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.

Working Together to Find Success

One aspect of getting into a good rhythm is connecting with your children’s instructors – those to whom you have chosen to outsource a certain amount of instruction. We desire to walk alongside you and support you as you oversee your children’s education. That means we – The Write Journey instructors and administrators in partnership with you – will need to communicate regularly and understand our roles. The following suggestions often bring great results:

1. Request a recording of our Orientation webinar (if you were not already able to attend) to learn how to work together with The Write Journey to create a calm and successful semester for your students. Kris discusses each person’s role in creating a successful class experience for you and your children.

2. Your students’ instructors are going to be your first point of contact with us, so get comfortable connecting with them via texts, emails, phone calls, etc. You are likely already receiving emails from them. Look for weekly emails, and always reach out to them if you have questions or concerns about anything related to the class or to your students’ work.

3. Assist your child with time management. Some children need more assistance and oversight than others, but this is an important part of your role at home. Students will perform best if they are working on their assignments a little bit each day of the school week.

4. Carefully study any homework that is returned to your child with feedback from the instructor. It’s not enough for students to look at a grade. They must read the feedback carefully and make sure they understand the corrections and suggestions. You can help them with this.

When you are intentionally working on each of these aspects of connection, you and your child will have a wonderful experience learning. We are grateful to be a part of your educational journey.

Partnership

Most of us understand the concept of “partnership”. It includes the idea of working together in cooperation – because we are better together than we are apart. And that is certainly true when it comes to homeschooling.

Regardless of whether you are new to homeschooling or a veteran, partnership serves many purposes:

• Sharing of ideas to find new and creative opportunities

• Sharing of workload so you don’t have to do ALL of the work yourself

• Sharing of struggles so you don’t feel alone when you feel overwhelmed

• Sharing of resources so you don’t have to buy EVERYTHING

• Sharing of information so you don’t have to spend time you don’t have (or time you should be sleeping) doing the research

• Sharing of experiences to remind you that we are all learning in this process

The idea of partnership is seen in nearly every aspect of The Write Journey business. We desire to travel this journey of providing quality education to your children and students, so we invite you to take a look at TWJ vision, mission, and values to see how partnering with us might strengthen your homeschool community, not rob you of valuable time, money, and energy. Together we will train and empower our children and students to become authentic communicators who positively impact the world.

Speaking life,

Kris

VISION AND MISSION STATEMENT

Mission: Our mission is to train and empower people to become authentic communicators who positively impact the world.

The Vision: The Write Journey develops quality writers through relational education.

Values:

• Quality over quantity: We teach students to master skills instead of producing ‘busy work’.

• Relational instruction: The Write Journey values personal interactions between educators and students.

• Partnership: We offer support through collaboration with parents, teachers, and the team at The Write Journey.

• Equipping others: Our educators train and equip teachers and parents using our unique products and services.

• Communication with civility: The Write Journey educators model and teach communication skills, including voicing ideas responsibly and listening actively.

• Critical thinking skills: Educators teach logic and reasoning skills over opinion based responses.

• Flexibility We adjust expectations for the well-being of students and families.

• Small class size Our instruction allows time for each student to participate, and for each teacher to provide valuable feedback

NEW: Assess Your Current Writing Curriculum

1. Does your child complete their current writing curriculum with ease and mastery?

2. Does your child’s current writing curriculum simply focus on mastery of basic writing skills? (or rather does it include comprehensive writing instruction)

3. Is your child gaining confidence as a writer?

4. Is your child producing quality written work in all of the following aspects of writing?

   a. Does their work contain quality ideas?

   b. Is their work well organized?

   c. Do they write interesting and engaging sentences?

   d. Does your child understand how to apply proper grammar rules when writing?

5. Is your child able to write a composition independently – from start to finish without your help?

6. Is your child developing advanced critical thinking skills to apply to their writing?

7. Is your child writing multiple compositions each semester?

8. Do you as the parent feel confident assessing and giving feedback on your child’s writing?

If you answered “NO” to 3 or more of those questions, we encourage you to join us for a free webinar to learn more about The Write Journey approach to teaching writing. You may find it’s time for a change, and this approach may be perfect for you and your child.