I’m excited to welcome Daniella Dautrich as a guest blogger today! 

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IS YOUR student a strong-willed writer? If you answered “yes,” these scenarios might ring a bell:

• As a preschooler, she would refuse help with coloring pages, unwilling to accept suggestions about “normal” color choices.
• She cries at the sight of red pencil corrections: “You wrote on my paper!”
• She becomes quickly disheartened if you suggest any changes to her writing.
• She is a perfectionist who wants to shine and excel in her work.

Guiding the Strong-Willed Writer

From childhood onward, I have been that strong-willed writer. My mother began homeschooling me when I was in second grade, and she quickly encountered childish tears and protests whenever she corrected my writing assignments.

When I entered high school, my parents enrolled me in Kim and Debbie’s WriteShop class, and the course was a perfect fit for my tenacious ways. When I went on to study American literature in college, my essential personality was blessedly unchanged. However, I carried with me those fundamental writing skills I first learned as a young high schooler.

Your strong-willed child is who she is, and you cannot change that about her. You can, however, guide her into a mastery of writing skills. Speaking from experience, I offer four teaching tools for more effective—and, I hope, more enjoyable—writing instruction:

1. Teach self-editing skills.

Checklists are invaluable tools for teaching self-editing. Instead of giving your student red-pencil corrections, give a checklist with reminders about strong nouns, colorful adjectives, various sentence starters, minimal “to be” verbs, etc. It diffuses emotion when she holds her paper accountable to a list of lesson requirements instead of weighing it against her own subjective expectations.

WriteShop is an excellent curriculum for teaching self-editing skills.

2. Commend her efforts and praise her successes.

You’ll probably feel some frustration when a strong-willed child sees every writing assignment as a performance, with more ecstatic highs and devastating lows than the average homeschool is fit to bear.

While others are satisfied to take directions, your student wants to be original and take the lead, so be sure to point out the positive aspects of both her writing and personality.

“Your word choices are excellent.” 
“You really captured the emotion of that experience!” 
“I love how you think outside the box. Your creative ending totally took me by surprise!”

3. Focus on incremental writing corrections.

Don’t overhaul her first draft. Instead, address errors bit by bit. For example, during the first week you might say: “I can spot three repeated words, five weak nouns, and four dull verbs in your paragraph.” Armed with tools such as word lists and a thesaurus, your student can identify the problem words and make the changes. 

Once she’s addressed those specific issues, you might turn your focus the next week to spelling and punctuation. Review her writing and say: “I can see five misspelled words, one comma error, and two misplaced apostrophes.” Again, let her find the mistakes and make the corrections.

All the while, try to keep the editing process light-hearted. See if you can make it a game!

4. Challenge your student to imitate great writing.

Remember, Ben Franklin taught himself to write by studying and imitating great books. Samuel Johnson, who compiled the first English dictionary, likewise believed that fine written expression could only be acquired by “daily imitation” of the best authors.

When you give your students writing instruction, set aside time to examine a passage from a great book. Ask your child, “What sentence starters does the author use? Where does he place commas, periods, and quotation marks?” Copywork and dictation exercises, such as those used to supplement WriteShop I, are useful for reinforcing this learning experience.

Each of these correction strategies will teach your student to think independently and solve problems creatively. This, in turn, will prepare her for the kind of self-directed study that becomes essential in higher education. If she emotionally connects and personally identifies with her own writing, so much the better! She will likely be able to engage topics and make persuasive arguments in later fields of study.

When you approach a new writing assignment, your job as teacher is to provide the right tools and vocabulary. Remember that your child has strong ideas and convictions, and she is already motivated to express those thoughts in her own terms.

Thanks to Daniella Dautrich for joining us as a guest blogger. Daniella is a homeschool graduate and WriteShop alumna. A happily married writer and homemaker, she blogs at www.waterlilywriter.wordpress.com.

As far as most kids are concerned, “editing” and “fun” can never appear in the same sentence.

In their minds, the very word editing conjures up images of a parent or teacher poring over their paper with a magnifying glass with a singular purpose: to find fault.

This can be disheartening, especially when Sensitive Susie honestly and truly believes her paper is perfect just the way it is.

Even when your child takes a stab at self-editing before showing her paper to you, she still may not make any changes. She likes what she wrote, and she doesn’t see the need to fix a thing.

How can you help her turn the corner? Is it possible for editing to go from a hated or dreaded chore to something she actually enjoys?

Yes!

