Archive for the ‘Young Writers’ Category

Partnership Writing is here!

PartnershipWritingYou wanted:

Developmentally appropriate writing projects for your middlers.

Step-by-step instructions with models.

A weekly and monthly plan that puts it all together.

You got it!

 

Partnership Writing
The Year-Long Language Arts Plan
and 10 Monthly Writing Projects
(9-10 year olds)

Partnership Writing is the second in our series of products that gives you developmentally appropriate writing projects for your kids in the partnership writing stage of development. Jot It Down! is the first.

Have you wondered why your writing assignments stall? Do you wonder why your kids give you a blank stare after you ask them to fill a blank page? Do you have a tough time creating writing assignments that are both creative (interesting) and academically sound (preparatory for essay writing)?

And just how do you put together a program that includes copywork and dictation, as well as the language rich environment you hope to foster in your home, while still teaching original writing?

Partnership Writing tackles it all!

It can work alone (as a tool you use to boost the power of your writing efforts with your kids) and it can work in tandem with other Brave Writer products: The Writer’s Jungle (the manual that teaches YOU how to teach writing), and The Arrow (the tool that provides you with great literature to read, grammar, spelling and punctuation help, and copywork/dictation passages).

Plus we have special bundles on the website for Partnership Writing + The Writer’s Jungle and/or The Arrow.

To learn more about the Partnership Writing stage of development (usually 9-10 year olds, but also good for younger advanced writers and older kids who struggle), you can check out our Getting Started with Brave Writer page. You can also listen to a podcast by me where I explain what Partnership Writing is.

This is the perfect product for you if you need help thinking of writing projects and want to know how to plan them for a month at a time.

Partnership Writing gives you the
practical,
step-by-step implementation of
what to write,
not just how to write.

DOWNLOAD A FREE SAMPLE!

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Professor Lena’s Guide to Modern Celery

Celery fight!

Julie, I have been using your…writing activities in my school and the kids loved the drawing activity. Last week we did the senses activity using celery and I was surprised by the change in my 12 year old’s descriptions and her excitement to get started. She got her creative juices flowing and really stopped listening to the instruction but I consider what she wrote a success because she was engaged and interested. She was so proud of herself that she asked me to share it with you after typing it up herself. So here it is. Thank you.

Professor Lena’s Guide to Modern Celery

By Lena Kerley

I am studying celery, and someone else might say green, but I say it looks like layers of white with thin layers of sheer green leaf piled neatly together. On the inside it is bowled up like an Indians canoe, and paler than the outside where the sun reaches. On that side (the outside) the celery has small ridges that go down the stalk long ways. The leaves look like cilantro leaves, the way they appear old and wrinkled but also fresh and new. The smell is not my favorite, it reminds me of freshly cut grass and sweat. Currently beside me my seven year old brother is dissecting celery and showing some of the more hidden features, like if you cut the whole bunch at the base you will see a yellow flowery like piece. That is actually the leaves that have not yet emerged into view. He also describes the celery as feeling like a rubber hose. I have tried celery and don’t like the flavor so to learn about how celery tastes read Katie Kerley’s The Celery on the Table (not published) or Celery Puzzle by Pam Kerley (not published). I am honored that you (the reader) have made it to this sentence.

P.S. Celery is a good tool for annoying big sisters. (I am writing that as a big sister).

Growing Brave Writers

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Tips for Young Writers

Tips for young writers

Tips for your young writers (ages 5-8):

1. The best curriculum for this age is still face paints and dress up clothes. Play, exploration, acting out—these teach. Trust the process.

2. Riddles, jokes, rhymes, poems, puns, secrets, mysteries, the alphabet (write it big, write it small, write it backwards, write it with chalk on the driveway, write it one letter per page, fit all the letters on a post-it note, write every other letter – not easy!), names (family, pets, streets, cities, imaginary friends, real friends, favorite characters). Play, explore, write, say, pretend with all of these, often, as much as you can.

3. For original writing: they talk, you write it down. End of discussion. Unless they are choosing to write their own thoughts on their own, you have no obligation to get them to write their own thoughts in their own hand by themselves. If they are writing their own thoughts, hug them—be a fan. Not a word of criticism about spelling, handwriting, story completion, or logic. Just kudos for the surprise of their self-starting joy!

4. For transcription: a handwriting book, simple copywork (one word a day can be more than enough for some kids), French dictation (explained in BW products), copying their own stories (only have them copy a paragraph, a sentence at a time, or more if THEY choose, but don’t require more in one sitting).

5. Read TO your kids OUT LOUD, everything you see—billboards, refrigerator magnets, ads in magazines you are paging through, funny comments on Facebook as you scroll through your feed, the text your husband just sent, the preface to a book, the instructions for the XBox, newspaper briefs, the side of the spice jar, the back of the muffin mix, the clever tag line on the shoe box… And yes, read quality literature aloud too. But read everything aloud… freely, often, commenting, laughing about it, noticing it.

6. Pair odious tasks with brownies and hugs.

7. Get outside, have big experiences, explore the world. For heaven’s sake, don’t worry yet. You’ll get to worry so much in the teen years and pine for these early years. So I’m here to tell you—play, explore, enjoy. Pick a fruit no one has ever eaten and eat it. Go to the zoo 3 times a week or the beach or the woods, if you dare. Make recipes for sludge and slime and baking soda volcanoes. No worrying.

That’s it. Really. Math isn’t my thing, but you can figure that out I’m sure. As my wise homeschool mom friend said to me: “Any math book teaches 1+1. Heck, we can do it ourselves.”

Also, our Jot It Down product is perfect for these ages!

Jot It Down

Header image by Brave Writer mom Tiffany

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