Thursday Thoughts... A Shift in Writing...

A little while back, I signed up for Julie's Daily Writing Tips, from the Brave Writer website, and wow! I think that it has been one of the best free daily emails I have ever signed up for! Still though, I keep plowing ahead with Emma Serl's Language Lessons (The Girl), and Write With the Best (The Boy).

Then yesterday, The Girl balked at her copywork, something she does not normally do. And this was after she balked at her picture study the day before, another first. The Boy seems happy enough with his program, but since I only plan on going through one ["semester-length"] book this year and the other next year, I need to fill in gaps. And while I love, love, love the concept of the Brave Writer Lifestyle, I am always a little unsure as to how to actually implement it.

Daily Writing Tips to the rescue! Here's an example of what I think is a fantastic activity...

Five words in a letter to someone.

We've done the "five word" freewrite. Now try the same thing, only this time put the words in a letter. The letter can be to a fictional character from a book, it can be a letter to the editor for a newspaper or online magazine, it can be a letter in the form of a comment online, it can be a text or email to someone.

For high schoolers: Use these five words.

• Fanciful
• Emphatic
• Purge
• Clarify
• Sprightly

For junior high:

• Chilled
• Spunky
• Invest
• Effortless
• Mystery

For littler kids:

• Aqua
• Dip
• Careful
• Spider
• Secret

So this looks both fun and challenging! I think I could have The Girl try to write her own, or dictate and copy. And it is a great way to get the kids to practice writing letters. I am saving the writing tips in their own folder for easy reference, and planning out a couple of days a week that we can use them.

Other than that, homeschooling is going well this week. Today I knew we'd be spending part of the afternoon--our schooling time--driving my dad to his eye doctor appointment and pharmacy, so I assembled a collection of books,  to take with us for "car schooling", and then we'll do math and writing at home. I am trying to be more organized ahead of time these days, rather than potentially losing out on 2 or so hours of school time!