Julie Bogart

Writing tends to be the number one concern of most of the homeschooling community
and as a result there are a bazillion bad writing programs on the market. Any writing
program designed by an educator will be awful.

Skip those. Go straight for the books written by professional writers.

Learn about writing for yourself first. Start a blog for yourself and get one of those great
books that gives you writing prompts.

I really like _The Pocket Muse_ by, Monica Wood. Use her prompts. Discover the joy of
writing!

I also love _Poemcrazy_ by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge. Her first assignment is to make
word tickets and stick them all over your house! You have to read the book to get it, but it
was so much fun every kid in my family got into it. We wrote the most amazing poetry as a
result. Truly awesome, can't believe my kid wrote this, kind of poetry.

And for grammar, try _Nitty Gritty Grammar_ and _More NItty Gritty Grammar_ by Edith
Fine and Judith Josephson. These are references that use synidcated cartoons to teach
grammar. So readable and easy to use. My oldest (at age 14) read the books straight
through just because they were entertaining!

I also give lots of tips about natural writing on my blog:

http://bravewriter.com/blog/bravewriterblog.html

And my Brave Writer website is filled with natural writing stuff for free!

http://www.bravewriter.com

I'm a bit of a nut about this writing thing. We shouldn't be afraid to create a context that
encourages and supports growth in writing. Otoh, we don't want to crush our kids'
attempts with a bunch of rules. So use your intuition to guide you and above all, enjoy
writing!

Julie B

[email protected]

In a message dated 1/27/05 10:03:25 AM, julie@... writes:

<< Writing tends to be the number one concern of most of the homeschooling
community >>

#3, maybe.

Reading and times table are in #1 and #2 slots.

Maybe you man #1 of those whose kids have learned to read and multiply. <g>

And you forgot socialization.
And you forgot the prom.

Sandra