Groans. That is what I heard from my sons when it was time to write anything.
At first I thought I just wasn’t using the best approach to writing for them. Every year when I attended a homeschool convention, I would look for something I thought would get them excited about writing. But the results were the same: whining and procrastination.
Then I decided that my sons’ writing reluctance was a result of immaturity. Writing is an advanced skill. Maybe they just weren’t ready for it?
The Surprising Reason My Kids Hated to Write
I found that I was right on both counts. My kids love funny writing prompts, especially when we read our writing out loud for one another. I was also right that they just weren’t ready for it. Once my sons were in high school, their writing improved dramatically and the complaints stopped.
But as I continued homeschooling the rest of my children, I noticed something else. I am surprised I didn’t see it as the root of my children’s writing reluctance a long time ago.
When a child has slow handwriting speed, he will be a reluctant writer.
My children were able to finish their handwriting pages without much fuss. Both Handwriting Without Tearsand Happy Handwriting didn’t require a lot of writing per lesson. The kids were able to form their letters correctly. But they couldn’t write quickly. Their slow handwriting speed made any writing, creative or practical, an agonizing process for them.
My daughter, not surprisingly, did not have the same issue. Her better fine motor skills lent themselves to faster handwriting and an early love of writing. I shared more about the real differences in homeschooling boys on The Homeschool Sanity Show podcast.
How to Increase Your Child’s Handwriting Speed
Get your child’s buy-in. If your child thinks their only goal is to learn to form letters correctly, they will likely experience dislike for writing. Explain that if they learn to write faster, they will be able to finish all of their work faster, including math. If you or your child thinks that handwriting speed is unimportant in this digital age, consider how often you have to complete forms on paper. We have not yet made the transition to keyboarding for every task. Some college professors do not allow their students to take notes on a laptop, for example. Adequate handwriting speed will allow your child to feel confident in any learning setting.
Make sure your child knows how to form the letters. It’s no use trying to increase your child’s handwriting speed if he doesn’t remember how to make the letter K. Don’t allow your child to mindlessly complete handwriting pages. Instead, help your child memorize the way to make each letter. A great way to do this is to use a dry erase board with your child. Use verbal cues for making the letter you’re working on. Have your child repeat them after you as she forms the letter with you. This PDF gives you verbal cues to use if your curriculum doesn’t use them. Keep practicing until your child can form each letter from memory.
Work to increase speed. Handwriting workbooks are focused on the quality of letter formation. To increase speed, your child needs to be encouraged to write quickly and legibly. As long as you can determine the letters he’s written, your child is doing the right thing by increasing speed. First, you’ll need to get a baseline of your child’s handwriting speed. Having your child write as many letters as possible in a minute is a great way to check speed. That baseline will help your child determine his improvement in speed.
Handwriting speed is a lesson in Grammar Galaxy, a language arts curriculum for beginning readers that I created especially for reluctant readers and writers. To get a free copy of the handwriting speed forms, click the button below.
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Want a copy of this daily to-do list to print and place in a page protector or frame to use with a dry-erase marker? Click here:
To-Do List Please!When you’re a new homeschooler or even when you’re experienced, you can become overwhelmed by everything you think you should be doing in your homeschool on a daily basis. The good news is there’s nothing wrong with you! You may have just overloaded your to-do list. To save our sanity when we’re trying to add too many things to our days, I created a simple to-do list with six tasks that we can accomplish most days.
#1 Pray
As a Christian homeschooling family, this is foundational. I shared in the video below that we pray about what we’re thankful for, sorry for, and what we need help with. It never fails that when I’m feeling stressed, prayer will calm me down. We also pray for family and friends by selecting a few of the Christmas cards that are sent to us each year. Want to read more about establishing a family devotional time? Check out this post.
#2 Read
Reading is our favorite homeschooling activity. If it’s not your child’s favorite, check out these tips for reluctant readers. We enjoy reading individually, but love reading books out loud that correspond to our Mystery of History volume. One of our favorite books this year was Raiders from the Sea (a Christian fiction series about the Vikings). Reading is also a critical skill for our kids’ academic and life success, so it’s going to be high on our to-do list. I hope it is on yours, too.
