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All your Homeschool Questions Answered Here!
This is a chapter from our book. It includes some of
my thoughts on How We Can Encourage Our Young Writers. I hope it
blesses you! Love,
Cindy
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Tips For Encouraging Your Young Writer...
An Excerpt from Language Arts...The Easy Way!
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Wouldn't you just love for someone to come alongside you and share
some of the things that have encouraged their child to write? That
is what this chapter is for! You must go back to the point where
Matthew and I were about to pull each other's hair out! It was a
real tough time. I had gone to the public schools, so all I knew was
what I had been taught about writing from my teachers. I brought
those techniques home without ever asking God if He might have a
different plan...until... Well, as I saw my little boy dread each
and every day of school much less writing, I knew that there had to
be a better way. Around that time, I ran across a wonderful little
book by Ruth Beechick. Actually it was one of three little books
called The Three R's. One of those books, A Strong Start in
Language, introduced me to the Natural Approach to teaching writing.
Using this approach for only a few weeks brought new life into our
Homeschool. No longer did my son detest writing...he actually LOVED
it! Writing became his favorite subject. Now, he even
considers himself a REAL writer! This year he actually published his
own book...more on that later! What are some of the things
that made the difference?? The following are some of the tips that I
have jotted down that seem to make the difference…
* Teach your children to dedicate all of their writing to the Glory
of God...100%! The pen wields a mighty power! As we teach our
children that writing carries a mighty responsibility, they place
importance in their own creations. As our children see the challenge
to be faithful to share truth with our hungry society, they will
find a purpose for their writing! Teach them to be faithful to
write all that they write for God and His glory!
* Encourage your children to become great readers! Encourage them to
read as much as possible! One cannot know what others like to read
unless they themselves are avid readers! Plus, reading will give
lots of ideas to write about, which will blossom into great works of
their very own!
* Beware of criticism! Criticism will steal the joy and life in
writing! Most critics are the ones who never get anything done
for themselves because they constantly over-analyze every little
detail! These "critics" stifle the child from writing with a heart
of delight! Instead, let's teach children to write what God leads
them to write (just like "real" writers do!) in firm conviction. Let
God do the critiques! By coming beside your children as their
encourager, you will find their desire to write begin to grow!
* Beware of the "editor" and "pickiness" mindsets! Both of these can
be within you or within those you allow to influence your child's
writing! This mindset frustrates, disheartens, discourages,
exasperates and sets up the writer for failure.
* Encourage your young writers to develop a deep interest in one
area. I always suggest that children be encouraged to
develop a deep area of study which brings them the greatest interest
and joy. My son loves to study all about Marines, The Military, and
The Civil War. I dearly love studying and writing on
Homeschooling/Writing/ Sewing/Bible Studies! Often the area of
special interest is the one that God uses in writing to minister to
the hearts of others! As the subject area of interest is pursued
(collecting information, studying intensely, gathering interesting
information), sharing that knowledge and love through conversation
or writing will come naturally!
* Set a standard of excellence instead of perfection! There is a big
difference!
| Excellence: | Perfection: |
| Encourages Neatness | Focuses on Error |
| Encourages Best Work | Establishes unreachable Goals |
| Searches for Interest | Dictates Topic of the Writer |
| Focus is attentiveness | Forces work without to topic/writing concern for heart |
| Encourages productiveness | Just wants it done |
| Unleashes creativity | Slams and destroys creativity! |
* Encourage your children to take a look at different authors. What
is it that they like about their writing? Is it meaty, deep, funny,
light, short, long? What do they want to imitate...Conversational,
peppy, serious, teaching, intelligent, formal, informal? Teach them
to model their writing after their favorite type of writing! Teach
them to become a student of the great writers! Copywork helps in
this area...see the ideas for Copywork later in this book!
* Begin keeping journals! Journaling tempers writing, brainstorms
ideas for writing projects, gives logical flow and order, eliminates
the fluff in writing, develops thoughts fully, and challenges the
thinking process! In Journaling, the writer has an outlet for
their heart as it fills with ideas, emotion and spirit! The Journals
help the writer to continue thinking so that great thoughts can be
developed! Journaling always pays off as it teaches our young
writers that they have many great thoughts that need to be written
down to preserve for the future!
