40 Creative Writing Projects for Kids who Hate Pencils Inside: 3 Writer’s Skills that Students should learn long before heading to college. He sat slumped in a chair glaring at the blank page; his freedom held captive by the writing assignment taunting him. The instructions read, “write a paragraph describing the weather.” He snorts. “Who cares about the weather, I just want to see if I can get to the next level on my new video game. In the old days, we’d call this a polaroid- a simple snapshot of a moment in time. The image is so typical- child sits at table with a stomach ache, a headache, a bad attitude or their 14th broken pencil. All because a stupid writing prompt is giving them the evil eye. Subscribe to A Better way to Homeschool on YouTube We want to raise up writers, not kids who mangle the English language- but how? Right now two of our five sons are chopping wood with their dad. They were driven to a dark scary piece of land with a borrowed trailer attached to our SUV. Once far off the beaten path they were directed to the freshly cut giant. My husband enthusiastically wielded a chainsaw and cut the trunk into manageable 500 pound pieces. Maybe, they were lighter. I couldn’t tell you for sure. I was delegated to watch the boys “hump the logs” out of the wood. (That’s men talk) Those very heavy logs were carefully brought home. Enter my hero: My husband. He takes the boys to the hardware store and buys a couple of axes. While my husband looked the other way, each son looked at me with pleading eyes. “Save me mommy.” I said nothing. I trust that my husband- a manly man- is much more equipped to teach boys how to be men than I am. Plus, I had a cup of coffee to enjoy with my bon-bons. An hour later, the door bursts open and my wood-chopping sons walk in with a very distinct swagger. Lumberjacks in training. They were all wearing sawdust covered jeans, work boots and flannel shirts. You could taste the testosterone in the air. “Mom, that was AWESOME!” Funny how being taught to do something challenging and dangerous leaves a “lovely glow” on the face of a growing boy. Our young men need to swing axes. Even if it’s metaphorically speaking. I wish it were that same for basic writing skills. Writing is one of those skills that many of us have been forced into against our wills. But we need to STOP grouping writing into the same category as forcing our 11-year old sons to shower daily. (I swear my kid believes that water will melt his manliness.) After 25-years of teaching and homeschooling, I’ve found the secret sauce to teaching kids to write. The 3 Know Knows of Writing Believe in yourself. You can teach your kids to write. Believe in your kids. They have it in their hearts to become excellent writers. Believe in fairies. Because fairies make life magical. So what is the trick to teaching kids to write? Take their pencils away. Send them into the woods to chop wood with their dad. Read a book together and them buy a HUGE tub of popcorn and go see the movie version at the theater and watch them discover there is a BIG difference. Read funny product labels at the grocery store. Watch them do something they love and create questions to ask them later about the activity. Collect jokes, riddles, and hilarious and nonsensical songs to share at random and unexpected times in the day. Read aloud to them daily and leave them hanging in the story– begging for you to read “one more chapter”. Collect memories, experiences, and opportunities for excitement. Teach them to brainstorm. When my sons came back to the school table after chopping wood, we filled up our white board with all the words and phrases about chopping trees and wielding axes TOGETHER on our 4 x 6 whiteboard. I held the marker and drew an axe in the hand of a stick figure. The axe was 2x larger than the man, and then I wrote “The day I almost died” on the board. The boys laughed and then I asked them to describe their day in detail. “Slow down,” I can’t write that fast! The following day, we sat in front of the white board and I whipped out my 40 types of writing list and had the boys each choose how they would capture their day in the woods on paper. 40+ Types of Writing to Teach Your Kids Text messaging Facebook posts Twitter tweets Instagram Descriptions Linked in Profile emails Friendly letters Grocery lists Birthday cards Comics strips Write to a prompt Letters to their Future Self Recipes Directions to the zoo Instructions for making the perfect cup of coffee Review a play Word webs Speech Writing Book Report Alternatives Cornell notes Outlines Essays Research Papers Poetry Music lyrics Mentor Sentences Newsletter Books Short stories Journal entries Captions for pictures Resumes Job applications Cover letters Paraphrasing MLA citation Works Cited pages Blog Script writing Autobiography Comparison Chart Scattergories! Teach writing without pencils Experience first! Kids need to touch, taste, see, smell, fear, hear, and experience something first. Then, they need to practice brainstorming everything they can think of about that topic. What did it feel like? Smell like? Sound like? You hold the pencil. The most important part of writing is brainstorming wrapped in a real life experience. Now, Go give your kids an axe. These also make great additions to your emergency file. (Also known as “mom is sick and needs you to work independently today”) Download your 44 Writing Ideas {Printable} Download your guide to teaching Kids to NOT be thieves (MLA Citation) Grab your “Friendly Letters to Me” Pack Thanksgiving Writing Prompts worthy of making their way to the “keep me” pile. A Writing Lesson without Pencils? Me: Everyday, we should choose a new creative word to describe the water. Without hesitation, my 18-year old said, “serene”. Driving to college, I repeated for the 113th time, “always comment, always notice, always see the little things; because life is made up of little things. And it’s those little things that matter.” We drive by this water’s edge every single day on our way to the college, and every single day the face of the water is different. And we comment.Gorgeous, calm, glassy, row-able, turbulent, choppy, moving, rushing, flowing, and today… SERENE. Because we want to raise our kids to cherish the little things. But I also cheat. Don’t miss what’s happening (and for the love of Pete, don’t tell my kids what I’m doing) Vocabulary building on the road!!!((Insert high 5 here)) We want our kids to notice the water every single day. Because it’s gorgeous: True. If you don’t have a water view, exchange it for something you see everyday and now take for granted too: a mountain view, an endless sky, a majestic tree, open range, or whatever is in your backyard. Teach your kids to notice, by doing your noticing out loud. Daily. Stretch their vocabulary, tell related clean jokes, invent an imaginary creature who lives in the scene, challenge them to a new word a day contest. Because at the end of our homeschool journey, we want kids that says things like, “Lord, You’re just showing off today with those colors in the sky!” or”I love how serene the water looks when it’s slack tide.” Today, embrace the beauty and give it a label. Because it’s the little things that matter!! How to Build vocabulary from everyday sights 1. Today: Brainstorm as many words as you can to describe water with your kids. Challenge them to come up with 50 before revealing the truth. (you hold the pencil and write word they call out to you) 2. Tomorrow: Peek at the 1000 words to describe water: https://describingwords.io/for/water 3. Then give them a prompt and challenge everyone to write the rest of the story. 4. When you’re done, have a readers theater where everyone reads their ending! Prompt with the picture: The day started serene. The water playfully reflecting the homes along its shoreline.A cheerful seagull bobbed up and down on the gentle current enjoying the break of a new day.No one would have guessed what happened next… The GOAL of all writing is clear communication. Here are some of my go-to creations to help your kids embrace their writing journey.
