We all hope for perfect homeschooling days; assignments done early, no lost material, and smiles on everyone’s faces. On such days the children cry cheerily, “How wonderful! Another writing assignment!”

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Unfortunately this scenario is seldom quite accurate, especially once writing is mentioned. Resistance to writing might mean children are being asked to do something too hard for them. In determining what kind of writing to assign, it helps to consider the whole writing curriculum. Seeing how one skill builds upon another, and how these skills relate to the child’s current stage of intellectual development, can definitely improve reactions to writing activities.

This is a better response to wails of objection than “All right, forget it!” Children need to develop skill in composition and the mechanics of writing. These are important, not only because the ability to communicate ideas is critical, but also because the spoken word is an expression of thought, and the written word is an expression of the spoken word. If one's thoughts are clear, one’s writing is clear. It works the other way, too. As writing improves in clarity and style, so does thinking. The need to write clear prose reveals weak areas of thought; clarifying the text necessitates clarifying the ideas.

There are a couple of general suggestions that I would like to offer, before moving on to specific exercises. If you find something that works with your child, keep using it. Don’t feel that constant originality is required for success. It’s not. And practice in any area will produce better results.

Having someone else evaluate written work is often very motivating for children. They might not worry about how you’ll react to spelling and punctuation errors, but they want others to know that they really are able to spell and capitalize. If Mom is the primary teacher, maybe Dad could be the paper evaluator. Or perhaps a grandparent, aunt, or fellow homeschooling parent would be willing to look over written work. One of the services Mother of Divine Grace offers is evaluation of written work for children enrolled in the Teacher Assisted Program. This feature is incorporated into an otherwise very parent-oriented program because of the motivation it provides for the children.

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Now, on to specific suggestions:
♦ In pre-school and kindergarten, have the child dictate a story to you. This helps him recall particular information and order it chronologically. Ask leading questions if necessary, and enjoy his narration. (Children’s entertainment value is greatly underrated!)

♦ As your child’s fine motor skills improve, pick out one or two sentences from his retelling and write them for him to copy. This supplies practice in hand/eye coordination, and introduces capitalization and punctuation.


♦ Next have the child write original sentences about the story. He may say, “The sun shone,” and you might not consider that an important circumstance, but never mind. Just make sure the sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a period.


♦ Once original sentences become easy, move on to dictation. This gives children opportunities to study examples of good writing and to move from the spoken word to the written, and exercise requiring concentration of mind and application of mechanical skills.

There are many sources for dictation exercises: the book he is currently reading, the poem he is presently memorizing, Scripture, or the exercises in the Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons by Emma Serl. Study the passage with your child. Go through the paragraph, explaining the reason for capitals, commas, semi-colons and quotation marks. Then dictate the passage. Dictation exercises are profitable throughout grade school.

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The ‘Grammatical’ Stage
By third or fourth grade children have acquired the basic tools of writing and can begin more difficult work. Continue to concentrate on re-telling. Summarizing is an analytic skill more appropriate in the upper grades.

♦ Have the child re-tell the best part of the book he is reading as if he were telling it to a friend. He is then writing about something both
known and liked, so that the content of the exercise is not difficult. Discuss what he will say before he starts, so that he knows what is expected. Then he can focus on spelling, the mechanics of writing, and including relevant details.

♦ Read a conversation and discuss the setting: where the conversation takes place, what the participants look like, and how they sound. Have the student write the conversation, including those details.

♦ Have your student write directions for making something, so clearly that someone reading and following the directions could produce the same result.


♦ Concentrate on basic punctuation. Common Sense Press offers exercises in a series called The Great Editing Adventure. which requires
children to edit someone else’s work, learning and reviewing grammar and punctuation as they search for errors.

♦ Additionally, announce that each original writing assignment will be done twice. This is not a punishment for inferior work, but a necessary part of the writing process. In any serious writing work should be refined the second time through.

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The ‘Analytic’ Stage
Starting in about seventh grade, writing assignments reflect the growing ability of children to analyze and summarize. They can follow and produce an intellectual argument, and usually enjoy doing so. Some ideas:


♦ Have your child rewrite a familiar written passage in a different tense. If the selection is written in the present, have the child rewrite it in the past or the future. This requires close attention to the details of writing, without having the additional task of inventing the content. It also focuses attention on the need for consistent verb tenses, a problem with young authors.

♦ Have the child continue to re-tell the best part of his current book, but also have him tell it from a different point of view. Every element that was present in the original exercise should be included, now told from the perspective of another character.

♦ Pick a poem of manageable complexity and have your student convert it to prose. As his writing improves, he can try longer and more
difficult poems. The same thing can be done with prayers, such as the prayer of St. Thomas after communion. Have your child rewrite the prayer in his own words.

♦ Read and analyze various examples of arguments, from texts the children are using in school. What is the main point of each para-
graph? How is that point supported? Once the child can find the main point and its support have him write it.


♦ Insist that any written work, for example the answers to the exercises in The Old World and America, has complete sentences, with full information.

♦ In Catholic Apologetics by Fr. Laux, there is an argument for the reasonableness of the Catholic Faith. It has five parts, and each of
those parts can be subject of one paper. (The ninth-grade religion syllabus from Mother of Divine Grace has more detailed suggestions for this project.)

The 'Rhetorical' Stage
At this level, children are not only able to see and follow an argument, they can also appreciate the manner of the argument, the beauty and effectiveness of language. They should now work on the style of their writing.


♦ A conversation between historic figures can be written, and should be presented as though the writer were present when the conversation took place. The kind of details that will make the reader feel that he is there should be included.

♦ Since the choice of words is important in achieving an effective style, the study of poetry and poetical devices is helpful. Having done
that, the children should write a description of a work of art so that a reader could accurately sketch and color the picture.


♦ After reading various selections by a writer with a characteristic style (Jane Austen or Charles Dickens, for example) have your child
write a descriptive paragraph, or story, in that style.


♦ Suggest that the student write a description of someone close to him with regard to some specific characteristic: the food he likes, or the books he reads, or the music he listens to. If that is relatively easy, tell him to move on to a character sketch, relating enough about the person to make him seem real. Make sure all statements are supported with details that will bring the character to life (e.g. “He was a good man” needs to have a example of his goodness attached. It would be better to say, “He was a good man, giving half his possessions to the poor.”)


♦ Assign several longer papers about topics raised in your curriculum. One could be a first person narrative about an historical event, with realistic details. Another might be the presentation of an argument on any controversial topic, with carefully supported steps. In either case the presentation should be made convincing.

These suggestions can help the child use the abilities he has at particular stages. Concentrate, in the earliest years, on the simple skills: the physical act of writing, and beginning to retell a story. After third grade emphasize retelling and basic mechanics. By Junior High he is capable of recognizing and presenting the argument, summarizing, and reworking passages. In high school capitalize on the student’s interest in the power and beauty of words.