Summer Writing

Many of us have loads to do during the summer: camps, VBS, and family vacations.  Many families listen to audio books in the car.  Why not do a little writing?  Let me share a few good sites.  First is Summer Writing Ideas for Kids from Frugal Fun.  She suggests, making a comic book or joke book.  Buy an inexpensive sketch book.

Maybe your child would like to make a Nature Journal.  The website even has instructions to make the journal.  Kids can illustrate plants and jot down notes in their journals.  Perhaps, your family would like to collaborate and write a fairy tale.  Have you heard about Operation Gratitude?  Your children could write letters to members of the military.  When my friend, Claudia, was deployed as a flight nurse, the kids in VBS wrote her letters of gratitude for her service on flag stationary.  She shared her box of letters with everyone deployed.  Get your kid writing this summer!

National Parks: Junior Ranger Program

 Visit a Federal park and become a Junior Ranger at Jamestown, Yorktown,  Assateague, Gettysburg, Independence Hall, and National Mall.  Here is a complete list of Nation Parks with Junior Ranger programs.  My kids loved collecting badges—probably more than they loved educational trips on vacation.  

Summer Reading Update

 I reorganized the Summer Reading list we’re using for next Fall for Composition.  I alphabetized the titles, added a few books, and located study guides. 

Families may want to use this Great Books List for inspiration.  I use teacher’s guides with books to generate ideas for writing topics.  I search for teacher’s guides by title, such as this LOTR’s Trilogy Guide, The Hobbit, Charlotte’s Web, A Wrinkle in Time, or the Little House series.  My idea is to combine books and films, along with discussion questions into essay.  Extend your summer reading and get a head start on school for next Fall.

What are some of the best home-school resources?

Let me share a few, basic resources available to home-school families.   Two of the best are Donna Young and Cathy Duffy.  Donna young has planners for Apologia’s Young Explorers series, Apologia Schedules, as well as planners and printables, all organized, and generally free.  Cathy Duffy has reviews of a huge variety of curriculae.  Look at the list under History to see the Catholic Textbook Project or Daily Geography.  I use Cathy Duffy’s reviews when I’m looking for a program or textbook.  For example, when I taught British Literature, I researched Stobaugh’s program at this site.  

Get your kids reading.  I used Kolbe Academy’s Primary Literature, which has questions for many classic books, such as Charlotte’s Web, and Misty of Chinoteague.  The Elementary Literature Guide has questions for The Hobbit, My side of the Mountain, Kidnapped, and Redwall.  Here is Good Books for Catholic Kids.  Moody Publishers offers this list for Christian kids.  Compare these lists to Scholastic’s Classic Children’s Books.  Look at this Great Books List.  I use teacher’s guides such as Scholastic’s guide for Charlotte’s Web, and Bridge to Terabithia.  Here is the list for Scholastic Bookfiles.  However, you need to search for each listing.  There are no live links.  Here are Glencoe’s Literature Library of teacher guides.  This is likely enough information for now.  Here’s hoping this is useful!

Algebra 1

 My husband, Rob, teaches math topics for the local Home-school Co-op.  This coming year we’re team teaching Algebra 1; several kids in the class have learning differences.  I have experience teaching teens with profound learning differences.  We’re using an older Glencoe textbook.  Glencoe is mid-range in terms of the level of difficulty.  Rob used the Saxon Algebra series years ago and switched to Glencoe, which is flashier.  We use older textbooks to save money.  The math doesn’t change.  Older textbooks have graphing calculator supplements; newer textbooks assume the instructor already knows how to use the calculator and integrate lessons into Algebra.  This summer I’m working through each chapter’s exercises so I can help the kids.  I’ve used the TI 83/84 calculators for many years in Chemistry—which doesn’t have the same applications as in Algebra.  Hope this helps!

Edit Papers

This Fall, I’m teaching another Composition class for the local Co-op.  This group is younger than my class this past year.  One way to help kids understand how to edit is to let them edit material rife with errors, using edit symbols or proofreading marks.  Here are proofreading exercises with answer keys.  The kids can practice using the symbols to edit these paragraphs.  BTW, I have kids send me essays to grade outside of class.  You can take a screenshot and edit the image.  Editing is much easier on paper.

What are we reading this summer?

My Composition class is reading four books this summer.  The kids will be comparing books and films.  Here is the spreadsheet I prepared.  CRRL is our library system, encompassing several local counties.  What I did was determine where to locate ebooks, graphic novels, audiobooks, and DVDs.  Families need to be able to stream films, too.  So, I researched streaming options, especially free versions.  CRRL has Kanopy and Hoopla.  Kanopy has loads of films.  Hoopla has ebooks, audiobooks, and some films.  I’ve been listening to audiobooks from Hoopla, using their app.  The app can be a bit glitchy.  I’ve had to reset Bluetooth a few times while we listen.  Before you stream on Amazon, see if the film is available on tubi; one caveat, tubi has ads.

Start Organizing for Fall

 I start early to organize my classes for Fall.  One tip is to create Google Classrooms for each subject.  During the summer, I put ideas for labs, resources, slide decks, etc in different Classrooms.  Google Classroom is free.  If you have a Gmail account, you can create Classrooms.  Add work samples, copies of tests, links, syllabi, everything in one place.  During the summer I archive the past year’s classes.  If I’m teaching the same class, I make a copy of all the resources before I archive last year’s grades and materials.  Google Classroom is fairly intuitive.  Here is the Google Classroom Training Center is you would like more help.

Composition Class Fall Planning

I’m planning for next year’s Composition class which has a different class composition.  Next Fall, we are exploring every form of writing, including four books from Summer Reading List.  (The kids will review the books vs the movies.)  I have a list of topics; all were successful this past year.  Below are topics with sample assignments.

1. Describe your favorite meal.  Here is a sample.  My kids wrote about their favorite birthday meals.  

2.  CER or Claim-Evidence-Reasoning.  I used this Far Side Slide Deck to introduce the topic.  CER is useful to help kids explain their reasoning for science explanations when they write lab reports.

3. Technical Writing includes How to Write a Lab Report, Résumés from Start to Finish, and Email Etiquette for Students.  

4. Writing Prompts are great for impromptu exercises.  

5.  Write a Christmas story with this Guide to Short Story Writing: Holiday Family Narrative.  The kids enjoyed writing about their favorite Christmas story.  

6. Plan a debate.  We held one debate about Processed Food.  Here is a Debate Guide.  We modified the NCFCA Speech Guide.  Next Fall, students with NCFCA experience will help structure classroom debates.

7.  Enter a contest.  We’re going to enter the Faith in Action, an essay contest sponsored by the Knights of Columbus.  We had mixed results from essay contests we entered.

8.  Compare the books with the movies.  Which is better.  Here is a template.

9.  Write an opinion paragraph.  Here are suggestions from the WSJ.

10.  The kids might write book reports. 

11.  Write a  Thank you letter.  We are definitely learning how to write thank-you letters and learning how to  address an envelope.

12.  The kids are going to learn how to write a Five Paragraph Essay.

My composition lessons included grant writing lessons and VBS lessons.  The kids write recommendation letters and résumés.  I’ll play it by ear for additional lessons.