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Worrying About Writing © Beverley Paine Many homeschooling parents worry about their children's writing skills. I have always found it useful to consider exactly what it is I am not happy about. Is it the volume of work produced - perhaps am I comparing it with perceived school student outputs? Or is it the quality of scribing - have I checked out my child's fine motor skills - is the child able to use scissors well, make fiddly models, draw well, etc? Or maybe it is the content - the spelling, punctuation, sentence structure? Perhaps it is the child's motivation or lack of motivation to write. Isolating the exact cause for concern can help to provide solutions. I then ask myself if my expectations of what my child can do are realistic. Often they are based on a comparison with other children, usually of a similar age. Sometimes I am comparing the child to my own remembered abilities of the same age. I ask if my expectations take into account my child's different learning styles and needs. I recognise children all learn differently. Perhaps I am not providing support for all the ways my child prefers to learn. Perhaps I am tailoring his or her activities to how I preferred to learn or was taught at his or her age. Having pinpointed my concerns and examined some of the reasons I then think of ways I can make improvements, without imposing unhappy, unwanted or pointless 'busy-work' exercises in writing. Every writing task I set must have meaning in my child's life, and I take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself. If I am doing some cooking I let Thomas devise his own recipes then help him record them in his own cookbook, sometimes before, sometimes during and sometimes afterwards. We write lots of lists whenever possible; birthday lists, shopping lists, holiday packing lists. Letters are encouraged, although cards and postcards are less threatening for him to write. And I often get the kids to do some writing for me, sometimes just a phone number and address, a note or two when my hands are dirty, addresses on the newsletters, anything for writing practice! It all helps...
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education in Australia. State and Territory governments are responsible for regulating home education and have different requirements, however home educating families are able to develop curriculum and learning programs to suit the individual needs of their children.
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Pioneering members of the home education movement in Australia, Beverley and Robin Paine are passionate advocates of true educational choice for families. They began homeschooling their children in 1986 and three years later started the South Australian Home Based Learners network.
Beverley wrote Getting Started with Homeschooling in 1995-97 and since then continues to write books and booklets on home education. She balances spending time helping home educators with working in her garden and renovating her home, as well as continuing to build her collection of writing on a variety of homeschooling subjects. Beverley maintains an extensive collection of websites as well as several Yahoo groups supporting families teaching their children at home.
In 2007 Beverley joined the HEA and was a committee member for three years during which time she edited and produced the HEA Newsletter, Stepping Stones for Home Educators magazine, annual Resource Directory and other HEA publications.
If you'd like to keep in touch with what Beverley is up to her in her life, sign up for the Homeschool Australia Newsletter or visit her Homeschool Australia Facebook page.nor do they endorse or recommend products (other than their own) listed in contributed articles, pages, or advertisements.