Homeschool Math: Grab your Roadmap to Success BEFORE you spend a moment worrying about math curriculum, let me share a secret. I didn’t understand where I was supposed to go until I’d been on the road almost 20 years. It’s crazy that it’s taken me almost two decades to truly understand this thing we call MATH. … Read More »
High School Electives for Homeschoolers Like chocolate and vanilla ice cream; teenagers and electives are meant for one another! What better way to take the reins of their learning, than to allow our teenagers to have a little bit of creative control over their future and learning. What is an elective? Homeschool electives are homeschool high school courses the help supplement core subjects or are geared to your child’s interest. Electives are a fantastic ways to teach your teen life skills. …Read More »
Thanksgiving Scattergories What better way to let that turkey dinner digest than with a game of Thanksgiving Scattergories? Great for kids of all ages (who know their alphabet or on a team with someone who does!) Each game of Scattergories consists of three rounds. Before the start of the game, choose three lists which will be used during the rounds. Pass each player/team a folder, and clip the three lists inside in the order in which they will be played. Make sure that all players have A) the same lists, and that B) the lists are in the same order. Includes: Alphabet tiles8 Thanksgiving Themed Lists Get Yours here More Thanksgiving FUN! Build a Turkey Game and Activities! How about some Christmas FUN?!
9 Tips to help Kids write Fabulous Essays 9 Essay Tips to help you write a fabulous final draft Writing an essay is like tuning a piano. In order to write an excellent essay, you need to understand your audience. In our home, we refer to this as a tuning fork. In the old days, piano tuners would ping a tuning fork and listen to the pitch of the note as they fine tuned a string on the piano. When the tone from the string matched the tuning fork, they’d know they had made the key sound the right way. …Read More »
College Proof Your Faith with Jay Seegert In this wonderful conversation with our guest speaker, my son Sam and I are glued to our seats as we glean wisdom about how to college proof our faith. (Or, life proof for those of us past college) This is a rough cut transcript of the AMAZING conversation we had with Jay Seegert with The Starting Point Project at A Better Way to Homeschool on Facebook. …Read More »
ABW 10: Teens and Business with Abby THE CHALLENGE: Help our Teenagers Launch their own businesses while earning High school Credit! Hold on to your hat! This one’s gonna be fantastic! Abby Banks with Making Room 4 One More will be here to give you quick tips and resources to help your kids step into the business world successfully! Bring your teens along for this one!
ABW 10: Teens and Business with Abby Teens and Business: Heck Yes! THE CHALLENGE: Help our Teenagers Launch their own businesses while earning High school Credit! Hold on to your hat! This one’s gonna be fantastic! Abby Banks with Making Room 4 One More will be here to give you quick tips and resources to help your kids step into the business world successfully! …Read More »
ABW 7: Growth Mindset Hacks with Meryl Growth Mindset Hacks with Meryl van Der Merwe from FundaFunda will be here to give us tips, tricks, and resources for our own growth. …Read More »
10 Things You Need to Make an Epic Living Room Forts with your kids Lies. Big fat lies! Living room forts are NOT just for little kids!! Call all the kids and announce you have a plan that requires zip ties, boxes, blankets, and food. Then watch their faces. Your big kids may look at you funny. That’s ok. If you dangle the correct snack, they’ll jump on board too. Once the BIG kids get on board, prepare yourself for some EPIC fort building! …Read More »
The Real Secret to Teaching Homeschool Algebra and Higher Math Inside: The real secret to Teaching Algebra in Homeschool. I’m a liar. What is worse? Getting caught by my 9th grader. Now, I never meant to lie, most surely I did not. … Read More »
Letting Teens Go Too Soon= Disaster By the time our kids reach high school, we can bend to the pressure to “let them go” and “cut the cords”. photo by Erik Scheel Teenagers need the help, guidance, and strength of their parents even more than toddlers do. The transition from middle- schooler to adulthood is like running a medieval gauntlet. … Read More »
3 Insanely Simply Secrets to Teaching Kids to Write Inside: Simple Secrets to teaching kids to write plus 44 Writing Ideas and a tool to help take the guesswork out of grading writing. There I was, trapped in the back of the car, seatbelted and wind-whipped. I was terrified because the teenage jerk behind the wheel thought it was hilarious to speed down the road at over 100 miles an hour. Out of control, scared and trapped, I tried everything but couldn’t get him to slow down. … Read More »