I loved letter writing and getting letters when I was a kid, when having a pen pal was a normal thing. I would love for my son to get to enjoy writing and receiving real letters. Hoping to find another child (or two) he can write back and forth with, girl or boy, around his age.
We live in Wisconsin on 40 acres. He's a super reader but not as much a writer, so this is also to encourage more writing. He supports this idea.
Riona, yes, there is nothing like letters! I grew up in the 80s and and it seems like having a penpal that you didn't know was a normal thing. My class in school had a group of penpals from a school in another part of the state that we wrote to all year and then we took a day trip to meet them at the end of the school year. I still remember it well. But I also wrote letters to friends I met at summer camp, and wrote letters back and forth with friends even into college years. At that point email started wtihin the colleges and that was the beginning of the fast decline of letters.
I still have a box of letters, and I love how each person's handwriting is so different and their hands held the letter before you got it, and the anticipation of waiting for a letter in the mail. I had a couple friends who always like to put things in letters like confetti or a leaf.
Letter writing has a beautiful long history. Email is really almost not even in the same category, I think!
May Maglock wrote: He's a super reader but not as much a writer, so this is also to encourage more writing.
This is not what you're asking for - my 10 year old has morphed into a 30 year old engineer who creates board games as a hobby.
However, as a 10 year old, he too, struggled with writing. We were working through a book called, "Grammar with a Giggle" and part of the daily assignment was to take the "word of the day" which were slightly uncommon English words like "verdant" green, and write a sentence that used the word in a reasonable context. Our house rule said that the sentence had to be a minimum of 13 words, but I'm not sure where that came from (20 years ago...) The idea was to make sure he was challenged to write one complex sentence every day. It worked wonders. Eventually, out of choice, he started linking the days together with an overall creative theme. It got him over the fear of "writing a story".
There is no reason you couldn't just make your own list of English words to be the target words, or find a book that's at your son's limit or above for vocabulary and choose words out of that book. I used the Grammar book because we were using it to help him learn proof-reading and to hopefully help with some of his dyslexia issues, but there are plenty of ways to generate a suitable list of words.
I'd love to have my 10 (almost 11) yo grandson join in if this is still an interest. He JUST found his love for reading and his writing could definitely use practice. PM if anyone would like to join us. We love nature, card & board games, hiking & camping and going on adventures. We love reading adventure books and he loves to swim. He also loves to draw and build with legos. --Tess
Sam and Tess, I sent you both PMs, thanks for responding to this post! Sam, i am not sure what resources they have for homeschooling families, but I hear you, ways to connect with homeschoolers near you is important. We have a nice group in our area, but it hasn't always been that way and I feel very thankful. Maybe someone else who sees this will know more than me about Permies resources for you!
I tried a few homeschool groups near me and they seemed 'exclusive'. I get not knowing the newbie, but snubbing is a big red flag for me. Kids & adults were doing it. It 's hard to find a friendly group w/o the drama of clique-iness. We are all HS b/c we want better for our kiddos, not the same sh*t they got at B&M. We attend events at the library, local events in the community; but we experience too much 'ick' in formal groups.
We have our own adventures, experiences and learning well enough on our own right now. But it would be nice for Mi and me to have some connections at some point. I am not too desperate yet, as to just put up with the snark, but I really want him to have a few good friends, too. -Tess
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