| In my previous article on motivating a | | | | a prepositional phrase, in order to learn how |
| student who dislikes writing, I talked about | | | | more complex sentences are built and how |
| my experiences with my son and how we | | | | detail makes a sentence more interesting. |
| overcame his dislike of writing through his | | | | This is a major step in becoming a better |
| interest in writing product and book reviews | | | | writer. It is also a lot more fun than |
| at and dreaming up writing ideas that | | | | diagramming sentences. If you do one of |
| combined his love of drawing and sketching | | | | these "build more complex sentences" |
| with writing assignments.Some other ideas we | | | | activities each day with a different subject |
| have used which were also fun and effective | | | | and verb, your child will become a masterful |
| (the teacher learns what's effective after | | | | sentence composer in very little time.Once |
| the fact, but fun was always the essential | | | | your child is proficient in writing complex |
| element in the beginning) included the | | | | sentences, you will find that he or she still |
| following:In teaching basic writing, once the | | | | may not like to write a requested paragraph |
| idea of parts of speech were taught and | | | | or essay on a specific assigned topic. |
| understood, we found two highly effective and | | | | Especially if the child is a visual learner, |
| enjoyable methods of mastering the knowledge | | | | I have found it to be more effective to give |
| of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. | | | | him a picture...an old photograph, a scene |
| and, from there, learning to write better | | | | from a wall calendar, a page from a |
| sentences. The Mad-Libs pads of crazy | | | | magazine...and ask him to write either about |
| stories with blanks to be filled in for | | | | what he sees or to make up a story about what |
| various parts of speech are found in most | | | | is happening in the picture.As I wrote in my |
| bookstores. Our family had many evenings | | | | previous article, the main thing is to find |
| full of laughter with one of us asking for | | | | out what appeals to your specific child and |
| words that filled the criteria of being | | | | run with it until his comfort level with |
| certain parts of speech and then reading back | | | | writing improves to the point that he is |
| the silly stories which resulted from those | | | | ready to write on an assigned topic not of |
| suggested words. Boys of a certain age seem | | | | his choice. But first, like me, you will |
| to really get a certain pleasure out of using | | | | probably have to endure a lot of stories |
| gory adjectives and somewhat violent verbs, | | | | about aliens, other planets, strange |
| but you can set the rules in advance. | | | | creatures, and bizarre situations. However, |
| Sometimes, so the stories wouldn't end up so | | | | if your student kept the pen to the paper, |
| outlandish, the reader who was asking for the | | | | enjoyed the process, and is proud of his |
| parts of speech would narrow down the topics | | | | final product, you are on the way to changing |
| on which words could be offered so that the | | | | writing reluctance into writing |
| resulting stories actually made some kind of | | | | pleasure.Linda Popolano is a homeschooling |
| weird sense. For encouraging creativity, | | | | mom and an Independent Consultant for BRIGHT |
| after you've bought your first Mad-Libs book, | | | | MINDS/The Critical Thinking at Home. Please |
| you can save the money and have you or your | | | | visit her website at to learn more about |
| children write your own stories with blanks | | | | BRIGHT MINDS' language arts (as well as |
| and ask for the appropriate parts of | | | | logic, math, and science) books and software |
| speech.The second method, once parts of | | | | which incorporate some of the ideas mentioned |
| speech are totally mastered, is to simply | | | | in this article and many others to teach all |
| create a basic subject-verb sentence, such as | | | | students, pre-K through Grade 12, critical |
| "A dog ran" and then, step by step, have your | | | | and creative thinking across the curriculum. |
| child add an adjective, then an adverb, then | | | | |