curriculum Archives - Character Ink https://characterinkblog.com/tag/curriculum/ Home of the Language Lady & Cottage Classes! Mon, 02 Jul 2018 19:19:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Five Reasons Why Character Ink Writing Books* Work! https://characterinkblog.com/five-reasons-character-ink-writing-books-work/ https://characterinkblog.com/five-reasons-character-ink-writing-books-work/#respond Tue, 03 Jul 2018 16:01:08 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=5381 1. They use my Directed Writing Approach! In my Directed Writing Approach, every detail of every project is laid out for your student. None of my writing projects are “writing ideas” or “writing prompts.” Every writing assignment contains step-by-step instructions with much hand-holding along the way. The student is “directed” in how to write and […]

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5 Reasons Why Character Ink Writing Books Work!

1. They use my Directed Writing Approach!

In my Directed Writing Approach, every detail of every project is laid out for your student. None of my writing projects are “writing ideas” or “writing prompts.” Every writing assignment contains step-by-step instructions with much hand-holding along the way. The student is “directed” in how to write and what to write at all times—from brainstorming to research to outlining to rough draft and finally to revising.


My Directed Writing Approach takes the best methods I have discovered in order to teach each type of writing—color-coded research for research-based projects, “Topic of Paragraph” commitment for teaching paragraph breaks, The Three P’s of Persuasion for persuasive writing, the “section-paragraph-sentence” method for longer papers, story writing mapping, Paragraph House for young writers, 1-3-1 essay outlines, my Checklist Challenge for revising, and much more. Each Directed Writing Approach “method” is tried and true after fifteen years of my writing one hundred books and over fifty thousand pages!

 

BeautyandBeastStoreClick on the picture above to view free samples of these books!

 

2. They contain a combination of projects—those with “given material” to write from and those that are completely original (in which student finds material on his own to use as his source).

 

Students are taught a wide variety of outlining methods in all of my books—Key Word Outlines From Given Material, Directed Brainstorming, Persuasive Mapping, The Paragraph House Outline, Split Paper Technique, Sentence-by-Sentence (S-by-S) Outlining from original sources, Q and A Outlines, Five W’s outlines, Scene Outlines for Story Writing, Formal Outlines for research, and much more.

 

I teach most writing types/projects by giving the student source material to take notes from first—then having the student branch out and write that same type of writing finding his own source. It is this combination of “given material” first followed by student-found material that gives the student confidence to write that type of paper or story. This method keeps the student from becoming too dependent upon given source material while at the same time helping him learn to find source material (or create his own!) after using given passages first. It is a win-win method.

 

Write On, Mowgli!Click on the picture above to view free samples of these books!

 

3. The skills that are needed for each writing project are taught within that writing project.

To ask a student to write a paper using three sources and two quotations without teaching the student the skills to complete those steps is cruel! When a project is being taught in my books, the student is also taught whatever skills are needed to complete the project.

 
For example, if the student is writing a story about an animal escaping, he will be taught words and vocabulary that describe various sizes and types of animals as well as how to use onomatopoeia to describe animal sounds. If a student is told to write a persuasive paper, he will be taught the elements of persuasive writing first. If he is writing a research report in which quotes are to be cited, he will be instructed first in how to use quotations (in an earlier lesson) then in how to cite them for that particular paper. These many “how to” lessons give students the tools to write whatever they are assigned easily and with confidence.

 

CQLAClick on the picture above to view free samples of these books!

 

4. Books are tested with over one hundred students each semester!

My books are not written by grammarians behind closed doors or even by experts who seldom work in small groups with students. (While my undergraduate degree in elementary education and my master’s work in reading specialist do help me occasionally, it is homeschooling for thirty-two years and testing my books every year {and writing and rewriting!} that give me my writing credentials.)

 
Character Ink books are written by teachers who write meaningful lessons then take them out and test drive them for two to five years with over a hundred students each semester. (My new 10 II: Four Research Reports has been tested for six years now—and took over a hundred hours to write and perfect the MLA/quotation citation methods lessons alone!)

 
Every year Character Ink has local cottage classes for homeschooled students in which small groups of students (six to ten per class) take either our complete language arts (Character Quality Language Arts) or our composition-only (Meaningful Composition) classes. As we test our books, we make notes in the margins, discuss them with our students (why was this one so hard for you when the last one was easier?), talk among the teachers, then go back and fix the books, tweak the lessons, and even drop lessons that are too confusing or uninteresting to students. You can’t possibly know if a lesson or project is a good one until you have sat across the table from eight junior high boys to watch their expressions (and/or glossed over looks in their eyes!). This is how we know our programs work!

