I want to share with you one of the best memories I have of turning reading into a great learning experience. I plan to do similar things this summer.
A few years ago, I decided to home school for the year. When I first this home schooling adventure, I assigned the kid's a writing assignment only to discover that they were not yet able to write at the level I had asked. I realized that I was going to have to start almost at the basics. We went to the library and picked out Pinocchio. After reading it aloud to them, I gave them the beginner writer pages where you can draw on the top and write on the bottom and had them draw a scene from the book and then write a sentence or two about it. By the end of the week, they had a page for the beginning of the book, the end of the story, and several of the in between scenes. We put it together and I showed them how they had just written a whole book report. We then rented and watched the movie and compared the movie to the book.
After that, there was less reluctance to write, and we gradually graduated to full paragraphs and summaries. I am happy to report that my daughter now wants to write her own books. And to aid in that I discovered a great website www.tikatok.com. The use of the website is free and only costs if you deside to print one of your kid's stories. They can write and illustrate their own books of varying levels and lengths. I am excited to have fun with it this summer and read my kid's masterpieces! They even have a way to sign in as your child's teacher and leave comments for them to encourage editing.
We plan to do a lot of reading and writing this summer and enter exciting new adventures. And, oh, I still have their Pinocchio books!
I'm always looking for more ways to encourage my kids to write. Thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea (homeschooling mother to homeschooling mother) is to set them up with a private blog where no one except who they invite to participate can read it. Since my middle daughter watches me blog every day, her blog has become a creative outlet. She also becomes more tech savvy.
So glad I'm catching up on some of the other blogs. :)
Wow that was such a great idea. I wish I had thought of that when my kids were younger. They are teenagers now, don't think it would work out, they are too busy trying to get out to be with friends at this stage, although quite as it is kept, they do still let me read to them.
ReplyDeleteGreat post,
Happy blogging,
Jenn