Works for Me Wednesday

Homeschool Writing Assignments

As the close of the school year rapidly approaches, we all get a little bit of spring fever. Suddenly all of those subjects and assignments that we have been diligently working on since August become dreary and even tedious. Writing was one of our subjects that seemed to suffer the most. We use the writing curriculum Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW), and while I do love this writing program, the children were weary of the same type of writing assignments week after week.

So I had a great idea! We ditched the last six week's IEW assignments, and I assigned them letter writing instead. Now, Olivia and Julie already write letters to friends and some family members a couple of times a week, and Clay will compose the occasional letter, but I am requiring more than this. I made a list of family members and church members who would enjoy receiving a letter or who could use some encouragement. I typed the names and addresses for the children. They are required to write a at least two quality letters (meaning more than three or four sentences) a week and include an illustration if desired. I am encouraging them to use some of the writing techniques learned from IEW, but I am not giving them a checklist of required elements.

This is working for us!

To read about other great ideas visit We Are That Family.