At first, she’ll need your help during self-editing. It can take time—often a l-o-n-g time—for her to start seeing her own mistakes. This comes with much practice, so don’t feel discouraged when she doesn’t catch misspelled words or recognize her story’s lack of detail.

Edit Together

Self-editing is a bit of a misnomer. Even if your children use a reliable checklist that details the expectations for the assignment, their eye is not yet trained to seek out their errors. This skill can take years to develop, especially if you’re working with a younger child.

In truth, you’re training your children to become more independent self-editors. As you work alongside them, be patient through the process. As with any other skill we teach our kiddos, it takes time.

Look for the Good

How do we edit or proofread our kids’ papers? Typically, we grab our red pens and hunt down every sentence fragment, misspelled word, and errant punctuation mark until the page fairly bleeds with criticism.

May I whisper a simple secret to you that can absolutely revolutionize the editing process for you and your child?

Start by looking for things she did well.

Yup.

Before a drop of red ink touches your child’s paper, affirm her by helping her discover what’s right about her story or report, not just what needs fixing. It’s such a simple—and perhaps obvious—concept, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we can admit that too often, we focus on the errors.

Use an Editor’s Tool Kit

Last time, I introduced you to a cool editing kit called a Said It, Read It, Edit Bag. This tool will help you cultivate the skill of self-editing in your children as, together, you look for ways both to affirm and improve their writing.

Self-Editing Strategies

Working together, try these self-editing tips with your elementary-aged child:

1. Invite her to choose a highlighter marker from the Said It, Read It, Edit Bag.

• As you watch, encourage her to look over the paper by herself and highlight a difficult word she spelled correctly.
• Next ask her to highlight a sentence she wrote correctly by starting it with a capital letter and using the correct punctuation. Praise her for a job well done.

2. Make sure her writing project has all the elements it needs. If not, discuss ideas for improvement, having her write corrections on the blank spaces between the lines.

• Structure. Does the story have a beginning, middle, and end (or an introduction, body, and conclusion, if it’s an essay or report)?
• Organization. Is this a report? Make sure it the main points are organized.
• Character. If the story has a main character, check for descriptive details about him or her.
• Setting. Check to see if your child included details for the setting.
• Plot. Is it a mystery, adventure, or science fiction story? Make sure there is a problem that the character has solved in a satisfactory way.
• Details. Check to make sure your child used details to develop the story. If she wrote a report, are main points supported by facts and other details?

3. Help your child check her mechanics. Instruct her to read the Writing Project aloud (encouraging a younger child to also track each word with her finger). Have her examine each sentence to make sure she:

• Indented the first line of the paragraph(s).
• Began each sentence with a capital letter and used correct punctuation.
• Does not have any missing words in the sentences.

4. Look for dull or repeated words that can be replaced with strong ones. Invite your student to choose one or more weak or overly repeated words and replace them with a synonym. If she can’t think of one on her own, encourage her to use her thesaurus.

5. Have your child circle any difficult words whose spelling she wants to check, look them up in a dictionary, and write each word correctly on the blank spaces between the lines.

By trying some of these simple ideas, editing can become a no-more-tears event. I’m confident you’ll be able to add your own testimonial here one of these days!

“Editing was a dreaded day in the beginning but not anymore.” ~Susan, Florida

“[My daughter] actually looked forward to editing (biggest improvement because she used to hate it). ” ~Andrea, California

“Her self-editing skills really improved. She became more independent.” ~Mindy, Utah

Do you have a favorite trick or tip that inspires happier self-editors?

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WriteShop encourages students to self-edit and revise in order to create a published final draft. These self-editing tips and The Said It, Read It, Edit Bag™ are some of the creative ways WriteShop Junior introduces and encourages self-editing.

Photo Credits: Creative Commons photos courtesy of Flickr.
Photo of girl in red © Vincent Angler. Used by permission.

“Editing is usually painless. The way WriteShop Junior has taught them to edit is awesome. They’re not afraid to look for errors.” –Kelley, SD

LEARNING to self-edit doesn’t have to be a dreaded or intimidating experience.

Through the use of fun tools, children can acquire helpful editing skills—and in doing so, grow to see editing as a natural part of the writing process. Self-editing becomes a task they can accomplish with both pleasure and success!

Assembling an Editor’s Tool Kit

To help your children gain stronger self-editing skills, prepare a kit of special editing tools. In WriteShop Junior, we call this their Said It, Read It, Edit Bag™ (“Read It” is pronounced “red it.”)

