Try Making Books to Encourage Writing
In my previous post on this blog, I wrote about why boys don't like to write, and gave some suggestions for encouraging them to do so. Then I came across a faded old copy of an out-of-print book called "An Experiment in Education " by Sybil Marshall which had another excellent idea. Just before I explain her suggestion, I want to spend a few lines in praise of this old book. Yes, it was written in 1963 and chronicles over thirty years of teaching in a one-room schoolhouse near Cambridge in England, but her insights into juggling multiple ages in a single classroom are the stuff of beauty for homeschooling parents. She is particularly good about using art for educational purposes, but I shall say more about that in a future blog entry as I experiment in my own home a bit more. Meanwhile, back to boys and writing. In my previous post, one of the suggestions I made for getting boys to write involved diagramming or drawing first, then writing about the drawing second. ...