Homeschooling and lifelong education . . . one day at a time
English language arts is the overarching title given to a variety of learning subjects, including spelling and phonics, reading and comprehension, and writing and grammar. Here are some ways to integrate ELA learning in your homeschool.
My son resists handwriting practice so I have been pondering ways to get him to practice his writing. I also am teaching a writing class at our weekly co-op so here is a list of some ways that we get practice handwriting around here.
A Tale of Two Beasts by Fiona Roberton is an amusing tale about a girl who finds a strange beast in the woods and brings him home to take care of him. It is also the tale of a beast who is minding his own business when he is accosted by a terrible beast that kidnaps […]
I had a lot of fun considering favorite picture books as I considered the variety of ways one could organize a story. So many times in elementary school kids are given a prescription for writing and they must follow that. Writing is more fun when students are free to organize their thoughts or ideas creatively. […]
When I thought about a persuasive mentor text, my first thought was to go with The Pigeon, Mo Willems’ crabby bird who demands things. I almost dismissed this Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus writing idea because I thought my kids will probably think it is childish, but went I with it anyway. I’m […]
In the book In the Snow by Huy Voun Lee, Xiao Ming and his mother walk in newly fallen snow and his mother shows him Chinese characters by writing them in the snow. They discuss how the characters look like the items they are describing. Despite our lack of snow in Chicagoland this season,we made our […]
I’ve always loved the tale of the gingerbread man. True, we could feel sad that a walking and talking anthropomorphic being has been eaten. But we’re talking gingerbread here. Gingerbread stories make my mouth water. I love to find a variety of gingerbread books during the holiday season. I always associate gingerbread with the holidays. […]
The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller is a silly fictional book. I think we all know that the states are not alive and able to pick up and move to a new place in the country. Afterall, the states are just governmental divisions of land! But for an upper elementary school student, The […]
The Red Book by Barbara Lehman is a wordless picture book, so it may not be the first to come to mind when considering a book to “read aloud” to a class. However, because the illustrations tell the story, The Red Book can be an ideal book to use as students practice outlining and retelling […]
I don’t really have a week in review for you today. I feel like if I don’t have anything nice to say I should not say anything at all. It was not a bad week, but I’ve been frustrated by Raisin’s lack of focus this week. We’re trying a few new things to make our […]
