Save time and simplify
your homeschooling life...
Learn from experienced
homeschoolers how to write your own curriculum.
It really is that easy!
Use this website with Beverley Paine's Getting Started with Home Schooling - Practical Considerations to help you develop your own educational curriculum to suit your family situation, beliefs and lifestyle. The checklists can help you identify your children's current educational skill level in each subject area, as well as find any 'gaps' in their learning, plan what they need to cover or keep track of what has been learned. As you can appreciate this website is continuously under development... It's our aim to add pages on a regular basis in all curriculum areas: check back frequently. We hope you enjoy the articles and activities and find the links and recommended resources useful. Over the next year we will be working our way through each subject area and writing fresh, new content. |
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"Thank you so much for your wonderful website! I was getting quiet frustrated with finding appropriate information on homeschooling - thanks to your website we are now on the right track... Using your checklists for reassurance helped me to have the confidence to come up with my own programme that suits our needs." Rachael "I'm a frequent visitor to your website... I gain valuable knowledge from your website, luckily recommended in the very early stages of our homeschooling journey." Geradine "I checked out your website today and was incredibly impressed by it. I can tell it will be a great resource for our family for many years. THANKS for all the hard work that has gone into making homeschooling easier and much less isolating for families like us." Cynthia |
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© Beverley Paine, 2004
There are hundreds of different ideas you can use to help your children develop their handwriting abilities. The following extensive list has been compiled from many sources, and is by no means exhaustive!
Many home schooling parents feel the need to schedule separate writing lessons for handwriting practice, although this is not really necessary. Remember, your children are practicing their handwriting whenever they write anything in the other subjects they are studying: writing up an experiment, drawing a hydrological cycle poster, researching a project, and so on.
Activities drawn from ‘real’ life, especially those initiated by your children, although seemingly rare, are perfect ways to practice handwriting skills. Think about when your children write cards to family and friends, invitations to parties, letters to friends, props for various dramatic play games, making board games, letters to the editor of the local newspaper... I'm sure you can think of many more instances. Here is an example from our homeschooling records:
"The boys have been working on a map of an imaginary country. This map is twelve A4 pages joined together, and they have half each. They are putting the final touches on the map, which has taken about twenty hours to draw over nearly a week. The map includes a neatly written, detailed legend on one side which describes the various features. Roger climbs up on a chair to blue tack it to the living room wall. The map is complex, with medieval villages, swamps, mountains, forests, islands, reefs, roads, quarries. Their mum remarks that it looks a lot like the map in Alan Garner's Weirdstone of Brisingingham series. They agree, and some discussion about books that have maps ensues, including Tolkien's books and his decorative labelling style."
List of writing activities useful for practicing and developing handwriting style:
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certificates character sketches couplets comparisons complaints constitutions contracts critiques cumulative stories data sheets definitions descriptions diaries dictionaries diets directions dramas editorials epilogues epitaphs encyclopedia entries essays evaluations explanations fables quizzes questionnaires quotations ransom notes rebuttals recipes remedies reports requests requiems reviews riddles rosters rhymes sales pitch saying signs satires schedules secrets self description sequels |
fairy stories fantasies folk lore forms fortune cookies game & game rules graffiti graph good/bad news greeting cards grocery lists gossip headlines horoscopes inscriptions insults instructions interviews invitations, replies job applications jokes jottings, notes journals labels legends serials sermons slogans soap operas songs speeches scripts spoonerisms sports accounts sports analyses superstitions surveys TV commercials TV guides TV programs tall tales telegrams/faxes telephone directories textbooks tickets time lines thank you notes |
letters lists lies love notes lyrics magazine menu message memories metaphors monologues movie reviews minutes of meetings mysteries myths musical score newspaper news analyses newscasts nonsense note taking notices nursery rhymes obituaries observations theatre programs titles tongue twisters transcripts travel brochures travel posters travel itineraries tributes trivia / quizzes vitae - resumes wanted ads wanted posters warnings wills wishes weather reports weather forecasts words word processing yarns yellow pages |
See the following articles from my book 'Learning in the Absence of Education' for more information about how handwriting style and writing can develop naturally with little fuss in the home school:
on this website is of a general
nature only and is not intended as
personal or professional advice.
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Text & Images on this site Copyright © 1999-2008 Beverley Paine. All rights reserved. Please note that the opinions and articles included in the suite of Homeschool Australia websites are not necessarily those of Beverley and Robin Paine, nor do we endorse or necessarily recommend products (other than our own) listed in contributed articles, links, pages, or advertisements.