A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Language Arts

The Good and Beautiful

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I want you to welcome Miss Yvie to the blog today. I asked on the Homeschool Review Crew for people willing to talk about an art program, art book or an art resource they wanted to talk about.

Miss Yvie took me up on the challenge.

Here is what she has to say about The Good and The Beautiful.

The gist of the video is :

  • covers level 3-7 (there is also a K, 1, and 2, but we didn’t use them)
  • Cover handwriting curriculum also
  • Talks about how art history, art appreciation and art instruction are incorporated into their language arts courses.

Here is the link to where they can find more information about the Good & the Beautiful’

The Good and the Beautiful is also a program I use with the lad. He wanted to learn spelling and do some work with grammar this year, so I went looking for something I thought might intrigue him and at least 20 people recommended The Good and The Beautiful. It is NOT just a language arts program, but also cover geography, art, poetry and more. He likes it! 🙂 That makes it a winner in my book (and his). 

 

The Good and The Beautiful is available through Jenny Phillips.  Free if you download online, you can also order the ready made books.  Now.. seeing the ready made books in the video makes me want to get them and hang the cost!  Aren’t they simply beautiful? 

You can find Yvie at Gypsy Road School. 

Yvie is a road-schooling mother of two active boys! While traipsing across the country, she creates Lego-themed school and enjoys meeting up with other families. At home, you can find her working at her homeschool ministry, The Book Shack. Find her at Gypsy Road, Instagram, or on Facebook.

Find Inspiration in your Surroundings

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I was originally going to write a blogging tips post this morning but felt totally uninspired to do so.  It’s been a rather crazy busy weekend and my mind simply wasn’t on it.  So on this rainy winter day as my boys are gathered around me and the olympic bobsledding competition is on, I find my mind turning to what inspires people to write, and how one gains that inspiration.

Surround yourself for connection and inspiration, the things you love in people, activities and books.

We write what we know or we write what we can imagine.  Imagine you are a literary artist who loves to talk about fire.  If you are living in the middle of the city, how would you cultivate that love? Or you are a homeschool mom with a love for antiques and delving into the history of a piece…how will you cultivate the love?  Or a fantasy author with a love for dragons and chivalry?  How will you cultivate that love?

We need to surround ourselves with things that feed our loves.  Either by filling our lives with what we love (for instance going to antique markets) or by doing research, learning all we can about what we love.   When we do so, we will find that our writing will flow out more easily. 

 

Recently my son and I read a book called “The Scream of the Hawk”.   In this book one of the characters is an author who writes scary books.  He hired a girl to take care of his son because he needed to do some research.  He spent times in the library researching caves and learning about spelunking.  Once he had that done he planned a weekend away climbing through caves.   He ended up immersing himself into a world he nothing about so he could write about it realistically in his book. 

If we just live our lives and don’t spend time with the things we love and want to write about, we won’t end up writing about them.  We end up writing only about the things that we are immersed in.  We need to surround ourselves with people, books and experiences that inspire us and connect with us. We take this, sifting through what we know, and we write.  If we have nothing to inspire us… of what then would we write?

Makes sense doesn’t it?

I did up a worksheet if you want to want to work through how you can bring the things you love into your life.  You can find by CLICKING HERE.

Other Posts on Writing Well.

Using Adjectives Well. 
Organizing how you put your words to bring emphasis.
Your Identity. 
Begin Sentences with Subjects and Verbs.
Set a Goal, Regain the Love.

 

Use Strong Verbs

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Want to improve your writing?  Do you desire to make it more interesting?  Writing that grabs people in and makes them to digest all that you have to say to them?  Then mind the verbs that you use.  Look for the active, use the passive only when you need to.   Strengthen your writing skills.

improve your writing, use active voice.

Did you know that verbs fit into three categories?

  • If the subject performs the action of the verb, we call the verb active.
  • If the subject receives the action of the verb, we call the verb passive.
  • A verb that is neither active or passive is a linking verb, a form of the verb to be.

Consider these lines from Treasures in the Snow by Patricia M. St. John: “His father wished he had known of this, so that he could have put a chocolate stick on the step, for he hated to disappoint his boy.  However, open the back door he must, to roll the milk churns across to the stable; so he lifted the latch.  In an instant Dani had dived between his legs like a rabbit, and was kneeling by his slipper in the snow.”   Oh… can’t you just picture it?  Doesn’t it draw you right in?

