Download your free printable homeschool writing curriculum guide here!

The goal of any successful writing program is for the student to express his or her thoughts in written form.

It sounds easy enough, but where do you start?

Warm up
One of the easiest ways to get your child writing is to start a journal. Journaling is an easy way for children to become more fluent writers and become creative with their story writing.

If you are looking for pre-planned daily writing prompts, consider using Giant Write Every Day: Daily Writing Prompts. These kid-friendly writing prompts develop critical thinking skills, vocabulary, writing fluency, creativity, and ideas for writing.

The writing prompts can be completed in any order you wish. There is also a quick writing prompt for each month to encourage writing about seasonal topics.

Whatever you choose to do, it is wise to keep the writing time short in duration to keep your child inspired to write again tomorrow.

Teach
When it is time to teach your child how to improve the quality of his or her writing, use Daily 6-Trait Writing to help your child’s writing flourish.

Each weekly unit has daily lesson plans and can be completed in 10–15 minutes each homeschool day.

In weekly units, your child will learn specific writing skills in the areas of ideas for writing, sentence fluency, organization (of their thoughts), word choices, and voice as an author.

The skills in Daily 6-Trait Writing can elevate the skills of any writer. As a homeschooling parent, I greatly appreciate how these focused lessons are so easy to teach—and for my children to understand.

Practice and Extend
As children develop the habit of quick journaling every day and learning ways to improve the quality of their writing, there are some ways to practice and extend their writing skills.

Fun ways to get your child writing are:

• Sending letters or emails to family or friends
• Asking your child to help write the shopping list
• Leaving notes for each other around the house

If you are looking for activities for your workboxes or independent time, there are three Evan-Moor books that we really enjoy.

Take It to Your Seat Writing Centers has full-color activities to help your child practice a variety of writing skills.

We typically do these activities together as our writing lesson. Then the kids do the activities again independently later in the week.

Draw…Then Write is another popular title where the child learns step-by-step how to draw a simple figure and write about the drawing with clear prompts that the child will understand.

While kids are learning how to draw, it is natural for them to use words to describe their drawings. The activities in this book invite children to write about their drawings.

Draw…Then Write is also available in app form, so it is great if your child prefers to work on a tablet!

The last title that works well for us How to Write a Story. My daughter has used this book to develop each part of her story ideas.

She simply completes a page a day in her independent work time. It has really supported her in expanding her writing abilities through her own stories.

No matter what resources you choose, writing is a skill that children will use their entire life. I appreciate how Evan-Moor’s writing resources help children to have fun and continue to develop their writing skills.

Get all these resources in TeacherFileBox!

In case you didn’t know, you can access all of these lessons in Evan-Moor’s TeacherFileBox: a digital subscription to a collection of lessons from over 450 of Evan-Moor’s titles.

Using TeacherFileBox has made our homeschooling focused, simple, and effective. We homeschool in less time because the quality of the material reduces the need for lengthy practice.

TeacherFileBox is also very budget-friendly with a monthly or annual subscription. You can subscribe and get the first 30 days for free. Or, Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op members can currently save $20 on an annual subscription.

If you would like our free printable homeschool writing curriculum guide, which features the resources in this blog post, you can download it here! 

For additional guides by subject area, see Homeschool Curriculum Resources and Guides.

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Amy Michaels is a certified teacher with 11 years of elementary classroom experience who is actively homeschooling her own children. Her mission is share the best teaching methods and resources with all homeschoolers. Amy supports parents through her podcasts, webinars, and online training for homeschoolers on her website www.thrivehomeschooling.com.