Homeschool World Forum

Or a hobby, even. I was wondering, how many of you implement this with your children?

I write novels (well attempting to) and was just wondering how you guys get info for your research, or how you developed your plot lines and things?

I was told to post any Creative writing questions here, so here it is.

Thanks in advance! Horse_rider1990

I use used materials, so I don't know any current names, but there are some great books out there that guide the student through creative writing. My 11yo is doing one we got from timberdoodle that is all about parts of a newspaper. It goes through all the parts of speech and applies them to the sections of a newspaper. Look around and you can find some neat ones, just feel free to deviate, just use them as a guide, not a curriculum.

Thanks. I'm having a hard time researching for several things, so that should come in handy.

...Can be more fully developed into short stories, which in turn can be turned into chapters of a book if your child wants to develop them further.

For example, a picture book such as Enemy Pie might encourage a child to write about a time (real or imaginary) where someone who they thought was an enemy became a friend once similarities, rather than differences, became the focus of the relationship.

I've also had success using online interactive writing tools such as those at http://www.squidoo.com/multimediamuse to motivate students and get them writing in different genres.

Our kids are still pretty young ( 6 & 8 ) and don't have the endurance for long writing sessions. So far we have kept the actual writing lessons short, with the main goal getting something down on paper that more or less makes sense.

Their favorite form of play is telling adventure stories involving their stuffed animals (with superpowers) and villains from whatever we've been reading lately, so I expect there is more fiction writing in our future.

A resource you might enjoy is the card game Once Upon A Time, made by Atlas Games. Each player holds a hand of cards containing fairy-tale type plot elements. You and the other players ad-lib a story while trying to use the cards in your hand. Probably better for older kids or other grown-ups, our kids have gotten pretty silly and off-the-plot when we've played it as a family. But it is fun, and quite exhausting mentally, so I think it must exercise something up there in the old brain.

There is a book called Written and Illustrated by.... by David Melton.
I have never used it personally, but have heard it recommended several different places. So it may be worth looking into.
Hope that helps.

There's also a language arts curriculum centered around novel writing called, "Learn to Write the Novel Way" and another creative writing program called "Story Starters." If you are looking for something formal, perhaps those programs would help.

I was recently inspired by But How do you Teach Writing? by Barry Lane. It's written for public school teachers but applies very well. It's about allowing and encouraging children to write with freedom. And it sounds like he's sort of promoting a "homeschooley" attitude to individualized learning. Pretty good.


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