Homeschool Writing CurriculumTeach Your Children to Excel in WritingBy choosing the right homeschool writing curriculum, you WILL be able to teach your kids to write. Most people say they can't write. Most moms say they can't teach writing. But you can. It really isn't that hard as long as you have the right curriculum. Here are my choices for the best writing curriculums. Before you know it, your kids will be writing paragraphs...then reports...then research papers. They can do it and you can teach it! 
Teaching Basic WritingFirst, let me say this is writing - not penmanship. If you're looking for penmanship, look at my handwriting curriculum section for recommendations. Writing begins with learning to write complete sentences, moving on to paragraphs, then reports, and finally research papers. It involves learning creative writing, descriptive writing, and expository writing. A good writing curriculum should include all of these things. My all-time favorite homeschool writing curriculum is Shurley Grammar. This curriculum begins in first grade when your child can read and write on a 1st grade level. This program breaks writing down into the simplest steps possible and teaches your child to write beginning with grammatically correct sentences all the way through writing research papers by Level 7. In all of my years homeschooling, I have never found a better program that teaches writing logically so that everyone, even kids and parents who are not naturally gifted writers, can write. This program combines the best possible grammar instruction so that writing in an organized and logical manner just flows naturally. I wouldn't start with anything else.
Once my children have gotten to the stage of writing three-paragraph essays, I would then include Institute for Writing in Excellence By: Andrew Pudewa It includes 9 DVDs and the workbook. I guess the best way to describe my writing curriculum recommendation is that Shurley Grammar is like baking the cake (you have to have a good foundation) and Institute for Writing in Excellence is like the icing and decorating on the cake. 
This homeschool writing curriculum puts the finishing touches on your children's writing program. Shurley teaches the mechanics and Teaching Writing: Structure and Style teaches your children style and flair. It teaches them to write material that people will want to read and say, "Wow, you're really a gifted writer!"Institute for Writing in Excellence has won many, many awards and is a video seminar for teachers/parents that presents a system of structural models and stylistic techniques that work for students of all ages. Stressing modeling and building a firm foundation of basic skills, students practice each format and develop confidence along with creativity. Six DVDs are included with teacher training, as well as three 2-hour demonstrations of the first step being taught to students at three different grade levels. Simply watch the DVD and present that lesson to the student. The included Binder Workbook contains sample lesson plans, ideas, graphic organizers, support, examples and more information to make teaching as easy as possible. In this homeschool writing curriculum, student workshops on DVD are included and also allow for grade-specific information to be taught alongside the nine units:
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