 

MCbooksClick on the picture above to view free samples of these books!

 

5. Student writing samples are provided for all original writing projects and portions of samples are provided for smaller assignments.

Our books have a little extra something that is seldom found in textbooks and certainly never found at the level of ours—student samples! Each of the original projects have a full-length student sample of that project. As a matter of fact, we use the student samples in our books to teach from—starting with Thesis Statements, Thesis Statements “Reloaded,” and other LINK sentences on to paragraph breaks, proper quotation use, scene development in stories, and much more.

 
Students understand the writing project so much better when there are models for them to look at and when they see what the expectations are for the project. Parents love our student samples because it helps them measure their student’s skills in following the instructions for each project (and gives the parent confidence to know if her student is completing the assignment correctly).

 
Our student writing samples are provided in all types of projects—expository essays, biographical reports, research reports, short stories, twice-told tales, persuasive essays, and more. Your student will know from the beginning what each project involves as the book takes him through a sample to see what great project he will be doing! Student samples are invaluable!

 

Need further evidence? Go to our blog and print off two weeks of free Meaningful Composition samples at each level (or several pages of the downloadable books). Try before you buy! You will be amazed at how quickly your students become accomplished writers—and how pain-free teaching writing really can be! 🙂

 

*Write On downloadable and print books (Write On, Mowli; Write On, Peter Pan; Write On, Beauty and Beast); Meaningful Composition; Character Quality Language Arts; and other downloadable e-books.

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Beauty and the Beast Preposition Practice (FREE book download til June 15!) https://characterinkblog.com/beauty-and-beast-preposition-practice-new-digital-product/ https://characterinkblog.com/beauty-and-beast-preposition-practice-new-digital-product/#respond Wed, 09 May 2018 10:30:07 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=5641       I am so excited about my preposition book! (Yes, I get super excited about grammar!) And I’m doubly excited that you (our subscribers!) get to see it and use it—for FREE! (Scroll down below to subscribe and get it free until June 15th!)   Aboard, about, above. along, among, around….   Whether […]

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I am so excited about my preposition book! (Yes, I get super excited about grammar!)

And I’m doubly excited that you (our subscribers!) get to see it and use it—for FREE! (Scroll down below to subscribe and get it free until June 15th!)

 

Aboard, about, above. along, among, around….

 

Whether your kids sing them, recite them, chant them, rap them, or write them…prepositions are important.

I learned them in chant-like form when I was in school. However, I never knew WHY I needed to learn them.

My downloadable product will teach kids prepositions—in a way that focuses on the WHY, that is, what prepositions really do!

AND with the fun story line of the beloved Beauty and the Beast characters.

 

 

Our kids (and we!) need to learn prepositions for a few important reasons:

 

(1) They are the beginning of prepositional phrases

(2) Prepositional phrases can be mentally eliminated from a sentence in order to get to the bare bones of the sentence…since the sentence’s main subject and main verb are not usually found in prepositional phrases, This concept is imperative for subject-verb agreement solutions.

(3) Prepositional phrases are good to use as openers—especially lengthy ones—as they vary sentence structure and rhythm.

 

 

I’m all about songs, jingles, rhymes, recitation, and mnemonics for learning parts of speech (and really anything). (My books are full of them—FANBOYS for coordinating conjunctions; Be, a Helper, Link Verbs song; Preposition Check Sentences; Subordinate Clause Opener rhyme; and much more!)

 

However, when prepositions are learned in songs or recitations, the real reasons for prepositions are overlooked. (Not to mention that they learn about thirty of the over two hundred prepositions….not enough memorized preps to adequately recognize them in sentences and use them for sentence openers!)

 

That is, students can chant a long list of words, but they do not know how to use them.

 

(In addition to this book, you can learn more about teaching prepositions in these blog posts, “Why Learn (or Teach!) Prepositions” and “Teaching Prepositions.”)

 

Enter my Beauty and the Beast Preposition Practice! I use tricks. I use check sentences. I even use toys—a character from the book/movie AND a large castle—to teach prepositions (and practice them).