* Focus on getting what they do know on paper. The alternative is
what we commonly find in writing courses...testing to see what the
children do not know! Professional writers are told continually to
write what they know or want to know. My personal standard is to
only write what I feel is OK for others to quote me on! I want to
really know what I am talking about so that my work offers answers.
This passion for the topic gives me confidence and anoints my
writing. I would die if I were given a topic such as those most
commonly given to children. Remember those topics such as "What I
Did During Summer Vacation" or "My Family." Although I love life, I
would not love those topics! I also do not like looking at a blank
piece of paper without a thought on my heart! I think it is only
right to require
that our children do, as we would be able to do. Just as I do not
write on anything that I am not fully convinced about, neither can
children! Just as we cannot write with confidence and boldness if we
do not know enough about a topic to "write what we know," neither
can our children! The best way to help your children to have plenty
to put on paper is to simply read widely on lots of topics, copy
great models, narrate and discuss great literature, and spend lots
of time Journaling ideas and writing outlines! It may take a lot of
input over time, but you will find the output worth the time spent
in waiting! It has taken 5 years of study before Matthew detected a
need to write about. After this time, he was overflowing with a
passion on that topic!
* Help your children to find a purpose for writing. If writing is
taught artificially with pages and pages of diagramming...filling in
the blanks...writing fake letters, you cannot expect your children
to see a point or purpose in writing! There are so many great ideas
for teaching Language Arts in much more natural ways. The key to
encouraging your young writer is to find a natural motivation...a
product to make for themselves (notebook, booklet, book), a market
(to sell as a home business), to better learn a topic, to write on
an issue (writing articles), to critique a book (these are also in
big demand in magazines!), to share a message (articles, letters, so
on)...encourage your children to find a purpose for writing their
own ideas!
* Produce! If you want for your children to become great writers,
then you must begin by requiring them to write! Even if it is
letters, articles, book critiques, research, notebooks, stories,
how-tos, booklets, books, tip sheets, so on. Write something every
day! We require our children to write every day, all year round!
Matthew began when he was ten to write a full page each day of
Copywork...Elisabeth, seven years old, writes about 2-3 lines. Not
only do I require them to write daily, but I also model this same
discipline before them. If I am not busy around the house, I have a
book or notebook and pen in hand! I keep notebooks just like I
encourage my children to. When I was only nineteen and had not ever
heard of homeschooling much less Notebooking as a technique for
teaching Language Arts, I began a notebook collecting verses
and information on what the Bible has to say about Godly Womanhood.
I now have binders on all kinds of topics of my interest. Any one of
them could be developed into a book. Because my children have
always seen my passion for study and collecting information into a
product, they naturally began to compile their Copywork into
Notebooks on topics of their interests! Another thing we encourage
is for our children to keep Bible Journals with thoughts, verses,
and notes from their quiet times. Again this is modeled in our home
as we have our quiet times. My children love to pour over my
journals and read my notes! This shows them personally the
importance of writing daily so those thoughts are recorded for
others!
* Teach them to always test their writing for excellence. Ask...Is
it current? Is it accurate? Is it dependable? Is it in a logical
order? Is it smooth? Does it have any quirks (repeated words
or phrases)? Does it answer all of the reader's questions that it
can answer in this space? Does it cover the subject?
Does it keep the interest of the reader? Is it specific? Does it
sound professional and confident or does it sound schoolish (like
they are trying to follow ALL the rules...too
simple...boring...without passion!)? Does it sound defensive about
convictions or thoughts? Does it sound preachy or whiny? Let them
test their own writing as they proofread so they can learn to
measure their own writing by their own standard...one of excellence!
* Teach your children that others may not know about their topic and
would really love to! My son has a passion for history. If there is
one thing that I believe has encouraged him to put what he knows on
paper, it is that we have taught him that he has too much valuable
wisdom about too many areas to keep it to himself! He began to
consider himself to be a historian and a writer at just 10 years
old! Teach your children to share what they know. This will serve
them all of their lives!
* Teach them to write from the heart! Write with passion in an area
that they want to be or already are pros! Write on those types of
topics letting their heart just flow!
Ok...you now have the practical tips to get you on the road to
encouraging your young writers! The harvest is plentiful, but
the field is empty...who will write for the glory of God?