I am currently homeschooling an 8 year-old and I have a 2 yr old, as well. We love our CM learning. Right now we are doing handwriting/copy work, we use Pathway Readers and I spend 30 to 45 minutes per day reading aloud to him. We use AAR gently, slowly as tool for our reading. In 3rd grade I’d really like to incorporate some creative writing encouragement into our homes school day. My son really enjoys making (and illustrating) stories. Sometimes we do this together for fun. I do not want a creative writing curriculum at this point. But, are there any suggestions for story starters, or a book that one has used as a creative writing resource?? I feel like he would enjoy a story starter/creative writing fun in our day once or twice per week. And, with a two year old, I’d love to have a book/resource to use rather than creating or trying to think of something on my own. This would be more for fun, but also a good practice for organizing his creative thoughts on paper with mom. Any advice/help is appreciated.
Write Shop offers free monthly writing prompt calendars on their blog to download. I’ve printed those before and let the kids choose any prompt on that month’s calendar. Their blog also has a lot of writing prompts in the posts, some with great photos to go along to inspire ideas.
Brave Writer’s blog has a writing prompt category too with past posts.
I like to copy and paste them all in a document and print it out. Then put it in a binder so we can flip through whenever we want inspiration.
Thank you Tristan. You are so helpful, and I have used your advice from another post last year concerning AAR. I will definitely check out Write Shop and Brave Writer’s Blog. I don’t want to be to pushy with grammar and writing at this age, but since he’s enjoying it – it might be fun and educational.
I recently purchased Story Starters by Karen Andreola (author of A Charlotte Mason Companion) and plan to use it with my 11 and 13yo boys. I may think about using with my 8yo daughter. Not sure of the recommended ages for it. Hope you find something that works!
We have used Write On! by Karen Newell over the years. It’s written for elementary through jr. high. There is a mix of creative writing and more structured writing, but you can jump around throughout the book.