Homeschooling FAQ: Early Writing

I love so much of Charlotte Mason’s teaching, including what she said about writing.  She emphasized short lessons.  She advocated expecting high quality work.  Think three perfect (as age appropriate) Ms instead of one hundred sloppy Ms.

My friend Heidi was over last week, and we brainstormed about how we teach writing to young ones with the goal of eventually being about to write a flawless 5 paragraph essay.  It’s overwhelming, is it not?  No wonder we’re always looking for “the perfect book to teach writing.”  I can’t tell you how many books I bought (ack!) in my early days, as J was learning to write.  Ones that promised fluency and a seamless transition into composition.  I was a butterfly, landing on one method for a month until it didn’t work, then moving onto another for 6 weeks.

Finally I discovered Charlotte Mason.  And Maria Montessori.  And Explode the Code.  Between the three of them, I have more successfully navigated the waters of early-writing with my second two.  (The jury is still out on whether my children will be able to write flawless 5 paragraph essays for their college applications.)

Here are my thoughts.

Part of the challenge of writing is that it is both a cognitive and a motor skill.  Linking the two together is hard.  Add into that that we’re trying to do this as our wiggly 5 or 6 year-olds are just learning what “school” is going to look like.  If I give them 100 S’s to copy, they will quickly learn that they don’t like school.  If I can make at least two parts of the three-part challenge easier, the transition into “school” will be easier.  For example:

In the beginning, start simple.  Here are five sample “beginning writing” lessons which you could do with a single letter per week.  Do one each day for no more than 5 minutes.  Be very positive, but do “writing” each day.  Over time, the eye-hand-cerebrum muscles  will develop, and you’ll be able to add in some copywork on paper.  But start without it.  And keep in mind that “scribbling” is a developmentally appropriate motor skill that builds the muscles we’re working on!

Day 1: fill a cookie sheet with a thin layer of cornmeal and have them “write” a single letter in the cornmeal– and shake it till it’s gone if they’re not happy for it– for 5 minutes.

Day 2: copy 3 perfect letters on a chalkboard or whiteboard.  (The chalkboard is especially good because it prevents making your letters from the bottom.)

Day 3: trace a letter onto sandpaper, cut it out, and glue it on regular paper.  Have the child trace this with their finger and say the sound.

Day 4: Make a letter mosaic.  Trace your letter onto regular paper– as large as you can– and have your child fill the outline with something starting with that letter.  (Macaroni in the letter M.  Feathers in the letter F.Buttons for B.)

Day 5: Ahead of time, cut a bunch of photos from magazines and separate them by starting sound.  Make a collage of the letter.  (A: airplanes and ants and apples.  B: boats and bears and bottles and babies.)

Start this process with the letters of your child’s name so that she can write her name as soon as possible.

Once your child can write his or her letters, you can add in copywork.  Begin with a word a day, but expect good quality work.

Separate from the manual skill of writing (above), your child is simultaneously developing his reading skills and comprehension, so I’ll give you a few ideas I have about these in the next post.