The Best Homeschool Writing Curriculum

A homeschool writing curriculum should be about teaching a child to share exciting and important ideas.

Good Writing Curriculum

When I was working I had my children uses Daily Grams: Guided Review Aiding Mastery Skills by Wanda C. Phillips. Daily Grams is a grade leveled grammar book. Each day the child will have four activities. The first sentence will need to be capitalized. The second sentence will have punctuation errors. The third sentence will have general grammar review. The fourth activity is to combine two sentences into one sentence.

I have also used Language through Literature. The curriculum is also grade leveled. My child was required to copy a passage of literature. During the week they were to do things that were related to the passage. One time there was a classified ad from Boxcar Children. My child was to look in the newspaper and find a classified ad.

For a time my older children used Switched on Schoolhouse. In language arts they had to read a sentence and answer a question about the sentence. They might have to identify the noun or verb. My children also had to correct punctuation and capitalization in the sentences. The spelling program was good. My children liked playing the spelling games.

There are many other homeshool writing curriculum that are useful. To find a good one write down what you expect from a writing curriculum.

Other Considerations

A homeschool writing curriculum should teach how to do research. Knowing how to write a research paper is important, especially for those who plan to go to college.

It should teach how to find information and how to take notes. Today there are several ways to obtain information. It is also important take good note.

It should teach how to quote someone else's work in your child's paper. From your child’s notes he should be able to find the source and the author.

The curriculum should also teach how to write a bibliography. Research papers need to list the sources where the information was found.

A writing curriculum should also teach how to organize information. Sometimes struggling learners have trouble writing sentences or organizing their thoughts into paragraphs.

Do You Need
a Homeschool Writing Curriculum?

A child should be encouraged to use pen and paper to expresses their ideas even before they can formally write. How? Have your child draw or scribble on a paper then tell you about what they have written.

Begin a formal homeschool writing curriculum after your child is reading well. Help him learn to spell words using phonics. If he does not remember how to spell cat, help him by saying what letter makes the "c" sound, "a" sound, and the "t" sound. Teach him to capitalize the beginning of a sentence. Teach your child to put a period at the end of a sentence.

One way to teach writing is to incorporate it into what your child is learning. My children write about what they are learning in Bible, social studies, or science.

I usually correct what they have written on Monday. The misspelled words become this week's spelling words. I also look for verb agreement, punctuation, and capitalization. We talk about how to make the writing better. Then my children rewrite the paper. I also correct any letter or story that is going to someone else.

A homeschool writing curriculum should help your child learn to write without to many tears.

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