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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 7:41pm | IP Logged
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Willa wrote:
Willa wrote:
| When I do a very formal writing curriculum, my kids don't do as well as when we move more gently. I was just thinking the other day that I have largely unschooled writing all along, because I like so few of the formal writing programs out there, and it has paid off. The older ones write well and think of themselves as writers. |
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I took this quote of Willa's from this thread..
Not that I want to put her on the spot,  but you know I want to know more.
I get asked about writing programs at every conference I attend and I've pretty much followed a loose, unschooled, do-your-own-thing structure as well.
My boys are slow readers and aren't big writers but my older son can write well when he has too. It isn't anything great but he does a fine job. I'm still working on my 14 yr old but he can give a good narration and his stories are good if he'd only learn correction grammar. 
My daughters all seem to have inherited the writing bug. No worries there. 
I love hearing how others do it.
Self-expression through writing or speaking is SO important in today's world.
Willa! Please share. And, sorry, if I'm putting you on a pedastal again but, do tell. 
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 7:51pm | IP Logged
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Cay wrote:
...his stories are good if he'd only learn correction grammar. |
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Perhaps a little better than his mother. 
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 8:25pm | IP Logged
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I'd love to hear about Willa's writing method, too.
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us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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JenniferS
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 8:30pm | IP Logged
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Me,too!!
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Willa
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 11:38pm | IP Logged
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Cay --
I would love to write more about it (I was just thinking about blogging about it the other day so that's why I posted on the other thread) but we are just finishing up packing and then, off to Ireland! I won't be able to get my thoughts together right now : ). Back in late June.
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Oh, I just remembered a post I wrote way back in 2001 when my oldest was only 15! I will paste it below. It does not exactly address what you asked but maybe can fill in a bit for now. I would love to hear how others approach writing in their homeschools. I unschooled writing because I was so uncomfortable with the overly formal approaches of the writing programs that were out there when I started (I think there are much better ones around now though most of them I haven't seen because they tend to be $$$!).
The context for this discomfort -- I learned to write as a child by reading and writing. No real formal instruction. When I went to high school in Switzerland, the kids had carefully been taught format writing and they wrote fairly correctly but their writing was just, so, dead. I did better than them with my informal, unschooly writing background (I went to an unschooly "alternative school" in middle school).
I'm not altogether knocking format writing; it has its place; but I think it should come after the child has learned to have some sort of writing identity.
So here's the post from back in 2001, which I wrote for the playschool Montessori group -- it is way outdated -- my reluctant then 12 year old has now written a long novel and my 17 year old daughter has gotten past round robins and into writing articles for newsletters, etc:
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I loved writing stories as a child but always feel a lot of angst over trying to teach it to my children. Just recently I started realizing that there is a lot more writing activity going around here than I had thought. It's just not always the sort of thing I can write in an assignment book.
Here's what we've done -- keep in mind that a lot of this is informal rather than assigned work:
1) let the children have access to the computer word processor -- this helps with perfectionism problems and makes it easier for immature motor control. Also, access to a variety of writing materials, colored paper, gel pens, whatever encourages exploration and an attitude that writing is fun.
2) encouraged them to "publish" their stories -- my daughter at around age 9-10 actually would sell her finished stories to us -- she'd put up Sale posters around the house -- sounds sort of mercenary but I think it helped her gain confidence. She also has a website for her stories and my reluctant writer son also was persuaded to put a story on a web page. So just finding a forum that's new, but not too threatening can be a good idea. Some people publish family newsletters.
3) Write "round robin" stories -- My daughter did this with a girl's egroups and she liked it so much she does this with other friends. That is, each child takes a turn writing a page or a chapter of the story. In a similar vein, my son and daughter have invented an elaborate spaceship chronicle and they each write about their own separate characters and their adventures.
4) Be available when the child wants to narrate a story he has made up or read or watched in a movie. This definitely builds composition skills.IMHO.
5) Umm, what else? When children aren't fluent writers yet, let them dictate their stories. Encourage them to use invented spelling, at least on the word processor, and let them know that you will edit their spelling (so they don't get used to seeing a misspelled word). Even an 8-10 year old might not yet be a fluent writer (my 8yo isn't, for example)
Some other things my children have done: write scripts for little plays they act in; have a radio show where they interview characters from moviesm or stories; sometimes they leave notes to each other purporting to be from imaginary characters, and sometimes they write stories from stories they have read (eg Lord of the Rings). I did this too as a child -- I'd read a story then write my own version of it the way I would have liked it to be. Another idea is to invent an imaginary country and inhabit it; or what I did as a teenager, make up a family tree and research to find out about the historical time period the various people lived in.
Oh, and codes and secret messages -- the children like to use the more cryptic fonts in the WORD program.
My daughter and son have pen pals and this can be a good way to get a child writing.
You see that a lot of this is sort of informal but in fact, we do little formal writing in our academics. When a child is not producing any writing on his own, I have them do copywork in the interim or have a writing workshop to try to get them started on a new project. (actually haven't done this yet, but am planning to with my oldest son, who was keeping a journal at the beginning of the year but now isn't doing any real writing.)
When I was a child I liked story starters, and trying to make up stories based on a line from a poem (Eg find a list of quotes from Bartlett's and let the child pick one to use as the basis of a story). Another idea is to make up a bunch of interesting titles, or find titles from the library database, and try to make up stories that would fit the titles. I remember drawing cover pages
too; this was a fun way to think imaginatively about a story idea.
I have my older sons read Composition books but I don't have them do the exercises unless they want to. Last year my oldest son read several books about plotting, and revision, and other writer's tools. You could probably find these at the library.
I think a book-rich environment is so important, and if you are just modelling a serious interest in literature, fostering imaginary play (I know this is not quite Montessori though!) and writing for pleasure yourself (keeping a journal, letters to friends or whatever) it will go a long way.
If you can find friends who feel this way about books too, it helps. We have a couple of family friends who love to discuss books and imaginary things with us, and our kids definitely pick up that creative endeavours are important, not just "school"
So much depends on the child. My 11yo daughter writes voluminously. She was literally writing stories before she could read (just after she learned the alphabet, with the wildest invented spelling you ever saw). She has written a full-length novel (at least junior size) My second son would NOT write spontaneously until he was nearly 12. My oldest was somewhere in the middle -- wrote a looong story when he was about 11 or 12 and still writes in spurts but with long gaps in between.
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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Erin
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| Posted: June 12 2007 at 7:31am | IP Logged
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WJFR wrote:
I'm not altogether knocking format writing; it has its place; but I think it should come after the child has learned to have some sort of writing identity. |
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Willa
Thank you so much 'food for thought' to mull over. The above comment particuarly has me reeling. What it calls to mind is this incident; many years ago my mother asked an artist friend when she should start having my artistic brother begin lessons. Her answer was not before nine as he needed to develop his own style and not just be copying his teacher.
What you are saying is really the same thing. Children need to form their own identity so that they won't just be copying their teacher's. 
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: June 12 2007 at 4:51pm | IP Logged
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Excellent thoughts Willa (and thanks for asking Cay, as I was also going to  )
We have also never followed a writing program- bought lots, but followed none!!
It is reassuring to hear from someone like you Willa, who has children that are much older, that the 'organic' writing process works: it allows time for growth, creativity, and progresses with the individual child's own clock and moods of creativity.
We often do copywork unless someone is feeling more creative!!
Hope you are having a great day,
Kristie (in HUUUUUMID Manitoba!!)
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Willa’s Unschooled Writing Program
