Homeschool Writing Program

See sample lessons from Write On - the homeschool writing program kids love.

Take a look at some of the Write On's.

Students start with words and sentences, learn paragraphs and essays, and finish with writing a thesis.

In between the structured lessons, creative Write On's keep them interested in finding new ways to express their ideas.

Write On #1

We start with single words - in this case adjectives (but we don't have to call them that yet!) Students develop a list of descriptive words and write them so the letters match their description.

What's On The Page?

Write On #5: Riddles

Two types of sentences are used in riddles: statements and questions. Students have fun writing their own sentences to give clues for their riddles.

Every 5th Lesson is Academic

The lessons divisible by five (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 etc.) are academic lessons.

In this lesson, students write complete sentences to give clues. But they are grouping their sentences by subject matter - getting ready for paragraph development in a totally painless way.

Between the academic lessons are the creative writing exercises which stretch their writing skills and creative use of words. Together, the creative and academic lessons make them better writers with multiple ways of expressing themselves.

Write On #15 and 16: Paragraph Development

Paragraph development starts in earnest in lesson fifteen. But students are so busy focusing on an easy and fun topic: animals!

Paragraph development occurs naturally as students write about animals and other topics that interests them. It starts by listing major facts; and then writing a paragraph to explain those simple facts more fully.

Write On #21: Looking for the 5 W's

The academic lessons continue to show new ways to develop paragraphs and share facts with readers. In Write On #21 they learn to expound the "who" "why" "what" "when" "where" about an event of their choice.

As the program advances, students discover other ways to fill their readers in on the facts they wish to convey.

Creative Writing

Between the academic lessons, creative writing exercises are introduced which give your budding writer practice stretching their writing skills.

In Write On #27 students experiment with different accents by writing one expression in multiple dialects. Then in Write On #28, they choose one dialect to write a dialogue discussing an event in history.

Persuasive Writing

The first steps in persuasive writing begin in Write On #40. Students brainstorm a list of advantages of an action of their choice.

In Write On 41, the list of advantages need to be organized into paragraphs. Paragraph development and persuasive writing are combined as the students develop an essay expounding the advantages of their subject.

See how other students used Write On #41 to develop their Persuasive Writing Essays in our writing contest.

Word Usuage

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
                                        Mark Twain

As Twain's brilliant quote suggests, finding the right word or phrase clinch's the writers ability to communicate.

We have multiple lessons to stretch a student's usage of words and expressions. They will experiment with:

• Metaphors
• Similes
• Onomatopoeia
• Picture Words
• Sarcasm in Writing
• Mood and Tone
• Alliteration

Character Development

Several writing exercises assist students in character development. The first is writing a character sketch. With each paragraph, they have to give specific examples of how a real person exhibited a particularly character trait.

You can read some of the character sketches submitted by our contestants using Write On #55.

But it doesn't stop there. Later the student has create their own fictitious character and write action and dialogue that demonstrates his or her character traits. The trick is - they aren't allowed to name the character traits they have to show them.

Poetry

Writing wouldn't be complete without poems, would it?

Even students who hate poetry have had some light-hearted fun with our Write On's that teach poetry.

The types of poetry used in Write On include:

• Descriptive Poems
• Lyrics
• Diametribes
• Epitaphs
• Meter

Your avid poets will relish the opportunity to try new styles of poetry. And your anti-poets (yes, I had one in my house too) will learn an appreciation for the skill poets possess.

Essays and Thesis Development

By the end, students will be writing essays with strong thesis development.

They will practice:

• Writing to Compare and Contrast
• Writing to Defend
• Writing to Persuade

All of these provide pre-college students with valuable skills for developing academic papers with a well developed thesis.

But the process was painless. By starting with sentence development and moving to thesis development with a variety of interesting writing activities, students learned to communicate their own ideas with progressively expanding skills.

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