Learning in the Absence of Education
Essays on Homeschooling
© Beverley Paine
Index
Homeschool
Australia
Ideas for Helping Children with Writing
(continued)
For a while our house was covered in signs - children love creating signs. The first of these echoed the labels I posted on just about everything to encourage early reading, and progressed to a series of strong statements tacked onto bedroom doors. I have a long tradition of posting excellent quotes on the wall, and even messages to myself. My children have naturally picked this habit up, and enjoy using word processing programs to print out their signs.
The computer offers a whole new array of writing incentives, with a bonus for Thomas of not having to laboriously produce handwriting, which he still finds tedious. His keyboard skills are gradually improving.
The spell checker has a limited, but useful, role to play in his writing. Mostly Thomas uses the computer to compose and send email messages to friends, or to put together pages for the local homeschooling newsletter. He also has several stories going, one with several chapters, and another with illustrations from clipart and paintbrush.
The joy of using the computer is being able to print out books, labels, signs, projects - all of them looking very professional. My children regularly incorporate photographs into their work now.
I like the children using the computer for word processing and drawing as they are becoming familiar with the processes and skills involved. Their innate sense of fun and drive to explore helps to expand their knowledge of the tool faster and more efficiently than I do! I know that mucking about on the computer is giving them the skills and confidence to put together that essential resume or job application later on....
Role playing games are another great way of introducing writing in your children's lives. I remember one great game that went on for more than a week. The children constructed a shop in our living area, which slowly evolved into a whole street of shops!
I became immersed into the play from the beginning, helping out with props and costumes and making suggestions, like designing and printing play money, forms for the bank and post office, menu cards for the restaurant, travel brochures for the travel agents and a magazine of hair styles for the hairdressers. We even put together a small newspaper. The amount of writing that was done in that week still astounds me!
As a family we put together an excursion/holiday journal where we paste leaflets and brochures from the places we visit, and each person draw pictures and/or write up reviews, or our feelings and thoughts about the occasion. This has become an important aspect of our home education recording regime, as valuable as our photograph album. We start a new book, usually a scrap book, each year.
 previous page |
Page 29 |
Excerpt from Learning in the Absence of Home Education: Essays on Homeschooling
© Beverley Paine, 1999