#3 Solve
Math skills are also very important for life success. Avoid the college remedial math courses by making sure your kids are practicing their math facts, playing math games, and regularly learning math principles. We love Life of Fred math for this because it’s reading based and just plain fun. Check out my Homeschool Math board on Pinterest for some great activities to try.
#4 Create
I’ve written before about my angst about art, but I’ve found programs I really liked such as Atelier. But creating time (which is so important to our children’s happiness and future accomplishment) can be writing time, Lego time, robotics time, Minecraft time, or music time. Time to create and some basic materials are all you need.
#5 Test
Science is becoming more important to future careers than ever before. Doing experiments with a science curriculum you love (click to see a list of the best!) is a great way to give kids the opportunity to test their hypotheses, but nature walks are too. Cindy West has created an amazing curriculum for this purpose that you can use on the fly. There’s no reason not to put a little science into your day!
#6 Play
When the day becomes so crowded with seat work and classes and activities that there’s no time for play, there’s a problem. It’s even a problem when we don’t get time to play as homeschool moms. We all need a little margin in our day and dare I say it, a little boredom, to help us unwind and find our own fun. I think it’s really important not to dictate what the play time is used for, because then it isn’t really play. I do, however, believe in setting some screen time limits. I encourage you to pick up your free homeschool daily to-do list if you haven’t already! To-Do List Please!>If you already subscribe to Psychowith6, you’ll find the link to the Subscriber Freebies folder in your welcome email.
Is there anything else you think is important to do daily (if possible)? Let’s chat about it at Homeschool Sanity on Facebook.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent way too much time trying to make digital homeschool planners work for you, when they just don’t!
That’s why I created the Easiest Homeschool Record System Ever that you can easily customize for your kids. I still think it’s a great way to keep homeschool records. But something happened that made me create a form that I think is even more MOTIVATING for kids (and for parent teachers, too).
I call it the Quarter Checklist, but you may call it a lifesaver!
Here’s how I came up with the idea. We were nearing the end of the school year. Some of my kids were behind in some subjects and were close to being finished with others. I really wanted them to be done with their independent work before we went on our family vacation. So I asked them what lesson they were on in each subject. I then made them a checklist of lessons to complete to be done with the school year. Here’s what happened.
My daughter became obsessed with finishing her school work, even begging to stay home from scrapbooking so she could work.
My son began working through multiple math lessons a day.
My older son spent hours finishing up his history reading.
All without any nagging on my part! That’s when I got to thinking.
How could I motivate the kids to work this way all year long?
I thought about what made that list so effective and here’s what I realized:
It was a closed list. My kids knew that if they finished the list, they didn’t have to keep working.
It was a short list. Unlike the list in their regular planners, the list seemed very doable.
It offered a reward. Not only were we going on vacation when they finished, but the kids worked for the reward of having free time.
I could do this during the school year too!
So I created a school quarter checklist for next school year.
The great news is I created one for you, too. Here’s how it works:
Make a list of each subject your child will do independently. Label one column with that subject. For example LOF for Life of Fred Math. You may need more than one sheet per child, depending on the number of subjects. If you end up with multiple sheets, note the page numbers at the top of the forms. Don’t have something next to each checkbox? Even better! Your child will feel like they have very little to do!
For each subject, determine how many total lessons s/he will complete in a year. Divide that number by four.
List the lesson or page numbers for the first quarter next to each check box on the form. If your children’s handwriting is neat enough, you can have them complete these forms themselves. If that isn’t a sanity saver! (If you run out of room for that subject, circle NEXT PAGE; otherwise circle YOU’RE DONE!)
Write the date the quarter officially ends in front of the year and plan a reward. We love to go out for breakfast. If your student finishes before that date, s/he enjoys the reward of no independent work (even if family subjects and classes continue through the quarter).
Store your completed checklists on clipboards. There’s something about a clipboard that’s so motivating! I love these Dexas clipboard cases that have space for notebooks and pencils and have a carrying handle. Don’t you? There is a color for every student.