For storage, you’ll need a zipper pouch, small tote bag, plastic zip-top bag, or other container to keep all the editing tools in one place. Label it as your Said It, Read It, Edit Bag™ and keep it in your writing center so it’s always handy. Here’s a list of supplies to include in their bags:

• Correction tape
• Highlighters in assorted colors
• Colored pencils
• Sheets of tiny stickers such as smiley faces and stars
• Dictionary
• Thesaurus

Some children may want to wear a special hat or visor and refer to it as their Editor’s Hat. If so, they should use their hat for this unique purpose and store it with the supply of editing tools.

“It’s so fun to watch Gracie edit… She ALWAYS wears a jazzy black editor’s hat.” –Joanie, NJ

Tracking Tools

With a younger student (perhaps 7 to 9 years old), tracking each word on the paper will help him slow down and examine his work more carefully during the editing process. There are a variety of ways to do this, from pointing at each word with his pointer finger to touching each word with the eraser end of his pencil.

If your child wants to track words with his pointer finger, he could wear a finger puppet on that finger. You could also purchase a set of plastic toy fingers from a party supply store or costume shop and let him wear one as he tracks each word on his Writing Project. Alternatively, he could gather several colorful or distinctive plastic rings to wear while editing.

Using a pointer item is completely optional! One child may look down on such props while another sees them as great fun—so gather items to wear on a pointer finger according to your child’s interest and store them in the Said It, Read It, Edit Bag™.

Having a special tool kit is the first step in becoming a successful editor. Next time, I’ll share ideas for using the Said It, Read It, Edit Bag™ to edit a writing assignment.

Copyright 2012 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

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WriteShop encourages students to self-edit and revise in order to create a published final draft. The Said It, Read It, Edit Bag™, and many more exciting editing ideas, come straight from the pages of WriteShop Junior.

How can you encourage your teen when he feels stuck?

What should you tell him when he can’t seem to get started writing?

What advice can you offer when perfectionism rears its ugly head and he has trouble accepting his own mistakes?

Typically, you can’t say or do much—especially if he’s already in a funk. But if you can bite your tongue and sit on your hands till a teaching moment arises, he might be willing to consider one of these ten truths.

1. It’s not just you. I promise.

Writing isn’t always easy. I’m sure you think you’re the only one who suffers from writer’s block, but it might help to know that even famous published authors will agonize over a word, a sentence, or a paragraph.

2. There’s no penalty for a bad first draft.

“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.” ~Robert Cromier

3. If you’re stuck, explain to someone what you’re trying to write.

My adult son is a former reluctant writer. But even to this day, as a Ph.D. student, he’ll call me from time to time when he hits a writing roadblock. Often, I do nothing more than listen and offer the occasional “Mm-hmm.” But the act of thinking aloud and tossing around ideas can open up the floodgate, and he finds that the log jam of words will finally loosen.

4. Set a timer.

Having trouble getting started? Grab a kitchen timer and set it for 15 minutes. You can do anything for 15 minutes, right? And some days, you may not even hear the beep.

5. To write well, it helps to read well.

Reading teaches you how words work. You can become more attuned to detail, imagery, voice, and sentence construction. There’s no guarantee that being an avid reader will automatically make you a polished writer, but reading certainly lays a foundation for writing in many ways.

6. Style comes with practice.

Writing may not be second nature to you, but you will learn to develop your own writing style over time.

7. It’s better to write poorly than not at all.

You can always improve your rough draft. Don’t get hung up on perfection. Everyone revises!

“The first rule of writing is to write. The second rule of writing is to rewrite. The third rule of writing is the same as the second.” ~Paul Raymond Martin

8. Don’t write and edit in the same sitting.

I can’t tell you how many little errors I catch when I revisit a piece of my own writing even one day later! I know it’s tempting to just “get it over with.” But really, you’re much wiser to let that essay marinate for a couple of days. When you come back to it, you’ll be more likely to see it with fresh eyes and be willing to make changes.

[Of course, this means you can't wait till the last minute to write your rough draft. 'Nuf said.]

9. Learn to edit your own work.

This is one of the most valuable writing skills you can acquire. The more adept you become at self-editing, the less you have to rely on others to point out flaws. Before you turn your paper over to your parent or teacher, proofread and revise it first.

• Am I being too wordy?
• Repeating myself?
• Making my point?
• Varying my sentence structure?
• Using descriptive detail?
• Punctuating properly?

Your writing will always benefit from a second set of eyes, but learning to edit your own work is a lifelong skill every student needs to develop. While you’ll never be completely objective about your own writing, the ability to self-edit is equally important as having another person do it for you.

