunately, people are so totally confused that they’re always sticking random apostrophes where punctuation marks should fear to tread:
Insimple plurals, such as “No pet’s allowed” (should be “No pets allowed”)
In family names when referring to the family as one unit, such as “The Wilson’s live there” (should be “The Wilsons live there”)
Do You Know the Johnson’s Johnsons?
One of these days I’ll write up a lesson on plurals vs. possessives. Today, let’s focus on family names.
Watch out when using apostrophes with last names! Grammar guides can differ on how to use apostrophes, but if you follow these rules, you’ll get it right.
One Person’s Last Name
To show possession of one person, add -’s.
Sarah Smith: Mitts is Sarah Smith’s dog.
Jared Jones: Heinz is Jared Jones’s dog.
Reid Roberts: Arrow is Reid Roberts’s dog.
Last names that end in -s can be tricky!
Right: Arrow is Reid Roberts’s dog. Wrong: Arrow is Reid Robert’s dog.
Don’t use an apostrophe when you mean to make a plural.
Right: The Smiths also want a gerbil. Wrong: The Smith’s also want a gerbil.
The Whole Family’s Last Name
To show possession of a whole family: First, add -es or -s to write the family’s last name in plural form. Then, add an apostrophe at the end to show possession.
Right: Pip belongs to the Joneses. Pip is the Joneses’ cat. Wrong: Pip belongs to the Joneses. Pip is the Jones’s cat.
Right: Jet belongs to the Smiths. Jet is the Smiths’ cat. Wrong: Jet belongs to the Smiths. Jet is the Smiths’s cat.
MORE EXAMPLES
Single person: Mike Miller
Whole family: The Millers
Family’s Possessive: The Millers’ hamster
Single person: Hubert Sing
Whole family: The Sings
Family’s Possessive: The Sings’ parakeet
Single person: Gladys Sanchez
Whole family: The Sanchezes
Family’s Possessive: The Sanchezes’ llama
Single person: Mrs. Sanders
Whole family: The Sanderses
Family’s Possessive: The Sanderses’ goat
Put it into Practice: Want to give yourself (or your kids) some practice forming plural and possessive last names? Just pull out the phone directory, open to a random page, and give it a whirl! The more they practice forming plurals and possessives, the more natural it will become for them to do so correctly.
Your Turn
What’s your pet peeve (grammar or otherwise)? Share it in the comments!
Hi, I'm Kim--curriculum author, speaker, retired homeschooler, and grandma to seven. Welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere. My heart is to equip and inspire you to teach writing, even when it seems like it's always an uphill battle. I invite you to poke around the blog, where you'll find writing and poetry activities, grammar tips, and hope for reluctant writers. Thanks for stopping by!
Good Night, Gorilla
Crossword puzzles
and online versions such as 
- Try this free online 
– grades K-2
- grades 2-6
- teens and adults