Even if your child has multiple pages to work with, the perception will be that their lessons are very, very doable! Because that’s the case, your student is likely to be extra motivated. One tip: only plan one quarter at a time. Life happens!
How to Use the Quarter Checklist as a Teacher
I know I’m not the only one who gets discouraged when I get behind on my school plans. Using the Quarter Checklist, I think I can not only stay on schedule, but even get ahead. Here’s why:
The kids will be motivated to move through lessons quickly so we can get done with ALL of our schooling ahead of schedule.
I will be motivated to finish all the lessons because I’m working with a closed list.
I can use the form to show them how we’re doing after taking a sick day or free day to motivate them to spend extra time with me on subject.
I’d love it if you’d share the sanity with homeschooling friends and let me know how it’s working for you on Facebook. Check out the other great ideas I’m pinning on Pinterest.
You know it’s important for your child’s future to have him read as much as possible. But what should you do if your child is a reluctant reader?
As a busy family who has made it top priority to raise six readers, we have discovered a few ways to encourage reading that can work for you.
#1 Create a reading environment
Research on academic achievement suggests that students who experience the biggest declines over summer break have the fewest books at home. Unfortunately, these declines tend to persist even once school has resumed.
What we can learn from this (even if you’re a homeschooler like I am) is that it’s important to have a generous variety of books in your home. Fortunately, that shouldn’t break the budget. Between libraries in your community, church, and home and lots of free digital titles, you should be able to create a rich reading environment.
Once you have the books, make sure you create spaces that invite reading–even if that’s your child’s bedroom. Make sure the lighting is adequate and furnishings are comfortable. Consider creating a reading nook for kids, too. Find some great ideas here:
#2 Find the right books
You are your kids’ most important librarian. When you invest the time to find titles that your child will enjoy, you will reap the rewards of having an avid reader.
Get advice on popular titles, especially those in a series. When you get your child hooked on a book in a series, most of your work is over. He will want to keep reading and then it’s fairly easy to find other series he would enjoy. Start by getting advice from parents whose kids are avid readers, look for top kids’ titles on Amazon, and check out book lists on Pinterest. One thing I’ve learned is that even if I really like a book, my child may not. I have to find something that really gets him excited.
The right books have to be at the right reading level for your child. To get kids reading more, choose books that are below their reading level. If the books seem easy, reading will seem effortless and fun. Save the challenging reading for school time. One tip for determining if it’s the right level is to have your child read one page of the book to you while holding up five fingers. If she comes to a word she doesn’t know, have her put one finger down. If she finishes a page with at least one finger up, it’s an okay book for her. However, if your child says it’s too hard, listen. If your child is really excited to read a book that is pretty challenging, absolutely let her give it a try.
Search for books from Capstone Publishing. Their titles are specifically designed to be high interest and lower reading level. Most libraries carry them.
#3 Buy an eReader
I’m a big believer in having all the reading formats available to a child. Printed books still form the majority of books kids read.
However, kids appreciate the novelty of digital books and some of their unique features, including: being able to get books instantly, being able to look up words at a touch, having an estimate of how long it will take them to read a book, and the ability to listen to a title while looking at the words.
These advantages have made our one Kindle Fire very popular around here.
#4 Sign up for a reading incentive program or create your own
I agree with the critics of reading incentive programs that reading is a reward in itself. But when it comes to unmotivated readers, I have no problem rewarding reading if that’s what it takes. There are many reading incentive programs to try. Check with your school or homeschool support group for information about enrolling.
It’s also easy to create your own reading incentives. My husband likes to promise the kids a shake for reading a certain number of books. Whenever he starts this program, the reading gets intense around here! Reading Rewards is a website you can use to create your own program.
#5 Allow reading in lieu of other activities
My kids have to read as well as complete math, science, and other language arts assignments. Reading is always what they choose to do first.
Give your kids alternatives that encourage reading. Ask them to complete a dull worksheet or read; require either reading or an extra chore. With time, reading will be viewed as the pleasurable activity it is.