10. Edit your writing as if it were someone else’s.

Take an emotional step away from your paper. Imagine that it was written by the kid who flips burgers at McDonald’s, and begin to look for ways the writing could improve. It’s much easier to be objective when you pretend that your composition isn’t actually yours!

Copyright 2012 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

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WriteShop  provides schedules, checklists, and detailed instructions that give teen writers direction and help them stay on task. Choosing WriteShop I and II will help you equip and inspire successful writers!

A quick peek at the “Editing & Revising” category in the sidebar will show you that I talk about editing quite a bit here. It’s a big deal for so many homeschoolers—and is often the very thing that puts a damper on an otherwise decent day or week of writing.

I’m always on the hunt for a fresh idea to share that will make the editing process even a teensy bit easier for you and your kiddos. Editing can leave an unpleasant taste in many a mouth, so today. let’s look at ways to make the process more positive.

Start Them Young

I love to see parents begin to teach self-editing skills during the elementary years—before anxiety, fear, and self-deprecation begin to overtake their children. While they’re still young, introducing them to simple ideas can actually make self-editing fun!

• For example, you can absolutely revolutionize self-editing with one little trick: Make a photocopy of your child’s original writing project and let her self-edit the copy. This allows her to preserve the original, which many children are quite reluctant to mark up.
• Encourage children to identify a difficult word they spelled correctly or a sentence that has no errors. They love hunting for things they did well, rather than only focusing on mistakes.
• Another suggestion: Provide them with their own set of supplies such as highlighter markers, colored pencils, and tiny stickers. Armed with their personal editing tools, children can sit down with a real sense of purpose to find those errors and highlight the things they did well. Editing can become a joy instead of a dreaded chore. 

“My son feels very professional having a tool kit for this specific job.”  -Karen, WA 

A Second Pair of Eyes

But don’t stop at self-editing. Every paper benefits from another look, so once your child is finished self-editing his work, take time to edit it yourself.

• Keep suggestions to a minimum.
• Don’t try to find every error,
• At this age, there’s no need to ravage your child’s paper with a red pen. When you do spot something that needs attention, try not to cross out or erase. Instead, simply print the correct word or punctuation mark directly above the old one.

When finished, give your child the opportunity to rewrite his composition on fresh paper, should he so choose.

Positive, Encouraging Feedback

It’s not always easy to edit a child’s writing attempts. We’re naturally inclined to point out all the mistakes, roll our eyes, sigh deeply in exasperation, or even become angry. Clearly, that’s not the best approach when dealing with a tender-hearted nine-year-old.

So before a negative word rolls off your tongue, affirm your developing writer by searching for things you can praise.

Next time you look over your child’s paper, why not try making a few of these positive and encouraging comments?

• You’re off to a great start!
• I love your ideas.
• You are so creative.
• What a descriptive story!
• You shared some interesting facts.
• Wow! You remembered all your capitalization rules.
• Thank you for trying so hard.
• I can see that you’ve put a lot of thought into your story.
• Great word choices! My favorites are “powdery” and “luffy.”
• I like your title. It gives me a good clue about your story.
• This is my favorite sentence.
• Fantastic! Look how your punctuation has improved.
• You are becoming a great writer.

More Editing Ideas

• Editing and Evaluating Writing: K-3rd Grade
• Editing and Evaluating Writing: 4th-6th Grade
• The Trick to Finding the Balance
• Put Some Fun into Editing (or A Cat’s Guide to Editing)

I hear it all the time.

We’re having self-editing issues. For some reason, my children believe they are perfect writers! They can never find any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Surprise, surprise! Most children simply don’t get the whole editing thing. They like what they wrote and can’t understand why you want them to—gasp!—look for ways to improve it.

Yet every seasoned writer will tell you that the editing stage is as important—if not more so—than the writing stage, for this is where the writing is refined and honed to become the best piece possible.

Oh, the pain!

During self-editing, a writer reads and re-reads his rough draft. As he does, he finds ways to improve structure, flow, and word choice. And of course, this is the time to get serious about conventions such as spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.

Sounds easy enough, right? So why do kids have such a hard time identifying errors in their own writing?  

• They really don’t see the mistakes. When we read, we think we see every word and punctuation mark, but in truth, most of us read in chunks. Our brains are funny that way.
• They fail to see self-editing as an essential part of the writing task. At best, they consider it unnecessary. At worst, they view it as punishment.
• They feel attached to their writing. To most kids, it really is personal. Looking for errors is no less painful than, say, plucking out an eye.
• They attempt writing and self-editing in the same day. Writers—and not just kids—often don’t put enough space and distance between themselves and their writing piece before beginning the self-editing process.

