I don’t know about your homeschool but in our house, I have a child who doesn’t like to write one bit. He knows how and if I make him he will, but he doesn’t enjoy writing. So I got really creative and found ways for him to write that he would actually enjoy.
Keep A Journal
I let the kids pick out their own journals at the beginning of the year so that it’s something they are excited about. Then each day we try to write at least one sentence in the journals. They can write absolutely anything that they want and I don’t make them worry about spelling or punctuation while they are writing. I do go over their journal entry with them when they are done and I do the correction in red pen so they are able to see any mistakes they did make. I don’t make them worry about those things while they are writing though because the point of the journal is to have them write for enjoyment, not for a lesson.
Write A Pen-Pal
I’m sure you can find penpals lots of different ways but we found ours in a Facebook group especially for homeschooling penpals. My son writes to three different children in three separate contries. They swap stories and questions about each other’s lives. One of his penpals even sent him a little gift with a bunch of things from where he lives. Not only is this a great way for my son to write something he actually enjoys it also opens up the conversation about the places these other families live.
Write The Lists
Another great way to add writing into your everyday life is getting your kids to write the grocery lists or any other lists you might be making honestly. My children are always wanting to help me so if I’m making alike of the things we need to get done I will often ask my son to jot the task down. It’s such a short task that he doesn’t even mind doing it.
Electronic Writing
I know most people think I’ve gone off the deep end because I utilize electronics in our homeschool so much but honestly if it’s something they enjoy I may as well turn it into a learning tool! I will often text my kids and they will text back, sometimes my son will spell things wrong but he’s getting better and better all the time. I have the spell check turned off on his iPad so that he actually has to think about what he is writing. He is also constantly wringing in the games that he plays on his laptop, whether he’s talking to his friends in the game or typing in codes he needs to be able to spell things correctly!
You can find tons of other great posts by other homeschool moms here: http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/homeschool-collection-first-edition/
I’ve started letting my kids text for me. I don’t let them use auto correct though julie from brave writer is a big supporter of letting kids write without being corrected. Sometimes it’s super hard to do bit or boosts confidence amid I think it helps to know they’re not going to be critiqued.
I totally agree with letting them write without being corrected, I mostly practice this in our homeschool. When my son does any journal writing I will go back and put the corrections in and just explain the corrections with him, that has seemed to work pretty well for us.
I love that so far my son is one of the only people I know who is under 18 years old and is still trying to use punctuation while texting, clearly something is sticking! Haha!
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