#6 Read yourself
Make sure your kids see you reading or hear you talk about it. I do most of my reading when the kids are in bed, so I frequently talk with them about what I read. They know I am not asking them to value something that I don’t.
Encourage your spouse to model reading, too. My husband reads the Bible and the news at breakfast, reads for pleasure in the evenings, and recommends titles to the kids that he has read or heard about from the librarians he calls on. If your spouse doesn’t have the time to model reading, ask him to talk about what he’s been reading with the kids.
#7 Listen to audio books
Audio books count as reading! For auditory learners, those who have reading challenges like dyslexia, and those who can’t stand to sit still for long periods, this is a blessing.
It’s easy to get more reading time in by listening to books in the car and at bedtime. If you have a bluetooth-enabled device, the kids can even listen to books in the tub or shower using this speaker.
You can also have audio book family time when you’re not traveling, where you listen to engaging titles like these.
#8 Make time for online reading
Young kids shouldn’t be reading online unsupervised. The problem with that is that it requires your time. That means the best way to make it happen is to schedule it.
Make fun, online reading part of your school schedule. I reserve Friday mornings for more of an unschooling approach where we can study things we’re interested in. It’s a perfect time to not only watch YouTube videos, but to find safe websites on the subjects of interest. If you don’t homeschool, schedule some time for this after school or on weekends. Try these research sites recommended to school librarians.
#9 Find purposeful nonfiction
Kids will read when they really want or need the information. What is your child into? Find a book, magazine, or website that provides information on that topic. For example, this website on Minecraft tips may be just the ticket for your game lovers. Sometimes, even an instruction manual can end up fascinating a reluctant learner. Game manuals, Lego instructions, and cookbooks encourage reading, too.
#10 Read out loud
Just like audio books, books that you read to your child count as reading. Many kids who aren’t yet fluent readers appreciate the speed and accuracy of a parent’s reading. Have your child sit next to you as you read for even more skill building.
Have fun with the reading. Kids love it when you use different voices and dramatize fiction books and you are making positive associations with reading in the process.
#11 Have kids read to you
Even excellent readers need plenty of practice reading out loud. Practice helps prevent anxiety over reading in public, improves fluency, and teaches correct pronunciation. My kids have often been silently mispronouncing words as they read. Reading out loud gives me a chance to correct mistakes. One tip: let your kids choose the book they read to you. Yes, it will probably be No, David! one more time, but your child will be saying yes to reading.
#12 Have kids read to younger children
Having kids read to younger siblings or other kids offers the same benefits as reading to you, with the added benefits of building a child’s confidence and encouraging story telling. Even if kids are reading books for kids much younger, the time counts as reading. And that makes all the difference.
Try these tips and your kids will be spending more time reading and maybe you will be, too!
I shared my enthusiasm for using Classical Conversations Foundations materials independently in my post entitled, Why Classical Conversations Should Be a Part of Your Curriculum. My enthusiasm and my readership have grown since I wrote that review. I have discovered a vast array of fabulous ideas for enriching Classical Conversations learning whether you are studying at home like I am or you’re part of a community. Because I am easily overwhelmed, I wanted to simplify by compiling a list for myself of the best resources available. I thought it might help my readers, too.
I have grouped the resources into the following categories: general information, organization & memory helps, cycle-specific, and subject-specific (which includes Challenge and Essentials). I hope these resources will help make a great curriculum even more of a blessing for you.
General Information
Company Resources. The best place to go for general information about Classical Conversations (which I will refer to as CC throughout the post) is the primary website. There you will find a store where you can purchase materials, help locating a CC community in your area, CC Connected (a forum where CC users share ideas), and much more. This video shares more information about what a CC community is all about. Even more beneficial would be attending a local meeting in your area. CC has their own Pinterest account which you can follow to find new products and more. The founder of CC, Leigh Bortins, has also recorded many podcasts relating to CC that you can enjoy in the archives.
Reviews. You may be interested in reading reviews of CC after you’ve visited the website. I’ve already shared the link to my review, but I also recommend an interview on The Homeschool Sanity Show I did with a parent and tutor involved with CC. Mary Prather of Homegrown Learners, one of my guests, shares her own review here. Several users share mixed reviews on The Homeschool Mom. Nurturing Learning shares what she likes and what she doesn’t. The best place to get reviews is your local support group if you are thinking of joining a community.