Seven Self-Editing Strategies

Self-editing, like any other process, must be developed. Here are just a few tips and tricks you can try.

1. Tell your child not to worry about self-editing during the first draft. The important thing is just to get the words down on paper.
2. Let her edit a photocopied version of her paper. This is especially effective with elementary-age kids who feel anxious about marking up the original.
3. Explain that it’s easier to proofread her writing after it has had a chance to rest, and recommend that she wait a day or two rather than try to self-edit right away. Stepping back helps her distance herself emotionally from the words, characters, or story details she’s chosen so carefully.
4. Have her read each word aloud slowly. Reading will slow her down, making it easier to catch her errors.
5. Have her read the paper backward, from the end to the beginning. Reading one word at a time helps her proofread for repeated words and misspellings. Reading one sentence at a time encourages general editing.
6. Explain that she will need to read her paper several times while looking for a certain kind of error, such as capitalization. This is more effective than trying to find all her errors in a single reading because it gives her one small thing to focus on. One pass at a time, she can also look for things like overly repeated words, boring or vague words, sentence starters, or punctuation.
7. Teach your child to use resources like a dictionary, thesaurus, grammar reference, or word banks so she’s less likely to make guesses about how to fix her mistakes.

Copyright 2010 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

Image courtesy of Getty Images.

In this little series on Editing and Evaluating Writing, we began by looking at ways to evaluate your K-3rd graders’ writing efforts. Today, let’s take a look at how you can give helpful feedback to your older elementary kids’ writing as well.

You’ve probably already discovered that, as a rule, your child is perfectly happy to give her paper a quick once-over and declare that, yes, it’s perfect. Not only that, she expects you to gush over it and give it an A.

But as a parent, you have different expectations. When teaching writing, your goal is not to pave a smooth road for your child; rather, it’s to help her become a proficient writer who can communicate effectively on paper.

Teaching your student how to evaluate her own writing is a key to helping move her toward this goal. Sounds good on paper, right? But how do you get her to do this—especially since she wants you to accept her first attempt as a final draft?

The Importance of Self-Editing

You’ll be relieved to know that there are, in fact, a few ways to get your child to evaluate her own work—honestly and competently—using simple self-editing techniques.

Why Self-Edit?

• Self-editing teaches your child to look for her own errors. After all, proofreading is an important lifelong skill.
• No author ever turns in a first draft to the publisher! Self-editing lets your child make changes and revisions before submitting it to you. The more attention she gives to self-editing, the better the final draft. 

Introducing Self-Editing to Your Child

• Children should begin using a checklist as a guide to help them identify errors in content, style, and mechanics. A checklist takes the subjectivity out of self-editing by offering specific expectations to meet.
• Work closely with your child when she’s learning how to self-edit. When you work together, you can prompt her with questions or steer her in the right direction. For example, she may not readily spot repeated words at first, but you can gently point out that you notice she used the word “car” four times and encourage her to find a couple of synonyms.
• Ask your child if her paper has a beginning, middle, and end (or introduction, body, and closing). Encourage her to add more details if needed.
• As she compares her piece of writing to the checklist, she can make simple corrections and improvements to content and mechanics. 
• Have your student use colored pencils, which will help her more easily identify particular errors.
• Her revision—written or typed on fresh paper—should show definite changes from the rough draft.

Tips for Evaluating Elementary-Level Writing

You Don’t Need to Make Guesses

Parents often flounder when the time comes to evaluate their children’s writing. A rubric helps, but you’ll be relieved to know there are definitely some things you can look for when evaluating your elementary-age child’s writing assignment.

• Ideas – Are her ideas clear, focused, and well supported? Or are they confusing?
• Organization – Is there a smooth flow of ideas from beginning to end, or is it hard to follow your child’s train of thought?
• Voice – Is the writing flat and uninteresting, or lively and engaging?
• Word choice – Are the words precise, interesting, accurate, and colorful; or dull, incorrect, or overused?
• Sentences – Are sentences complete, smooth, and varied? Or are they choppy, fragmented, or never-ending?
• Mechanics and Grammar – Do multiple errors muddle meaning and understanding? Or did your child use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation?

Keep It Positive

Include positive comments and praise along with helpful suggestions. Upbeat, encouraging feedback goes a long way in helping your children improve their writing.