 

 

 

If you are not subscribed and would like this FREE book download, subscribe here!

 

 

 

Students can use either the black and white “toys” or the colored ones (a large castle and six beloved characters from Beauty and the Beast). Consider how much faster it will be for your kids to learn prepositions with these learning tools:

 

Beast ran _______________ the castle.

1. aboard – Beast ran aboard the castle.
2. about – Beast ran about the castle.
3. above – Beast ran above the castle.
4. across – Beast ran across the castle.
5. across from – Beast ran across from the castle.
6. behind the castle – Beast ran behind the castle.
7. below the castle – Beast ran below the castle.
8. beneath the castle – Beast ran beneath the castle.
9. beside the castle – Beast ran beside the castle.
10. by the castle – Beast ran by the castle.

 

 

But all of the methods within this Beauty and the Beast Preposition Practice have one thing in common: they focus on the PURPOSE of the preposition—to show spatial relationships or time.

 

This 100+ page downloadable book has eighteen lessons (with student assignments) introducing prepositions in a systematic order: initial letter, with the castle and characters, as opposites, as synonyms, as compound words, with time, and more.

 

This book also has a jam-packed Appendix section:

Appendix A: Colored and Black and White Beauty and the Beast Pictures to Use for
Student’s Preposition Practice

Appendix B: Think Fast Quiz Preposition Practice for Beginning and
Intermediate Students

Appendix C: Think Fast Quiz Preposition Practice for Advanced Students

Appendix D: Complete Preposition Lists in Categories and in Total (over ten pages of preposition lists!)

 

When you use this packet, your students will learn prepositions by the boatload—but they will also learn them for their purpose—and have fun as they do!

 

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Beauty and the Beast Checklist Challenge! (New Writing Project–Free for Subscribers!) https://characterinkblog.com/beauty-beast-checklist-challenge-new-writing-project-free-subscribers/ https://characterinkblog.com/beauty-beast-checklist-challenge-new-writing-project-free-subscribers/#respond Fri, 12 May 2017 01:09:55 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=5709 I’m excited to announce a new downloadable product that is super user-friendly and effective!  And…..it’s based on the story of Beauty and the Beast, so it’s super fun too!   I’ll give you the details of the product in a little bit, but I want to let you know how you can get your hands […]

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Beauty and the Beast Checklist Challenge How To! (New Writing Project--Free for Subscribers!)

I’m excited to announce a new downloadable product that is super user-friendly and effective!  And…..it’s based on the story of Beauty and the Beast, so it’s super fun too!

 

I’ll give you the details of the product in a little bit, but I want to let you know how you can get your hands on this resource first.

If you are a subscriber of Character Ink blog, you will automatically get it in our Freebie Friday! (How cool is that?) Yep, I’m giving you a fifty-plus-page e-book to use with your students completely free (for a limited time!).

 

If you are not a subscriber and/or you are reading this blog post after the freebie has ended, you can still get ahold of this product at Teachers Pay Teachers, CurrClick, or Character Ink Store!

 

So now for the deets….

Beauty and the Beast Checklist Challenge is a downloadable e-book that walks students (and teachers!) through the first three-fourths of Language Lady’s effective Checklist Challenge. The Checklist Challenge is a “challenging checklist” of tasks that help students go through their writing, one task at a time, and revise, edit, add to, embellish, and improve.

 

The Checklist Challenge has the following characteristics/benefits:

 

(1) Each task is given separately (i.e. not just a big master list with no explanation). The tasks are explained and samples are provided.

(2) The checklist has check boxes (one per paragraph) for each essay/report/story that you can customize to a certain project. It is clear that a paper has four paragraphs, so most of the task should be done four times— once per paragraph.

(3) The tasks are skills learned in grammar. Once a child learns how to use quotations, he should practice them immediately by putting them in his writing. The Checklist Challenge marries grammar and writing in a way that other programs do not.

(4) Coding instructions are given so that a student can be taught to code his additions and revisions for easyteacher-grading.

And so much more.

 

This book is chock full of learning! There is a thorough sample essay that has all of the CC revisions penned into it and coded to teach you and your student how this is done. There is an essay given for the student to use to complete the Checklist Challenge. However, there is also instruction in how to write your own Beauty and the Beast essay to complete the Checklist Challenge on (if desired). Finally, there is an extra Checklist Challenge for you to print off and use with future essays, stories, and reports.

