As a scorer for Essentials in Writing’s homeschool writing curricula, I frequently see just how much trouble commas can cause for students, and as a member of Curriculum Development for Essentials in Writing, I’m often reminded just how many ways commas can be used, so it’s no wonder that students are often confused! When I am scoring, most of the grammatical errors I see in students’ papers include commas or the lack of them, even more so than …

Isn’t it wonderful when you can write an essay focusing on something you actually care about? Let’s face it—not everyone is thoroughly invested in preparing a persuasive essay for living in the country or the city, or comparing and contrasting heat and cold. Sometimes, however, you are given the opportunity to write about something that personally applies to your life, and it’s thrilling! At the same time, this can be a tricky issue to handle in academic circles. …

Reluctant Reader?   Here’s a secret: I hate Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Cue the gasps. I read it for the first time as a high school freshman, and I promptly fell asleep every time I read a page. I had to set syncopated alarms on my phone just to get through it. The whole thing was a terrible struggle, but I managed. Here’s another secret: I can’t stand Charlotte Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Cue even …

As the year winds down, I want to share a word of encouragement with you! I’m a homeschool mom, too! If you are like me, you want the first part of the school year to fly by so that we can get to all the holidays and the break from school that comes with it.  I long for our schedule to be free of the daily schoolwork, co-ops, field trips, and sports schedules that rule over us during …

What can I do for my homeschool student who struggles with understanding literature and who “just doesn’t get it”?   Somewhat recently, a friend and I were discussing some short stories assigned in her Introduction to Literature class. “I’ve read some of them before in seventh grade,” she told me, “but it doesn’t really matter. I didn’t understand them then, and I don’t understand them now.”   She was partially joking, but that conversation stuck with me. The …

“My homeschool student’s literature response is poorly written! How do I grade the response and help my student write better?” This is an issue that every educator deals with. Some people might be tempted to slap a D or an F on the assignment and move forward, but that won’t help the student in future compositions, so what can we do? Even though the concept of a “wrong answer” should not really apply to literature, written responses can …

For some of us, writing is something to check off the to-do list.  Writing may simply seem like a necessary evil. However, I think every homeschool student has the potential to love writing.  How? By writing even more. Let me explain. My mom was determined that all eight of her kids would be creative. When I was a baby, she would give me a pile of crayons and tape paper to my highchair. As a result, I learned …

Why is proofreading an important part of the homeschool writing process?   Proofreading, to many students, is a dirty word. Visions of poring over endless lines of text dance in their heads, trapping them until the composition is “good enough”—and even then, mistakes may have slipped through, causing them to wonder in frustration why they even bother proofreading if mistakes persist anyway. Proofreading, however, is a vital tool for the writer regardless of experience or age. A fact …

NOTE: This blog post was written by a former member of our curriculum team, Jeremiah Barker. When I write, most of the time I’m staring down the blank page, which is what I did before writing this blog post. But before getting frustrated, I remembered this is what writers spend most of their time doing: waiting. This isn’t always the case, but it is often the case for many writers. If you’re feeling overwhelmed when writing, this doesn’t …

Teaching homeschool writing can be frustrating especially for those of us who write well and do not have to be bothered by checking for such things as capitalization and punctuation errors. Those writing rules come naturally for us. But, it doesn’t always come easy for our students. What seems to be such an “easy to remember” task isn’t always the same for our students. Maybe you can relate to this conversation I had with a homeschool mom. Parent:  …