What is it with homeschoolers and writing??? For two weeks now, we have been working on a personal narrative. Jeanne chose to write about getting her cats. Since I know she dislikes writing, I decided to do one part per day, really slowly. Aggravatingly slowly. So, last week was filling in the graphic chart, and rough draft(over two days). This week was supposed to be final copy, done over two days as well. Well, tomorrow's Friday and I bet we'll finish up early next week. The child cannot understand the final draft has to be as error free as possible. She continues to misspell, erase, and forget punctuation. It was bad enough I had to about pull ideas out of her, but the constant carelessness is so aggravating. The girl must learn to write properly, so there's no skipping the writing assignments, and they are far enough apart so we don't need a break from writing. I just needed to sound off, cause today was... UGH!:roll:
That was sooooo my DS this afternoon. He had to write a short story yesterday and it was good but needed more details on the topic. That was what he needed to work on today. Oh, the fussing and carrying on he did. I too needed some Tylenol aftewards.
Are you using traditional correction marks to correct her paper? If so, does she know what they mean? Try playing a game that requires her to find as many errors as possible on her own, and give her points for each error she corrects. Try writing a paragraph at her grade level and have her correct your work. Most children love it when they are able to correct someone else’s work. Have her use a dictionary to correct her spelling. My son keeps forgetting to put a simple period at the end of his sentences. I know he knows that a punctuation mark has to go at the end of a sentence, because he does great on his grammar lessons. I know that it can be frustrating at times, but stick in there. Things will improve.:angel:
to add to what homemom said, I previously heard of someone who was practicing correction in a fun way. Each morning mom would write a messed up sentence on their sliding glass door (white board would work too of course) and then dd had all day to make corrections to it. It was a game to see if she could find all of them. The sentences included grammatically incorrect words as well as bad punctuation. Example: the boy rided, him byke. Of course corrected: The boy rode his bike.
Emily seems to resist writing at every turn. It drives me nuts. I love creative writing and want her to at least try! Crystal loves journal writing.
Becky, you DO have my house BUGGED, Don't you!?? We are doing chapter two in BJU press grade three and it is all about writing a paragraph for giving directions.... They can TELL you everything that needs to be done.... But to apply it... ARGH!
So what can we hs moms do differently where writing is concerned? All the ps kids Jeannie knows like to write stories! Every single one! So, what are we doing wrong- and yes, there must be something - to make the hs kids dislike writing so much?? And Jen- I agree- BJUP makes the process sound so easy! Lol. Plan, rough draft, revise, proof read, publish. Easy, right??
My oldest son isn't hs'ed but he also hates writing - or hated it anyway. We are part of a homeschool group & have a writer's club that meets monthly. There is a creative writing excercise & sharing time & now the kids are putting together a newsletter each month. My son wrote like five things for it this month! And started a fictional story which he plans to submit "to be continued" each month. Sooo maybe trying making it fun, and doing it as a group thing (if you have a group you can start something like this with) vs. part of homeschooling daily ?????
I've come to the conclusion that they know what they need to know, then just do not have enough practice. Just like a two year old can tell you the alphabet, but migh not be able to write it in order, by memory, until at least three or four years of age. So, I have to determine what my goal is. Is it just to teach the concept... Or to have them master the concept of actually USING the concept? At grade three, I am interested in them actually mastering USING the concept. And I mean mastery on a 3rd grade level, not a 4rth or 5th grade level. This means I have to define my own idea of what is mastery of a third grade level. So, we will continue to come up with new topics to describe "How To", until they decide they are done. I will continue to point out that it is completely in their control to end the madness.. Bwaaa haaa haa! This has worked before, for us. Suddenly, they know how to prove what they know on paper when they realize if they just get it done/ they are done. hahaha!
I just use the BJUP rubric to figure if she understands. I know she gets what she needs to do, but what brings on the severe dislike?? I talked to a hsing GMa the other day who told me she aides in a classroom. She said that from K on, the kids have writing 45 minutes a day. So- it's true what you say, Jen, that there's not enough practice. I know for myself, when I hear the ps kids at church talk about writing, they go all off on what they're writing about. Gleefully! One girl is writing about a unicon, and man- she had all sorts of details and adventures she was writing. I have a writer's workshop book I'm going to bring back out, and do a lesson from it each day, like I did before it fell to the side.:roll: Maybe that will make the writing less of a torture session.. for me!
I don't think it has anything to do with hs and not writing, I know alot of ps kids that dislike writing too. We all had or have something in school we don't like and writing is hers. Becky, my oldest will write but doesn't like it, now my youngest can go on and on. I think it depends on the child. I just give my oldest her work and deadline and when it's due she hands it in and if it's not right, mark alot of red marks on it and they will get tired of seeing that all over paper. She trys and does so much better now. It comes with time she is young and it will come.
We have been working on Personal Naratives in English 6 as well, ds has been writing about an event that happened recently. I allowed him to put pictures in the narative , well on the page with what he was talking about. This helped. We are doing editing etc, so far he passed what he needed to have in it. We are working to do more of this as they will be giving reports after feild trips at home school group.
I would like to get past the 5 simple sentences of writing. When I write for her (then she copys it) its a page or two long. When she does it, forget it.
I'm just saying that every hs mom I've talked to at classes, and a bunch here, have said their kids don't like to write. There's a common problem that I wish could be figured out, to see what brings on the dislike. That's all. No offense to anyone. I thought that by writing about her cats, Jeanne would take off and this assignment would be a piece of cake. Not so. We did get it done today-finally!!!!!!!!!- but not without misery up to that point.
For what it is worth, those of you using BJ English for 3rd, your kiddos are going to cover writing essays, paragraphs, and stories again in 4th and 5th grade BJ English. We used A Beka Language for 3rd. I could be wrong but I do not remember them putting a lot of emphasis on writing. Last year I used BJ and there was some writing too. This year it dives into it more. So I agree with Jen. Perhaps your children are where they should be. They will cover it again. They have years to master it and they will most likely work on it again in high school and college English too. This is probably why it is covered again year after year because children do not get it right away. Ems has enjoyed writing but I do not think it sunk in until this year. She is in 5th. This year she is really thriving with it. I guess it will come with time.
With Jeannie, it's not a case of getting what she needs to do- it's doing what she needs to do without balking over it. I want to know why she doesn't like writing- her or any hser.
I am proud to say I have diffused the writing fight at our house. Jump In writing is helping a lot but I've changed some other things too. First - he is allowed to write his actual paper on the computer. All the pre-writing activities go in the JI workbook, but letting him actually do the writing on the puter has helped a lot. Second - I just upgraded our Microsoft Word for his new Vista computer and it has a very cool eiditing tool - not track chages but I can use his drawing pad to correct his writing in "red pen". It is a fun way to do an old task. He likes to erase the marks after he corrects them. Then I did sit him down and explain very thoroughly that NO ONE EVER EVER EVER gets away with writing only one draft of ANYTHING. Sorry for the caps - but that was how hard I stressed the idea of several drafts to get a good paper. And last - I helped him come up with some details - or at least I led him in the right direction so as to enable him to come up with clever sentences for his topic sentence and closing paragraph. He was so PROUD of his final opnion paper on "Why I Hate Cats" that he's actually excited about the persuasion paper. (He hates the cats because he was in charge of the litter box, so we played up that angle!) Anyway - after all these years - finally writing seems to be geting better.