 

This book will teach you how to use Language Lady’s Checklist Challenge to improve all of your writing. It will show you step-by-step how to make changes that improve your writing drastically. It is very directed—meaning that you will not have to guess what to do next or how to change something or how to improve something. You will become a pro at the Checklist Challenge (for the essay in this book as well as future essays) after you finish with this book!

 

 

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Which Character Ink Press Writing Series Is Right for Your Family? https://characterinkblog.com/character-ink-press-writing-series-right-family/ https://characterinkblog.com/character-ink-press-writing-series-right-family/#respond Sat, 15 Apr 2017 00:54:40 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=5628   With the addition of live video Cottage Classes to our line up next year and the completion of the Meaningful Composition and Write On writing series recently, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my books. Technically, my books can be broken down into four categories:   1) Complete language arts for second […]

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Which Character Ink Writing Press Series Is Right for Your Family2

 

With the addition of live video Cottage Classes to our line up next year and the completion of the Meaningful Composition and Write On writing series recently, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my books.

Technically, my books can be broken down into four categories:

 

1) Complete language arts for second through twelfth grade Christian homeschooling families and Christian schools–Character Quality Language Arts (CQLA). Twelve print books of 1200 to 1600 pages each (worktexts). We use these in our full language arts Cottage Classes.

 

2) Composition/writing only for second through twelfth grade Christian homeschooling families and Christian schools–Meaningful Composition (MC). Twenty-two print books of 350 to 500 pages each (worktexts). We use these in our writing/composition Cottage Classes.

 

3) Write On! (based on books/movies)…Mowgli, Peter Pan, Beauty and Beast for second through twelfth grade homeschoolers, Christian schools, and public schools. Fifteen books available in print and downloadable formats. These are also worktexts. We have been testing these in our Cottage Classes as well (and many of these projects are also in MC books).

 

4) Downloadable products–little by little we are getting my lessons, concepts, and approaches up at our store, Teachers Pay Teachers, and CurrClick. These include how to use our Checklist Challenge, how to memorize prepositions, short writing projects of one week each, coloring books/readers, preschool and kindergarten letters and sounds program, and much more.

 

 

I’ve explained these further in the Facebook Live video below!

 

 

Check out the samples, books, and even videos of many of these products!

 

CQLA

Character Quality Language Arts–click on the image below for free one month samples!

CQLA

 

Meaningful Composition (2 week samples!)

MCbooks

 

 

BookMovieBook Series (free samples at store!)

 

Language arts and reading books based off of the Jungle Book, Peter Pan, and Beauty & the Beast movies!

BeautyandBeastStore

Other Downloadable Products

 

More language arts, character training & organizational tools!

Organizational Tools

 

More helpful reading:

Watch me teach how to write research reports here.

Writing With Adjectives (Facebook Live video lesson)

Sign up for our newsletter below and get language arts freebies in your inbox!

 

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Twice Told Tales: Story Writing Curriculum https://characterinkblog.com/twice-told-tales-story-writing-curriculum/ https://characterinkblog.com/twice-told-tales-story-writing-curriculum/#respond Sat, 28 Jan 2017 22:14:57 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=5332 My Meaningful Composition co-author (my oldest child Joshua) and I have been writing a novel for, um, four years now. Well, truth be told, he has been writing it for nearly twenty years as he started outlining it when he was eighteen years old. It is finished actually, but Joshua is a perfectionist (at teaching, […]

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My Meaningful Composition co-author (my oldest child Joshua) and I have been writing a novel for, um, four years now. Well, truth be told, he has been writing it for nearly twenty years as he started outlining it when he was eighteen years old. It is finished actually, but Joshua is a perfectionist (at teaching, instructional writing, lesson plan preparation, and novel writing), so it isn’t finished in his eyes. We recently got it back out, dusted it off, and dug in to find his perfect spot again (and add in more technology…do you know how much things change in our world in four years?).

 

Twice Told Tales: Story Writing Curriculum

I have written seventy-five books in the past fifteen years—averaging 800 pages a book. The first forty were completely new books, and the next thirty-five have been re-writes and new books taken out of the original forty (i.e. half of the MC lessons came out of Character Quality Language Arts, for instance). But it has been a long journey nonetheless.

But it has been nothing in comparison to the difficulty, “how do I do this?” “out of my element completely” novel writing of this mere two hundred page young adult dystopian thriller that Joshua and I have written together.