• Even when a piece of writing looks rather hopeless, search out the positive. There is always something worthwhile to say about the paper.
• Bless your child’s efforts, creativity, word choice, or sentence structure.
• Offer gentle suggestions that encourage growth without squishing her spirit.
• Never make hurtful statements like: “Not very interesting” or “Aren’t you learning ANYTHING?”

If you find the need to sit side by side with your fourth, fifth, or sixth grader during editing, that’s okay. View it as training and preparation for those junior high and high school years where independent work habits will be much more important. For now, your time together can be a warm, nurturing, encouraging time in which your child learns that self-correction can yield rewarding results.

Grading and commenting on your kids’ writing is one of the most valuable elements of writing instruction. But it also gives the most grief to parents, who often feel underqualified to identify and evaluate written strengths and weaknesses.

Seeds of Doubt

A host of “ins” and “uns” seems to attack parents when it comes to writing, making us doubt our ability to edit and grade objectively. With regard to teaching or evaluating writing, do you ever use any of these words to describe yourself?

• Insecure
• Uncertain
• Incompetent
• Unsure
• Inadequate
• Unequipped

Many of us wear these monikers like millstones around our necks, allowing the weight of our insecurities to immobilize us. At worst, teaching and grading writing don’t happen at all, or at best we’re sporadic, leaving Mom feeling guilty and our children awash in frustration.

It’s not that we don’t think it’s important to give our children input. But don’t we all have excuses?

• I’m afraid I’ll be too hard on my child.
• I don’t know how to grade a paper—there’s too much guesswork.
• What do I know about writing? I’m just a math-science person. 

And heaven forbid Mom should set aside her worries and actually make a comment. The smallest hint of suggestion from you and the drama begins. 

• But I like it this way!
• You’re always so critical.
• You never like anything I write!

Myths about parent editing

As a parent, perhaps you simply don’t know how to give objective input. So either you don’t give feedback at all—and therefore see no improvement—or you offer suggestions that make your child feel picked on or rejected. To help you renew your perspective, let’s look at three myths about parent editing.

Myth #1 – Editing and grading writing are too subjective.

• Fact: Learning to edit is a process for both student and parent.
• Fact: Many aspects of a composition CAN be evaluated objectively.

Myth #2 – It’s too difficult to edit and grade writing.

• Fact: The more you edit and revise, the easier it will become.
• Fact: Familiarity produces recognition—you will catch on!
• Fact: There are tools (rubrics and checklists) to help you.
• Fact: You don’t have to find every mistake. Even addressing just a few errors can help your child’s writing begin to change course.

Myth #3 – Editing and grading writing is for professionals.

• Fact: Many parents cannot find mistakes in their children’s writing—but you can improve your skills! If you feel weak in a particular area such as grammar or spelling, take a “crash course” to refresh yourself. Buy a second student workbook and study the subject alongside your kids.  Or, consider a resource like The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation to help you brush up on key rules.
• Fact: You CAN learn to edit and grade. Programs like WriteShop and WriteShop Primary are good examples of homeschooling products that guide and direct parents through the writing and editing process.

Over the next few weeks, you’ll not only gain tips and tools to make editing and grading easier for you, you’ll also learn ways to help your children participate in the process through self-editing and revising.

We’ll start next week with tips for Editing and Evaluating Writing: Grades K-3. 

I also know that parents tend to panic more as junior high and high school draw near. So if you have older kids, you’ll be happy to know I’ve got you covered as well. Stay tuned!

Copyright 2010 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng

The Phomnnaeil Pwoer of the Hmuan Mnid

Aoccdrnig to rscheaerch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are. The olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a tatol mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Pttrey azmanig, ins’t it?

Tihs is why WirteSohp bevelies so stonrgly in teh slef-edintig prcoses! We encrougae sutednts to raed thier ruogh drfats oevr and oevr aigan to mkae srue tehy dno’t msis ayninthg.

Hepfull hntis

• It rlleay hleps if wrtiers raed thier pragrapahs bckaarwd bcaseue, wehn tehy do, they are froecd to raed evrey sgnile wrod. It’s eisaer to fnid “to be” wrdos, rpeaeted wodrs, and eevn sellping eorrrs.
• Anthoer vabulale tool is raednig aluod wrod for wrod. Aigan, it hleps sutdntes ctach mroe erorrs wehn they hvae to raed each wrod invidlliduay.

The iompartnt thnig is tihs: Encuorgae yuor chldiern to tkae thier tmie and not rsuh thougrh thier edintig. Tehy wlil see a dffirecene!