Educational Gift Ideas with Writing and Reading Focus

Here are some fun games/activity sets you can add to your home games cabinet. We love games that have a strong educational component. These activities are great for the entire family! Take a look. In fact, I’m getting a couple for my grandchildren!

Can Do! Writing Skills Game - Gr. 3-4 $22.99

Boost writing skills with a hands-on game students will love to play! Children just spin to select one of three categories—correct the sentence, supporting details or revising sentences. Next, children draw a card and answer the question…then collect tokens when they answer correctly! The game comes in a handy can that includes 60 game cards, 44 tokens, an answer card for convenient self-checking—and a game spinner built right into the lid! For 2-4 players.

Why We Love This! Develops skills in recognizing and correcting inappropriate fragments and run-ons, using linking words and phrases, and revising and editing.

Can Do! Reading Literature Game - Gr. 3-4 | $22.99

Boost literature reading skills with a hands-on game students will love to play! Children just spin to select one of three categories—character analysis, theme & key details or making inferences. Next, children draw a card and answer the question…then collect tokens when they answer correctly! The game comes in a handy can that includes 60 game cards, 44 tokens, an answer card for convenient self-checking—and a game spinner built right into the lid! For 2-4 players.

Why We Love This! Develops skills in describing characters in a story, describing the sequence of events, identifying details of a text, making inferences and determining a theme.

Hapinest Sentence Building Learning Game for Kids | $17.99

Grammar Reading and Speech Therapy Activities | Kindergarten 1st Grade Special Education Classroom Must Haves for Teachers and Homeschool

Recommended for children in kindergarten through 2nd grade. Special Education teachers will love using this game to help kids build fluency in the key components associated with this learning activity. Set includes 55 word cards, 27 photo cards, 4 punctuation cards, and instructions. Each card is color-coded into groups of adjectives, nouns, verbs, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, articles, and punctuation.

Why We Love This! A fun game to introduce in the classroom or at home to build communication skills, social skills, speech, problem-solving, grammar, early reading, and cognition.

Match & Sort Grammar & Writing Quickies - Gr. 4-5 | $29.99

Students sharpen grammar and writing skills in a flash—with our quick-to-play games! This set includes 8 game pouches covering topics like capitalization, punctuation and verb tense. Plus, each game has answer cards and simple instructions printed directly on the pouches—so students can play and learn independently! Set includes 145 cards for 8 games.

Why We Love This! Develops skills in using capitalization, punctuation and spelling.

Fun Ideas to Focus on Gratitude

I bet you’ve been working quite diligently the past couple months to get your new school year off to a solid start. Good for you! Now, perhaps it’s time for you and your children to pause just a bit and enjoy the changing season and the celebration of being “Thankful”. Of course you can weave the following ideas into your school day because each item on this list has a learning component. But don’t overthink it; just enjoy the opportunity to change things up a bit throughout this month. When you provide a few suggestions and a little direction, your children will be off and running – perhaps quite literally – with ideas galore, and energy to boot. You may choose to join them, or you may choose to “catch up” on some tasks that requires your attention . . . like making dinner. This is a list to get your creative juices flowing. Add some of your own ideas and share them with us on our FB group.

1. Using Google, find and purchase some new picture books on “Thanksgiving” to add to your family library.

2. Create your own “Gratitude” book for your family.

3. Decorate: cookies, a table, a card, a porch – bring the word “Thankful” into your fall decorating.

4. Share: a card, baked goods, a walk, a craft – choose something to share with someone who may be experiencing some hardship.

5. Create some table decor for your Thanksgiving meal.

6. Bring something like flowers from outside, inside.

7. Get some yummy fall smells wafting through the house: candles, essential oils, spiced cider, spiced baked goods.

8. Paint or color a picture of a fall scene from your yard or a nearby park.

9. Create cards with a “Thanksgiving” theme and send them to friends, pastors, teachers, and loved ones. Include a Thanksgiving poem.