In a nutshell, novel writing is hard work. Story writing is hard work. And not a natural skill by any means.

That is why I am so excited about our Twice-Told Tale lessons (called Piggyback Stories in CQLA). They make story writing pain-free (virtually) by starting out with a plot that students build off of.

They are incredibly fun for students, and they are my most Directed Writing Approach-infused lessons to date. (And all of my books are extremely Directed Writing Approach-focused!)

You can find some of these lessons in the list below….but here is a taste of a lesson I taught with one of them. Not for the faint of heart—but very doable for students. I love that!

 

Look for more of these lessons here:

 

Check out “Twice Told Tales” at our store below! 

(Also available at CurrClick, Teachers Pay Teachers, and Teachers Notebook!)

Really Writing: Twice Told Tales

 

 

 

 

 

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This Reading Mama Phonics Program & More https://characterinkblog.com/this-reading-mama-phonics-more/ https://characterinkblog.com/this-reading-mama-phonics-more/#respond Sat, 05 Nov 2016 23:14:19 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=5243   Click to watch! I have loved teaching reading again! And I have loved creating products to use for letter recognition and sounds/letter recognition. It is so fun to work with younger children again…and makes me anxious to teach my grandkids to read (or help teach them!). (Click to preview the curriculum below 🙂 ) […]

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This Reading Mama Phonics Program & More

 

Eliah ReadingClick to watch!

I have loved teaching reading again! And I have loved creating products to use for letter recognition and sounds/letter recognition. It is so fun to work with younger children again…and makes me anxious to teach my grandkids to read (or help teach them!).

(Click to preview the curriculum below 🙂 )

Letters & Sounds ABC and Picture Cards

ABC Sounds Song Packet

I have also loved finding a new resource for teaching reading—This Reading Mama. This inexpensive phonics program is better than any of the expensive ones I’ve seen through the years (except Play ‘n Talk, which isn’t available any more AND is not as great on practice pages and activities as this one is).  Seriously, don’t let the ten bucks make you think it’s not great…because it is! 🙂 She has word family books for all five vowels (for short vowels) for beginning readers…plus tons of other great products.

Click here or on the picture below to get it!

learn-to-read-short-a-word-families-this-reading-mama-boy

I recommend you subscribe to her blog to get updates of all of her products and her freebies too!

For more reading help, check out this podcast, and  a video I recently made!

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Product Highlight: Letters and Sounds ABC Cards https://characterinkblog.com/product-highlight-letters-and-sounds-abc-cards/ https://characterinkblog.com/product-highlight-letters-and-sounds-abc-cards/#respond Mon, 14 Sep 2015 15:57:00 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=3619 School is in session everywhere now, which means young learners are learning their ABC’s and 1-2-3’s! I love back to school! I especially loved it when I taught my own kids at home! Nowadays, I am enjoying teaching (along with my oldest son Joshua, age thirty-two, history major with emphases in too many subjects to […]

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Letters and Sounds ABC Cards

School is in session everywhere now, which means young learners are learning their ABC’s and 1-2-3’s! I love back to school! I especially loved it when I taught my own kids at home! Nowadays, I am enjoying teaching (along with my oldest son Joshua, age thirty-two, history major with emphases in too many subjects to list!) one hundred students writing and language arts in cottage classes at three locations in and around Fort Wayne, Indiana. I call it my “testing program” to test my new books before we publish them, but really, they are just excuses to do what I love most—teach!

 

Speaking of new books, I have a new line of preschool materials coming out at my three stores (CurrClick, Teachers Pay Teachers, and Teacher’s Notebook), and I am thrilled to introduce you to the first book/download in the series! The series is called “Letters and Sounds,” and the first book in the series is a full-color download of alphabet cards. This product is called ABC Picture Cards, and it has many unique features that other alphabet letter and picture cards do not have (and features that are definitely not found in your grocery store workbooks).

 

Because of my love for children and my thirty-plus years of teaching experience, when I create curriculum, it has to be user-friendly. It has to do the job with as much help for the student as I can possibly put in a book. The same is true of this product. Each aspect—the font, the size of the letters, the colors, the pictures for each sound, etc.—has been carefully thought out (and tested). You can read more in the description below the video!

 

 

buynow

 

 

The first book in the series is available for download now at these three stores!

