Composition
Resources
Create! Press
Create! Press carries creative approaches to teaching creative writing and composition. Their products include the Create-A-Story game, Writing Adventures, Stepping Stones, and more.
Writing Strands & Reading Strands
This program is based on research which shows that there is no useable relationship between the study of grammar as an abstracted skill and the ability to communicate. Writing Strands provides quality reading, writing and speech materials for homeschoolers with children ages 3 through 18. The guided exercises in Writing Strands progress incrementally and allow students to work independently, yet provide the guidance students need to sharpen their ability to inform, persuade and entertain in writing. Helps develop successful writing skills for your child’s lifetime.
Shurley English
Shurley English maintains that effective instruction in English must be founded upon an understanding of how the parts of speech work together in a sentence. A good grammar foundation gives students the skills to improve writing. Grammar is the structure of sentence composition. Through grammar, students learn how to write, improve, and expand sentences. After they have an understanding of sentence structure, students are then able to combine sentences successfully into paragraphs, essays, and reports. For product information on Phonics Pathways, click here or visit their website.
Things to See & Do
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park
Visitors to this Florida homestead can walk back in time to 1930s farm life. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings lived and worked in the tiny community of Cross Creek. Her cracker style home and farm, where she lived for 25 years and wrote her Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Yearling, has been restored and is preserved as it was when she lived here.
Activities & Experiments
We the People Ideas of America Essay Contest
As part of its We the People initiative, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) invites high school juniors to participate in an essay contest that invites them to reflect on The Idea of America.
UCTheFuture - Life in the Year 2047
This contest involves electronically or manually submitting a graphic depiction (drawing, photo or other image) along with a 50 to 100-word description of what an aspect of the world will look like in the year 2047.
A $1,000 prize will be awarded to the winning entry chosen from the first 50 entries submitted and selected for viewing on the UCTheFuture web site.
Letters About Literature
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, in partnership with Target Stores and in cooperation with affiliate state centers for the book, invites readers in grades 4 through 12 to enter Letters About Literature, a national reading-writing contest. To enter, readers write a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre-- fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic, explaining how that author's work changed the student's way of thinking about the world or themselves. There are three competition levels: Level I for children in grades 4 through 6; Level II for grades 7 and 8, and Level III, grades 9 - 12. Winners receive cash awards at the national and state levels.
Greeting Card Contest from Kate Harper Designs
Kate Harper Designs is seeking out submissions for our Greeting Card Contest to select quotes for our "Kid's Quotes" greeting card line. We always have a shortage of submissions, so the more you submit, the higher chances you have of being published. This contest is open to children aged 12 or younger. If your quote is selected, you will receive $25, your name printed on the card, and free greeting cards.
Teaching Tips & Ideas
How I Teach a Large Family in a Relaxed, Classical Way: Language Arts
Tips for teaching language arts (writing, grammar, handwriting) in a large family.
Featured Resources
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The Grammar Of Our Civility: Classical Education In America
This book explains the history of classical education in America and offers a vision for the role of classical education in 21st century America.
Elementary Geography
Elementary Geography is a reprint of the original work by Charlotte Mason. It includes her ideas about teaching children about their world, with poetry selections throughout the book. Explores ideas of place from space to our earth, seasons, map making, and topography. Written in a pleasing conversational style, it is useful for understanding teaching methods, memorization, and copy work.
America's Spectacular National Parks
The concept of the national park is an American contribution to world civilization, and it remains a defining characteristic of our country. From the rocky shore of Maine's Acadia to the barren crater and lush rain forest of Hawaii's Haleakala, America's national beauty is celebrated and preserved in its national parks. This book retells the history of each park, describes its most important features and wildlife, and reproduces its gorgeous scenery in full-color photographs that will enthrall a...
Florida History from the Highways
Discover Florida, with its unique geography and exciting history--from ancient gold to modern real estate speculation--by journeying along its highways. Beginning with a chronology and succinct account of Florida's spectacular development, then an account of the rise of the major cities, Florida History from the Highways takes you throughout the state, pointing out the fascinating events that occurred at locations along the way. You'll travel through changing times and landscapes and emerge fill...
Montessori International
Montessori International is the magazine for all parents and teachers. Montessori International magazine is a high quality colour education magazine with a Montessori focus and a truly child-centred approach. The magazine is for Montessori parents, nursery owners, teachers, and students with an interest in Montessori education.