Reading is truly one of the best things in the world! But how do you convince a child who would rather muck out a chicken coop or eat a bowl of brussels sprouts that reading really is fun? Reading is one of the true pleasures of life. In our age of mass culture, when so […]
Summer Reading Reward Coupon Sheets
As parents, we know that reading good books comes with its own rewards like a gained knowledge and appreciation for the world and people around us. Sometimes though it’s just plain fun to have some external reward for reading, especially for kids. Here are three different summer reading reward coupon sheets that you can fill […]
Summer Reading Charts
Most kids I know LOVE charts. There’s just something about crossing off what you’ve done that makes you feel good. Summer reading charts are no exception. My kids really enjoy having a chart to help them decide what book to read next. Will it be a book about an astronaut or will it take place in […]
Make Reading Fun for Kids
Kerry shares ideas on making reading fun for kids in this guest post for the Establish a House series. Our children spend the first two or three years at school learning how to read. After that and for the rest of their lives, they read to learn. For their success, it’s essential that they learn […]
Creative Writing Day 10: About Me Fingerprint
I originally saw this idea on pinterest, but the link didn’t tell how to do it so I set about figuring it out with my kids. It really is a fun way to write creatively! First we took our thumbprints. The clearest prints were not made with ink but with pencil! We colored a small […]
Creative Writing Day 9: Story Starters
Whew! Sorry this post is up a bit late today. I was too busy yesterday (shopping, ordering Christmas cards which required an insane amount of time looking through photos to find decent ones, etc) to write today’s post. My intent was to create some printables with story starters to use for daily creative writing. Instead […]
Creative Writing Day 8: Mad Libs
Who doesn’t remember the ‘olden’ days when all we had available to keep us busy on road trips were books to read, cassettes to listen to, and car games to play like the license plate game and madlibs. Madlibs are still fun to play! And they teach about basic parts of speech as well. For […]
Creative Writing Day 7: Ideas From Around the Web
Isn’t the internet a wonderful tool? With just a few clicks you can usually find an answer to a question or an idea to help you. Here are some creative writing links from around the web. Small World at Home has a set of creative writing lessons for all ages. She calls the series WordSmithery. […]
Creative Writing Day 6: Letter Writing & Fun Mail
Don’t you just love to get mail? I do! What a simple pleasure it is when checking my mail to find at the bottom of a stack of bills and magazines a card or letter from a friend. E-mail has caused a great decline in the handwritten note. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy reading […]
Creative Writing Day 5: Rainbow Writing
The idea behind creative writing is to get one to use words and express ideas in a more colorful, creative way. There should be no stress about grammar or spelling. That can come later. If those are expected to early all the joy of writing is snuffed out. Today’s project is to help children (and […]
Creative Writing Day 4: Books About Family
This past summer as we cleaned out our school closet I came upon some treasures. Books written by my two oldest! Several years ago when we were struggling with language arts I stepped away from our regular curriculum for a while and encouraged my daughters to write books instead. It was a memorable experience. My […]
Creative Writing Day 3: Mimic a Favorite Children’s Book
Are there certain books your children love to read or have read to them over and over and over again? Do you know why? Usually it is because the text of the book is either repetative, rhymes, or has a singsong quality to it. You can use this to your advantage in teaching creative writing […]
Creative Writing Day 2: A Little Alliteration
Alliteration is a fun tool to use to get your children to write. In a nut shell alliteration can be used two ways: Using the same letter to begin as many words in a sentence as possible. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Using the same tonal sound repeatedly in a sentence, even […]
Creative Writing Day 1: Paint Chip Writing
(image source) The Challenge: Pick up a paint strip sample with several shades of color on a strip. Write a story or poem that incorporates every paint color name on your paint chip sample. Be creative! If you don’t make it to the store to pick up paint samples never fear! Use the Color Palette […]
Easy Writing Activities for Summer
School is out for most people. We are taking a little break too. Not a big one as we want to keep to our year round schedule (so we’ll be off the first month after the baby is born). Whenever we take a break, we never really take a full break. There are still some […]