THE GIFT OF READING

It’s October! Time for a new season . . . and who doesn’t love fall? Much of nature reminds us of our lives, and certainly the changing of seasons is a part of life. What changes does the fall season usher in for you and your family?

When I was homeschooling our four children, October was a month that I might describe as “the calm before the storm”. My son played sports year-round, but fall-ball demanded less and resulted in a more relaxed season. Our girls participated in a classical choir, so by November we found ourselves busy with extra practices in preparation for December performances. But October felt settled. After a hot summer in Sacramento, California, we welcomed the cooler days by enjoying hot drinks and baked goods. (My other name was “Mrs. Cookie Monster” . . . no joke! Oh to have a houseful of children so I could bake cookies to my heart’s content.)

During this “settled” month, we enjoyed routine . . . routine that included reading together. In fact, during the years that I homeschooled an “early reader”, instead of mommy reading to her children for naptime, my “early reader” ended up reading to mommy for naptime. I can’t count the number of times I fell asleep as one of my young children read to me. Typically, my nap only lasted for 5-10 min., but the settled pace allowed me to enjoy a catnap nonetheless.

Of course, with a range of ages in the home, older children had their own reading to tackle, but we often enjoyed time for reading aloud altogether. This is a truly magical time for families, but it can also feel burdensome, so let’s consider how to speak life into family read-aloud time.

  •  I won’t worry so much about WHAT we are reading together; I’ll just make an effort to regularly read together with my children.

  •  I’ll be careful not to rush our reading time together. Instead, I’ll let the children engage in the story reading . . . if they wish to.

  •  Together we can enjoy learning new words and meeting new friends.

  •  I’ll allow my children to ponder the “whys” in our story:

    • Why did Susie cry?

    •  Why do you like this story? Or not?

  • Instead of rushing to finish the book, I’ll model quality reading so my children learn how to read well and so my children enjoy our read aloud time together.

  •  WHEN we enter an extra busy season in our lives, I will extend grace to myself if we don’t get to read aloud as often.

    Each family dynamic is unique, so I encourage you to find a time and place that works well for your family to enjoy some read-aloud time: around the dining room table as everyone enjoys mealtime together; on the comfy sectional where each person can sink into the cushions; on mom and dad’s big bed piled high with soft pillows; on a picnic blanket outside enjoying some of those home-baked cookies with milk. Get creative. Your children might even want to plan the setting for read-aloud time. Take pictures to remember the fun, and even the chaos. A little here and a little there; it all adds up to quality family time, experiencing one of the greatest gifts of life: READING!

    Speaking life,
    Kris C. krisspeakslife@gmail.com

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BOOKS AND BEYOND

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Last week when one of my dear friends came to visit me from the other side of the country, she brought me a cute notepad with quotes about books. These are the quotes I enjoyed the most:

  •   “Think before you speak. Read before you think.” Fran Lebowitz

  • “A book is a dream you hold in your hand.” Neil Gaiman

  •  “A book is a device to ignite the imagination.” Alan Bennett

  •  “Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.” Anna Quindlen

    (Do you have a favorite quote about books? If so, I’d love for you to share it with me.)

    I especially like the above quote by Alan Bennett: “A book is a device to ignite the imagination.” It reminds me of one of my all-time favorite children’s books; one that communicates an incredibly impactful message for adults too. The title of the book is What Do You Do With an Idea, by Kobi Yamada.

    “This is a story of one brilliant idea and the child who helps to bring it into the world. It’s a story for anyone, at any age, who’s ever had an idea that seemed too big, too odd, too difficult. It’s a story to inspire you to welcome that idea, to give it space to grow, and to see what happens next.” (quote from www.live-inspired.com)

    This is a book “to ignite the imagination”. (You can even find a YouTube read-aloud.) I’ve discovered that one of my favorite phrases is, “I have an idea”. As soon as I hear those words, I’m engaged and ready to listen . . . ready to speak life into your idea. I want to encourage you to check this book out and think about what idea God has placed on your heart and in your mind. If you feel really brave, share your idea with someone else. I’d even love for you to send me a message and share your idea with me or post your idea to our Facebook or IG. Of course, it probably goes without saying that this is a book you will want to read to your children often. They too have world-changing ideas.

    Written by: Kris Cordell krisspeakslife@gmail.com

SMALL GROUP TUTORING & TUTORING FOR PARENTS/ADULTS TOO

As you might guess, tutoring sessions offer the opportunity to address students’ specific needs, moving instruction forward at a pace that reflects their specific strengths and weaknesses. When tutoring an individual or small group, the content of instruction is essentially the same as our classes, but the pace varies based on individual abilities. There are a variety of reasons why tutoring might be a good option for you or your children.

Tutoring can meet specific needs as the instructor focuses on the exact goals for the student. These students often require help in specific ways:

  •  Knowing what information to write about

  •  Articulating ideas well

  •  Applying grammar concepts

  •  Organizing ideas logically

  •  Creating quality sentences

  •  All of the above

    Oftentimes students benefit from the tutoring option because they require modified instruction due to an IEP, a scheduling challenge, or even a personal preference.

    Option #1: One-on-one Tutoring Sessions:

    In each of the aforementioned situations, the instructor can quickly assess a single student’s abilities, provide on-the-spot assistance, and gently guide the student to a better understanding, practice, and eventual mastery of the needed skills. With the many benefits and options in one-on-one tutoring sessions, this is a popular choice. However, this is not the only option for tutoring!