Use your verbs, use them well.   Don’t over use them…by adding too much colour with the active voice.  Be aware of how much passive voice you are using as you want to keep the action moving, or the emotions properly felt etc.  Using an active voice in your writing requires the use of strong verbs. 

What do strong verbs do?

Strong verbs convey characters, save excess words, and create movement. 

Remember that active voice has nothing to do with tense.  Tense is in the past, present or future.  It doesn’t convey action, just merely when an event occurs.  Voice is what defines the relationship between the subject and the verb, basically who does what. 

As you are writing, and rewriting, make sure you watch what you are doing with your verbs.  Are you conveying the feelings, action and characters they way you want?   Are you showing your readers what they need to see, feel and want to know?

Do you want to practice what you have learned?    Check out this worksheet. 

Interested in other writing tips?
Order Words for Emphasis
Setting Goals, Regain the LoveOn being a write - arrange

 

 

Writing Tools: Order Words for Emphasis with Printable

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The last time I used this book, Writing Tools, I talked about how you should begin sentences with Subjects and Verbs.   Today we’ll be talking about how you organize your words.  One should order words for emphasis. 

Why is this important?

In any sentence, the final punctuation acts as a stop.  The slight pause in reading adds emphasis to the final word in the sentence, so minding where you place words in a sentence adds additional emphasis.   For instance, let’s say there was a bombing at the school.  Which would be better: Parents arrived at the school dressed in housecoats and business suits.  OR Parents hurried to the school, arriving in their business suits and housecoats.   Being left with the image of housecoats imparts the sense of urgency those parents would feel wouldn’t it?

When you start and end a sentence with stronger words, it allows you hide weaker or supportive words in the middle.  This is especially useful when quoting someone, allowing you to list the attribution  in the middle of the quote “I have having the flu,” said the lad, “it makes my throat sore.”

Sometimes people call this the 2-3-1 tool of emphasis (here’s an interesting article on that).  The most important sentence comes at the end, the second most at the beginning, and the least important in the middle.    Or simply put the best first and last, the rest in the middle.  Follow this for sentences and for paragraphs, it will make your writing better overall. 

Printable:

To download click here.

Practice your skills at using this principle.

 

If you would like to follow along in writing tools, you can find it here on Amazon.

Linked up at Encouraging hearts. Homeschool review crew.

How to Write a Poem: Finding Your Joy

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This book has been on my wish list on Amazon ever since the writer’s conference in the fall.  My dear hubby picked it up for me for Christmas and I thought this week I would dive into it.   This first chapter is called “Find the Poems Inside”. 

In this chapter we are introduced to the idea of doing freewrites.

I admittedly am not unfamiliar with this term.  The five-minute-Friday challenges I take part in are five minute freewrites.  Where you just write for five minutes. Unlike these free writes though where we don’t edit, we just write and share, this first chapter encourages us to freewrite for 5-15 minutes, a given time frame, and then use that freewrite in order to frame out a better poem. 

The author also gives a bunch of freewrite starters like a tour of your home town, being at the hospital, a time you got lost and more.

But you don’t do it immediately.  Do your freewrite and then walk away from it.  Have a cup of coffee or go for a walk or something.  Just give yourself a break.   Once you have done that, go back, read your poem over.  Make no changes, just read it.  Then read it again with a pen in hand marking those parts that you really like. The lines that speak to your heart cause that’s what poetry is…your heart speaking to the world. 

Take those heart lines and write those out, and then use those lines to help you write a better poem, a poem with some flesh on it, without answering all the questions your poem raises, because heart answers are seldom complete. Write and refine, but first find your heart in a topic.   

That’s what the joy of freewrites are.. finding your joy.

 

Review: Canadian History-Based Writing Lessons

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 Here I am today showing you an outstanding language arts curriculum produced by the great IEW people with Canadian History Content!!!!!    How wonderful is that eh?  It is called the Canadian History-based Writing Lessons. 

Okay, so I’ve heard it said that you can’t use IEW writing lessons unless you have a good grounding in how their system works. In fact their website will tell you this:  These lessons are designed to be used by an instructor who has been through the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style seminar.  In practice I have learned this fundamental fact, if you take your time and you follow the lesson plan, your students will learn.  That said, will they learn as much as if you took the time to do the lessons and fully understand their system?   I don’t know.  I do know that my son is learning and I sorta took the seminar but haven’t really retained the information.  I find the IEW people have been nothing less than helpful whenever I’ve called upon them for help as well.. so don’t let the instructor training part freak you out…really, don’t let it.