 

Letters and Sounds Preview 2

 

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION: ABC PICTURE CARDS (from the “Letters and Sounds” series)

Welcome to the first of many products in the “Letters and Sounds” series by Language Lady, Donna Reish! This first product contains three sets of alphabet cards (though all of the sets contain the same letters and pictures). The cards have all thirty-three letters (see “What Makes Letters and Sounds Products Unique” ) and two “clue pictures” per letter. The product also includes instructions in various uses of the cards.

 

These three ABC/Picture Card sets include

(1) Two-sided cards with ABC’s on one side and clue word pictures on the back—these cards have all thirty-three letters on the fronts of the cards with the coordinating “clue” pictures on the back of each card. (Aa has a picture of an ax and a picture of an apple on the back of it). The front color matches the back color on these cards. These are made to be printed in a two-sided manner and cut out to be used for flash cards and other learning activities.

(2) One-sided cards with ABC’s—these cards are several pages of all thirty-three letters only. The “backs” are intended to be blank. (You will print one sided only for these.) These can be used alone for printed letter recognition or with the one-sided picture clue cards (next) for matching letters and sounds activities and games. (These are the same as the “fronts” of the two-sided cards.)

(3) One-sided cards with clue word pictures—these cards are several pages of clue word pictures for the thirty-three sounds with various colors on them (so that children do not rely on matching colors when using the letter cards and the clue word cards for letter-sound recognition activities). These are created to be cut out separately so that they can be used for letter-sound matching games and activities. (These are the same as the “back” two-sided cards but with different background colors.)

 

 

This product also contains three 8.5 x 11 inch alphabet posters with the ABC’s aligned with how the ABC song is sung (along with tips on using these posters).

This product is ideal for any preschool, kindergarten, or homeschool in which letter recognition, beginning sounds, and letter writing are being taught.

 

Check out the previews at the links below:

buynow2

 

 

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August Meaningful Composition Sale! https://characterinkblog.com/august-meaningful-composition-sale/ https://characterinkblog.com/august-meaningful-composition-sale/#respond Thu, 23 Jul 2015 18:06:22 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=3258     If you have been considering using our new Meaningful Composition books, you are in luck! Since we will have so many new titles—and most of the old ones are revised—we have decided to offer a MC sale for back-to-school this year! Three years of re-writing, writing new, developing new techniques, and testing books […]

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August Meaningful Composition SALE

 

If you have been considering using our new Meaningful Composition books, you are in luck! Since we will have so many new titles—and most of the old ones are revised—we have decided to offer a MC sale for back-to-school this year! Three years of re-writing, writing new, developing new techniques, and testing books with a hundred students each week—and now we are ready!

Here is the scoop:

We have two semesters of each level of Meaningful Composition from four through ten available in August! Each MC book will be $30 during the month of August only (regular price $35)! You can call to purchase (260-450-7063) or (260-433-4365) or you can email us at characterink@gmail.com (Store coming soon—but in the meantime, give us a call or shoot us an email!)

 

Wondering if MC is right for you? Check our blog frequently as we are going to be adding samples of all of the current books each week in the coming months. Two weeks of free lessons per book—means that you can “try before you buy” at all levels!

 

Here is what we will have available by mid-August (though most are ready now!)

MC 4 I: Sentences, Paragraphs, and More
MC 4 II: Put Those Paragraphs Together!
MC 5 I: Writing for Real!
MC 5 II: Creative and Clever
MC 6 I: Long and Strong
MC 6 II: Junior High Essays
MC 7 I: Reports and Essays Galore
MC 7 II: Completely Creative
MC 8 I: Bridging the Gap
MC 8 II: Junior High Research Reports
MC 9 I: Writing for High School
MC 9 II: High School Creative Writing
MC 10 I: Essays Only
MC 10 II: Four Research Reports
MC 12 II: The BIG Research Paper
MC Bonus Book: SAT Essay and Other Timed Writing

 

Want to see some samples right away?  Check them out here!

 

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Podcast Handout for: What Should I Do With a Kindergartener? https://characterinkblog.com/podcast-handout-for-what-should-i-do-with-a-kindergartener/ https://characterinkblog.com/podcast-handout-for-what-should-i-do-with-a-kindergartener/#respond Fri, 10 Jul 2015 14:30:20 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=3171   Consider Behavior First Readiness to learn formally is more than just “academic readiness” Behavior problems of the preschool days will get carried into school work (Having a school schedule does help behaviors some, but will not solve them entirely.) The trouble you might be having getting teeth brushed or coming to breakfast, etc., will […]

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What Should I Do With A Kindergartener?

