Last week I posed a question about blogging for school. At the same time, I mentioned to Hubs that I want our daughter to write more and I showed him Jerah’s blog – confessing as I handed him the laptop that I know that I haven’t made Princess write enough, and that I know Joy encourages her children to write often. But that was kinda the point, ya know?
“Look! Look at this! She’s pretty close to [Princess’] age! Here, read it!”
“Yeah, that’s pretty impressive,” he said, “if it really is an eleven year old…” (Please forgive him, he’s naturally skeptical.. and he’s also seen a lot of imposters on the internet. Hey it happens. But not in this case!)
“No, it’s really a 6th grade girl. I have no doubt.”
“Then that’s pretty good.” He paused. “You just need to make [Princess] do more writing assignments.”
Well, Hubs didn’t know that I then posted the blog question about school blogging and that I was trying to determine and plot out how to handle writing assignments in my head. But one of the (very good) differences between me and Hubs is that while I’m trying to figure out how to go about doing something, he goes and does it! So that Monday morning he gave Princess a writing assignment. “I want to see an outline when I get home, okay?”
It was a done deal. And Princess spent all last week working on a short story than can easily be the first chapter in a much longer story. So there. She’s writing. He was going to assign a second one, but there is already a writing assignment in the Language Arts curriculum this week, so that made that easy. But from here on out, there will be at least one (maybe more) writing assignment a week. Hello Writing!
In the meantime, I’ve already instructed Princess to get her short story ready for and up on her blog, and told her this week’s poetry project needs to go up there as well. I’m still trying to decide exactly how we’re going to use her blog in all this, whether it should be public or private or whatever. But for now.. enough thinking, time for doing! So it looks like, for now at least, we’re definitely going to be doing some “Blogging for School.”
What about you? How do you encourage (or plan to encourage) your children to write?
Also, a BIG thanks to Joy and Heather for offering their input when I asked. Thanks, ladies!
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Thanks for the kind words about Jerah’s stories. I couldn’t resist showing your post to Jerah, and she blushed! 🙂 Calico the Brave was the first story Jerah wrote that she 1) actually liked and 2) completely finished (although the editing process isn’t totally done I’m sure). She’s been posting a few chapters at a time on her blog, but she’s planning to post the rest of the story today. 🙂 Then she’ll start posting the next story in the series called Flixx and Calico. Let me know what you decide about Princess’s blog. I’m sure Jerah would love to… Read more »
What a great way to promote more writing in your homeschool!!
I think the blog is a great way to incorporate more writing! I’ve seen many a homeschool blog – and as you read through the archives, you can really see the improvement. I’ve tried to get my boys more interested in writing. We don’t homeschool, but the more writing they do, the better off they’ll be. David (4th grade) has a journal that he writes in. He spends a few minutes each day jotting things down. I don’t care what he writes, just as long as he writes something. He’s done some “My day was so boring” type writing and… Read more »
Yes. I am eleven. Yes. I’m in sixth grade. But when I wrote that was in the fourth and fifth grades. And I’ve started to read Princess’s blog. I love it!
Well, I’m very impressed. You’ve inspired my daughter to write more. Thank you. =)