Weekly Ideas. Beth at Classical Conversations at Home gives weekly suggestions (that correspond with the CC community schedule) for supplements to your CC memory work that you can use at home. Teaching Boys and Half a Hundred Acre Wood share how they organize curriculum and schedules around what is taught in community.
Planning. Using the following posts as guides, you can organize all the great ideas you get for each week of CC. Melody at And Here We Go, Mama shares an organizing tutorial with CC newbies. Her approach is very comprehensive and includes putting relevant folders in a hanging file organizer on the wall. Not Consumed also recommends weekly files for teachers and parents alike and includes a weekly memory printable in this post. She shares how she organizes her review and timeline cards here. Nurturing Learning gives instructions for setting up a memory box. Half a Hundred Acre Wood shares free weekly planning pages for CC to use instead of (or in addition to) folders.
Organizing a Notebook. I haven’t been using a notebook or CC notebooking with my kids, but I want to. The following links will help you join me. Not Consumed offers suggestions for setting up CC notebooks, with the most important one being to print forms well ahead of time! Half a Hundred Acre Wood offers a plethora of free printables for your kids’ notebooks in every subject. (Make sure you have plenty of printer ink!)
Displaying Memory Work. The memorization of key information is what I love best about CC. There are memory work printables linked in the last section for student notebooks, but what is out of sight can be out of mind. These are some great ideas for keeping memory work on display. Not Consumed and Half a Hundred Acre Wood share how they use a tri-fold display board to showcase memory work. Monilynlu shares a smaller memory board perfect for small spaces. My Child I Love You shows off this gorgeous display of framed memory work. Half a Hundred Acre Wood shares the option of using a large dry erase board with the week’s timeline cards incorporated. Taylor West set up an impressive timeline wall with all her cards.
General Memory Helps. And Here We Go Mama created a mini book of memory work that can go mobile. Not Consumed uses this door hanger to help track the memory work that’s been done. J K Dewey shares this fun Jeopardy game idea for review. Try this Pictionary Review Game from A Nurse’s Wildflowers. (She has the kids draw the timeline cards as they go). Quizlet has flash cards for CC cycles.
Although CC has been studying Cycle 2 during the 2013-2014 school year, using CC independently means you may be interested in Cycle 1 resources any time. If you’re studying with a community, you can refer to this list during the appropriate year.
Grammar. This video reviews helping verbs covered in Cycle 1. Jaki Glenn shares this cute idea for using hand cut-outs to remember the weekly helping verbs on Pinterest.
Geography. A girl points out each area for Cycle 1 memory work in this video. And Here We Go Mama shares her cute geography review book for Cycle 1. CCing it One Day at a Time shares her picture flash cards for geography.
Fine Arts. Nurturing Learning shares lesson plans for use with Drawing with Children for weeks 1-6.
Science. And Here We Go Mama recommends this science curriculum as it corresponds to the latter weeks’ science memory work of Cycle 1.
Geography. This 4D U.S. puzzle would be a great addition to Cycle 3 geography.
Latin. This Latin video goes with Cycle 3 Latin work.
Science. The My Body science book dovetails nicely with Cycle 3 science. This body puzzle would be an excellent adjunct to your lessons. This video covers the first few weeks of science.
Math. Nicole Lopez has a Pinterest Board for CC Math.
Geography. CC Happy Mom has produced geography song videos that will help the kids memorize their geography faster. Kid World Citizen has a thorough guide to map vocabulary that will enrich your geography studies. Triumphant Learning sells a geography field guide that also works well for Challenge A.
Essentials. This video gives an overview of the Essentials program. This video on irregular verbs is an Essentials resource. Allison2524 shares a video playlist for use with Essentials. Michelle B explains how to set up an Essentials notebook in this video.
I’m a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. My life can be a little crazy, so I look for sanity-saving ideas to use and share. I hope you’ll read my About page to learn more.