Trust your instincts and your ability to follow instructions and you will do just fine. 


Now that that, is out of the way, let’s talk about what you get.  For this review I received the teacher’s manual…wow…ever so helpful, and the student book…. lots of space to write even for my space hungry boy.

The particulars.
The student book sets out the scope and sequence of the course nicely.  Letting you know the history topic to be covered as well as the writing lessons: style, vocabulary and structure.   Very clearly laid out so you know what you are working towards.

The teacher’s manual contains copies of each of the pages, so that you know you and your student are working off the same page and lesson.

Instructions are very clearly laid out for your use.  You don’t have to guess what you are to do next.  Answers are provided.   Allowing you to guide your children if necessary and to check their work easily.

As I mentioned earlier, there is lots of space for the student to write (you’ll need one for each student).  My space hungry boy doesn’t complain about needing more room.  I’m not showing you pages of completed work as my lad is (the older he becomes) less inclined to let anyone potentially see his less than perfect handwriting or work!

My son, even though he tends NOT to be a fan of writing curriculum, has been delighted to learn about Canadian history while improving his ability to write well. It solves the “but why do I have to learn THIS” struggle as all I have to say is “good to learn more about Canada eh?” He automatically agrees.  🙂  Win win eh?



Now along with these two books you get downloads from IEW.  
The Student Resource Packet and Lesson Checklists.   The Student Resource Packet is an invaluable part of the program and shouldn’t be neglected.  Don’t forget to download it!  Printing it off and getting it bound would be a great way to keep it all together easily. 

The checklist is helpful to make sure you’ve covered everything you are supposed to in a given lesson.  If you are inclined to grade the work, a grading system is included.

What do we think?
It’s a great curriculum to use, we’ll be putting it aside to use as our language arts program next year.  It’s a lovely middle school program that will serve our needs well after we finish the writing program we are currently using.



Canadian History Based Writing Lessons 
IEW
Lisa Marie Fletcher 
Lori Verstegen
two books plus online resources
History, writing, curriculum.

Can be purchased these Canadian Resellers. 

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Four Sources of Poetry for Middle School and High School

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As a reader on my blog, I’m sure you’ve come to realize that I like poetry, I like writing it (it’s fun for me), and I often times like to read it, though not always… (sorry being honest).

middle school highschool poetry lessons

When I pondered what to write for this Monday post I got to thinking about writing poetry, and learning how to read poetry.  You see when I was at the Writer’s Conference I ran into this book that I wanted to buy but couldn’t justify the cost of (it’s now on my wish list from Amazon as maybe a Christmas present).  🙂

It’s important I think to learn how to read a poem, to understand how to see the images the poet is portraying, even if you don’t understand everything, like all the nuances and what not.. cause seriously. when I read a  poem I don’t catch everything that some others might, I just read it, and think “neat” or “meh”.  🙂    Occasionally one will catch me off guard, or just even a line and I’ll ponder that for a while… that to me is reading a poem.  🙂  And THAT is how I’ve taught my lad.  (sorry, nasty little secret eh?)  🙂

Anyways, on to poetry lessons here!  🙂  Where can you find them?

Well, first up is poetry that you can find on SchoolhouseTeachers.com.
Opening the Door to Poetry.   The lad and I are starting this course this week as soon as he’s done his Writing Radar book.

Then down the road when we want to do something different (like over the holidays when things get a bit more sporadic).  So I found The Literary Maven. She has a 30 day poetry challenge for high school students, and granted the lad’s not there but hey.. read a poem, be inspired, laugh a little, and just have fun for a few days! 

Then I stopped by Poets.org and discovered lesson plans for poetry.. for middle school and highschool.  I thought Dear Poet 2017 looked interesting.  What do you think?  Or would one of their other lesson plans intrigue you more?

If you want to read seasonal poems, you could check out these fall/autumn poems for middle schoolers put together by The Poetry Foundation. 

What do you think?  Will these get you and your students off to a good poetry study this fall and winter?  I hope so.. poetry is fun if you let it be.  🙂  

Read it, delight in it, but don’t beat it death!  Let the thoughts and images run through your mind, letting a line grabbing you so you can savour it.. and then let it go again.  Poetry is a bit of a wild child you know…you have to let it run free soaking in where it will, running where it needs to.  Blazingly fun, comfortingly slow, or soothingly sweet.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites