Welcome back to the our series on how to start homeschooling. During the past week, I have provided information about some of the homeschool curriculums available out there in the different subject areas. Today I wanted to share some of the writing and grammar programs available to homeschoolers. This is not an exhaustive list. You may want to order the (free) Rainbow Resource Catalog, which is packed with homeschool reviews. But these are some of the programs that I’ve heard good things about through the years:
NaNoWriMo – Write a novel in a month. A free writing curriculum for elementary, middle school and high school. ” The activities inside will help you create characters, build settings, and hatch plots, plus keep you motivated throughout the month.”
Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)
One Year Adventure Novel
Cover Story – My friend’s 6th grader used this last year and loved it.
Essentials in Writing
Writing with Ease
Writing with Skill
Create your own writing workshop: A series I did about how and why we started using a writing workshop format. Click here to see some of the Writing Workshop Lessons we did. I also have a more recent post: Writing Workshop: What We’re Doing for Writing This Fall (2014)
How Do I Help the Kids Start Writing? 5 Lesson Ideas:
- What makes a good book or story?
- Make your story come alive with details and description.
- Creating Interesting Characters
- Story Openings: Set the mood or feeling of your story
- Gathering story ideas from your own life
- Alliteration and more
- Writing Workshop: Conflict in Literature (Man vs. Man, Man vs. Self, etc)
- MiniLesson – Describing in Detail – Fun Activity!
This worked so well for us last year, that we’re going to continue with this same format this year. My son, who was always reluctant to write much of anything, now says that writing is his favorite part of the day and my daughter has filled notebook after notebook. Even my youngest who was in kindergarten last year loved writing… and progressed from writing two simple sentences to writing a full page or two each day. I’m sure I’ll share more about the rhythm of our writing workshop and some of the mini-lessons we tackle this year.
Grammar/Language Arts Curriculums
Write Source Skillsbooks
Editor in Chief
Grammar Island (and other materials by Michael Clay Thompson)
Growing with Grammar
First Language Lessons (Book 1, 2)
Grammar Workshop (W. Rothstein)
Free Grammar Sheets - I’ve made a lot of grammar worksheets for the kids for practice with their/there/they’re or its/it’s; apostrophes; comma rules; quotation marks and much more. They are all free here on the blog.
Five in a Row (Literature and projects)
Literature: The only language arts curriculums I mentioned that focus on literature are Five in a Row and Sonlight. I have a friend who has her kids use Novel-Ties. But other than that haven’t done much research into available programs. Our family reads a lot. Our shelves are bulging with Caldecott and Newbery Award winning books. I look through suggested reading lists. I ask friends what their kids like. But we haven’t ever dabbled with specific literature programs. I let the kids choose what they want to read and offer suggestions. We read books aloud together. We listen to audiobooks. This seems to be working well for us as their vocabulary and reading comprehension are years “above” grade level (whatever that means).
Don’t miss this newer post: Language Arts Checklist!!
We also have a more recent post Our Homeschool Language, Spelling, and Grammar Curriculum which shares some of the workbooks and homeschool curriculums we use in language arts.
If you have a writing program or grammar materials that work well for you be sure to add your comments over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page!
Meanwhile, you may be interested in some of these related posts in the series:
You Might Be Interested in These Related Posts: You can find these posts by pasting the title into the search button.
- How to Start Homeschooling
- How Do You Know What to Teach the Kids: Finding a Homeschool Curriculum
- How and Why Did We Get Started Homeschooling?
- How Long Will We Keep Homeschooling? (Homeschooling Through High School)
- Back to (Home)School Shopping List
- What Happens in a Homeschool Day — Our Week or 2 in Review (K, Gr. 3, Gr. 5) — A glimpse into our homeschool (last November) that helps give you a flavor of what our homeschool routine looks like.
- Math Curriculums & Going Beyond the Text – This post includes 15+ ideas for making math engaging and fun!
- Math Worksheets, Game Boards, Lapbook and More – Various worksheets and resources I’ve made for my kids that include themes (that my kids like) such as Pokemon, Pete the Cat, etc.
- Homeschool Science Curriculum Options
- Creating a Homeschool Science Curriculum – Elementary
- Creating a Homeschool Science Curriculum – Ages 4-6
- Science Activities for Ages 4-6
- Choosing or Creating a History Curriculum
- Hands On Geography Activities for Ages 4-10
- Long List of Free Homeschool and Teaching Resources