I'm sure even the best teacher is wondering how to do that at a homeschool level..lol. I LOVE writing and I want to create a love of writing (and reading) in our children. With Classical Conversations,

students will get their fill of writing, but what about that student who

doesn't enjoy it? So far, I don't have a student like that at home, but I do

have a few in the writing class I teach at CC.  

 

I would definitely say it starts with a passion from the teacher! Haven't

you ever been around someone who was passionate about something

you knew nothing about or, even, cared about but the passion in that

individual stirred up a little more interest in you? Well, this has been

my experience with writing. I absolutely LOVE writing and it comes

out in the way I teach it. In CC, the classical model is set up where your "real" students are the parents not necessarily the students. So your role as a "instructor" (in CC the classroom instructor is called a tutor, while the parent is the real teacher) is to guide parents in understanding and using their resources so they can be effective in teaching the material at home. Therefore, if I don't engage my parents, I may lose the students.

 

My thoughts on engaging our classroom, usually are full of enthusiasm and topics that would interest both adults and children. This is where the process begins! Asking questions to obtain quality content is the absolute best skill learned using the classical model. The writing process in CC begins at age 9, however, I have begun a simplified process with our 7-year old son, who initially wasn't fond of writing. In his case, we fostered a love of reading FIRST for about a year. He reads above grade level, so it wasn't hard to find books that he could enjoy and learn from. Did you know that some of the best writers are avid readers? Reading is so important in the writing process. It is through books that language is learned - grammar, style, emotion, dialogue, setting, and more.

 

CC uses Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) and it has proven to be an excellent resource for developing a solid writing process that focuses on structure and style. IEW can be taught as early as second grade customizing it, of course, to your student's ability. Our oldest daughter began IEW at 9 and the first year was very difficult, but now that she is in high school and using Lost Tools of Writing she is really blossoming into a wonderful writer. I learned better for our son to ease him into the process softly at an earlier age. This has proven to be a much better way to incorporate a love of writing void of little frustration and anxiety. Some choose to teach reading and writing simultaneously.  I do this to an extent. Instead, I teach phonics and basic writing structure simultaneously. Expression, I teach through discussion. For example, our 5-year old twins are learning to read this

year and are progressing well. They write letters and words in their workbooks, incor-

porating basic sentence structure: Subject, verb, capital letter, end-mark, a making

sense. But "paragraph structure" is taught through discussion of "Pinnochio". Mom-

my will ask a question and they must answer in complete sentences. This way they

learn transition, content, how to speak complete sentences, pauses, etc. This will

serve them well, when we begin the IEW process in second grade at a very basic

level. I'm finding this to work very well for our family!