    Option #2: Tutoring Sessions:

    At times, families, pods, or homeschooling groups desire writing instruction to meet more than one student’s needs at a time. As long as the students fall into a similar age, ability level, and attention span, small group tutoring affords instructional options to meet several students in the same session. For a variety of reasons, we have families that cannot join one of our scheduled classes, and the beauty of group tutoring is the flexible schedule and content of instruction. Group sessions are also offered at a lower cost than individual sessions, so they are a great budget-friendly option as well!

Option #3: Temporary Support:

Families or charter teachers frequently contact us to help students complete difficult assignments, or to provide instruction when students need to learn a specific writing method. Our tutors vary in their specialized abilities. Student may seek short-term tutoring for the following reasons:

  •  To complete a research paper, large report or composition

  •  To prepare for standardized testing

  •  To complete college entrance essays

    At The Write Journey, we understand the limited nature of these types of sessions. Whether the need involves a writing assignment, test preparation, or college admission essays, we love to meet the student’s specific needs.

    Option #4: Special Needs

    We have a handful of instructors that have worked with children with special needs. Our goal is to meet the student at their ability level, and provide the steps and strategies to grow. With patience and time, many students have learned much more than they or their families originally believed possible. Our caring instructors are committed to kind, gentle instruction delivered with consistency, encouragement, and support for our students and their families. Several of our educators raised children with special needs; I am one of them! We know some of the fears and frustrations that accompany the goals of helping our children grow, learn, and shine. However, with multiple success stories, we feel confident that we can find the right fit for your child. Our commitment to partner with parents and families will always be a top priority!

    Option #5: Adult Tutoring

    Not only do we occasionally have requests for tutoring college students, but we also work with adults who benefit from practical writing instruction, which prepares them for various aspects of their career: drafting letters, emails, proposals, marketing materials, etc. After learning our tried and true, practical writing methods, adults find greater confidence in their higher education and career pursuits.

    Consider Tutoring?

    If you would like a pressure-free conversation about our tutoring possibilities and options, I would love to speak with you! Give our office line a call at 916-696-1759. A phone call or email to our office will allow us to better understand, coordinate efforts, and come up with a plan to meet each student’s needs. I hope to hear from you.

    Written by: Julie Snyder Educational Director & Instructor

MAKING THE MOST OF LITERATURE THROUGH ENRICHMENT PROJECTS

Enrichment Projects

When studying a novel, we often find some tidbit of information we would like to study further. Perhaps there is an interesting location in the story. Maybe it is even the author that fascinates. Have you ever wanted to follow a rabbit trail in education? Cue the enrichment project!

Throughout our many years of teaching classes, students anticipate the end-of -semester enrichment assignments in classes. These enrichment projects (EPs) are designed to allow students to explore an area of interest from the novel. In medieval studies, students explore crests, castles, occupations, and they even build large scale models. Other EPs provide opportunities for students to rewrite the ending of a story, write a prologue to a story, or write their own story with similar themes or literary elements. Still other projects allow for research of historical figures, events, people groups, or geographical settings. Whatever the project, EPs offer wonderful educational opportunities. In The Write Journey classes, EPs include three components: a written assignment, a visual aid or project, and an oral presentation. Typically, the EP allows all students to explore their creative talents and interests through creative writing, artistic projects, and engaging oral presentations.

The written portion:

While the EP is designed to explore new and different types of writing (moving beyond the academic essay), students use skills learned in class to create the written portion of the project. In addition, instructors may introduce story writing skills to help students tackle their own stories. They may also teach skills such as letter writing, poetry, or even research writing. Depending upon the book, instructors will help students learn about writing in a style that differs from formal academic response writing, even as they continue to remind students about the importance of applying the skills they have learned through their essay writing instruction and practice. Even creative writing includes engaging ideas, logical organization, quality sentence structure, and proper grammar.

The visual aid:

This portion of the enrichment project allows students to flex their creative muscles! Many homemade costumes, food items, dioramas, poster boards, online slideshows, videos, and models have been shown over the years. We believe this is one of the best parts of homeschooling; the freedom to think outside the box and create gives students a refreshing break from the day-in and day-out assignments and tasks. Some students are by nature more creative than others, but ALL students have creative ideas and will benefit from exploring their interests in relation to the book they are studying.

The oral presentation:

While this portion of the EP allows performers a chance to shine, it may intimidate other students. However, time and again, we watch our students blossom and grow in exciting ways on presentation days. Some classes begin practicing oral presentations weeks before the big day with show-and-tell, or learning to share a personal anecdote. Through class discussions, students also sense the class comradery that enables them to present in front of a crowd. Students, instructors, and parents all give warm encouragement to the presenter. Since we know that students will need to continue presenting later in life, such as in educational and career pursuits, these oral presentations give our students the exposure and practice they will need to succeed.

Presentation Week, 2021
This semester, our presentations will take place in class during the week of November 16th -18th, 2021. Students will decide what they will need to complete for their EPs, and they will begin working on the assignments related to the project a few weeks prior to their presentation day. With the mystery genre this semester, we know there will be some wonderful projects related to the detective culture. We expect students from different class levels to find creative ways to interact with and help one another. As always, parents are encouraged to join in the Zoom class to watch the presentations. Class instructors will share the needed information to allow you to participate. May the planning and projects bring a sense of wonder and intrigue into your homes!

Written by: Julie Snyder Educational Director & Instructor

We hear many questions, but some we get often! Questions such as:

Why do you read only one book per class? or

Doesn’t reading analytically create a dislike for reading? Shouldn’t reading just be fun?

or even
Why do students write shorter compositions than many other students their age?

Many more questions are answered in the FAQ section of our “ABOUT” tab. Check it out to see if your question may be addressed on the list of frequently asked questions. If it is not addressed there, feel free to reach out by email or phone! 916-696-1759