10. Using one of the above suggestions, find a way to communicate your gratitude to community service workers, such as police officers and firefighters or to nursing home residents.

This list is designed to get ideas flowing, and to encourage you – or give you permission – to adjust your routine just a bit so you can focus some thoughts, time, and attention on embracing this special season of “Thanksgiving”. And by the way, did you know, we’re thankful for YOU!

Lifestyle Habits that Develop a Love of Literature

Whether your children are in our classes or not, it’s September, and school has officially begun. Few would disagree that reading is a cornerstone of education, so let’s consider how to get off to a strong start with the reading habits we embrace. Here are some ideas to consider. This list is not designed to be a checklist – completing each item every day. This is simply a list of ideas about how you can ‘creatively’ ENJOY getting the most out of reading as a family.

1. Start your day with enough time to eat breakfast together and have one of your older children read a Bible verse, poem, or fable of the day. The choice and the discipline to start the day sitting together might be quite daunting, but if you add some fun rewards, your children will be more inclined to join the fun. Positive verses, poems, or fables will also make for great conversation around the table.

2. Let your very little ones read to you. Listen to them tell the story and change the inflection of their voices as they read. This is helping your toddlers develop a love of reading. They value the time together as well as the joy of the story.

3. Ask your older children questions about what they are reading. This conversation can happen while driving in the car together, working in the kitchen or outside, sitting around the dinner table. No place is off-limits when it comes to asking your children questions about the books they are reading. (See our Blending Literature with Writing Guide for sample questions to ask about literature.)

4. Reverse the roles. Every now and then have your children ask Mom and Dad questions about the books they are reading. Hmmm . . . what are YOU reading? Asking quality questions is a skill we must practice to learn it well. Model this; then watch your children practice following in your footsteps.

I’m guessing you also have some great ideas about weaving literature into your daily routine. We’d love to hear your ideas, so we invite you to join our Facebook group . A little bit of reading, followed by some great questions and conversations bring books to life. This is learning through lifestyle – the best kind of education.

Choose Your (No-Pressure) Adventure!

Congratulations…you made it to summer! Your student can rest from the vigorous pace of learning and engaging with challenging texts. During the school year, the primary focus in English is building literacy, expanding vocabulary, and reading grade-level literature. Summer allows a break from the work of reading, though students still benefit from keeping their literacy gears oiled during the vacation months. Yet, who says reading can’t be fun?

To encourage your child to keep poking their noses into pages, think outside the box! Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Embrace lower grade-level books

• Explore different types of texts, like age-appropriate magazines or how-to guides

• Jump into comic books or graphic novels

• Experiment with different environments - books in hammocks, anyone?

• Read a book together (I still remember book club picnics with my mom and brother)

• Accompany an audiobook adventure

• Discover digital books - often available for rent through public libraries

• Participate in your library’s summer reading program or create your own

• Go back to the movies - read a book, then watch the film adaptation

If you want strategies to guide your student’s thinking deeper about their summer read or to prepare for next school year, check out our Blending Literature with Writing Guide. This outlines our effective approach and experience-based insights on how to discuss a text. Combine this with a no-pressure reading choice, and your child has a fun summer adventure ahead of them!

Featured Author: Your Child’s Name Here

Summer Creative Writing Classes

This summer, The Write Journey is thrilled to offer creative writing enrichment courses, or - as I like to think of them - short story summer camps. Designed to channel creativity and summer fun, classes will be more activity-heavy than our school year classes. Students will engage in:

• Writing games to rev-up their imagination

• Short activities to foster the skill of descriptive language

• Interactive lectures on the basic story structure and elements

• Step-by-step walkthroughs on the story writing process

Best of all, these classes have something to teach students of any creative writing experience level, even those who have never written a story. At the end, students will have crafted their own, unique, culture-changing narratives! For more details and to register your child, check out the course links here:

Grades 3-7

Grades 8-12