 

Consider Behavior First

  1. Readiness to learn formally is more than just “academic readiness”
  1. Behavior problems of the preschool days will get carried into school work

(Having a school schedule does help behaviors some, but will not solve them entirely.)

  1. The trouble you might be having getting teeth brushed or coming to breakfast, etc., will

only be exacerbated by adding “come to school table” or “do seatwork” or “listen.”

 

So first solve behavior issues—Tips and Links

1. Link: In general, I have dozens of preschool posts that apply to the four to six year old age range. These run the gamut from morning routines to story time to bringing in behavior boundaries. If you have a five year old who does not obey, will not cooperate with general commands and instructions (brushing teeth, unloading dishwasher, or sitting down for stories, etc.), you might want to scroll through this list.

 

2. Link: Specifically, posts about lack of cooperation and getting the five year old on board for obedience and decent schedules can be found :here:

 

3. When I am trying to solve a problem in my schedule or routine, I try to work on the first hour of the day (for me personally), the same thing is true of our littles. Before starting formal school, I recommend getting the morning routine down pat. This will help him learn cooperation in other areas of the day—and will make the day run so much smoother. Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter what time this morning routine takes place (seven or nine) or even if the times are the same every day—just so the order, expectations, and consequences are always consistent. Here are some helps for this.

 

4. Other unacceptable behaviors should be handled quickly and seriously (not “don’t hit” but rather no more friends, play dates, staying up later to watch a family movie, etc., until you are “strike free” for a week, etc.). Be firm and consistent with Four D’s—they are not character issue that you should “train” in and reward. They are serious and should be treated serious. Read “Discerning Between the 4D’s of Behavior and Childishness”.

 

5. Determine your family’s behavior absolutes (if you have not already done so). These are the behaviors or character that you absolutely will not allow in your home. What you allow now will become the “acceptable behaviors” to your child. These seemingly innocent actions include “fibbing,” hitting, etc. For our family, these include talking back, saying no to parent, lying or deceit, temper tantrums, and striking.

 

 

General Expectations for a Kindergarten Child

  1. Obedience. Take it from an old mama—school is so much better with a six year old in kindergarten who obeys than it is with a five year old in kindergarten who doesn’t obey.
  1. Morning routine. If our kids couldn’t do a simple morning routine chart of making their beds, grooming, putting away their own toys and books, “reading” a picture Bible (or doing a Bible book and audio set), and getting completely ready for the day without a big fuss, I didn’t do bookwork with them.
  1. Chores. Once a five year old is known for first time obedience and following through on his morning routine, I add chores to his schedule. You can read more about developing chores for this age group here.
  1. Room time. I believe room time has so many educational benefits, namely those of increasing a child’s concentration, creativity, independence, and risk taking (all found to be important factors in studies about children who were “natural readers”–that is, they learned to read without instruction–this is important because if it helps a child become a natural reader, it can also help a child become a good reader in general). You can find out more about room time here.
  1. Bible time. I would have the kindergartener join us for Bible time as well as having a “little kids” Bible time during the morning. I liked to put this after morning routine and chores, so we had an order that put character and faith before academics. It might work better for some to do it during story time.
  1. Informal learning time. We had an adage that “we would never teach a young child anything formally that could be taught informally.” Therefore, when it came to pre-reading and pre-math skills, we were extremely diligent to “teach while we are in the way with them.” In other words, rhyming words, initial consonant sounds, ending consonant sounds, letter recognition, beginning math concepts (counting, recognizing numbers, less than/greater than, and much more) can all be taught informally, and we did. We also used picture books, puzzles, games, manipulatives, audios, videos, computer games, felt activities, toys, blocks….anything! I recommend building this time into a kindergarteners day–either through room time or through a learning center or table time where activities are set up for him, etc.
  1. Formal learning. We only used workbooks with our five, six, and seven year old (non-readers) when they were set on numbers one through six above–and only if the child wanted them and enjoyed them. There are colorful, wonderful kindergarten workbooks available through Timberdoodle.

 

 

Formal Learning Tips for This Age:

a. If your kindergarten student is ready to learn to read, I don’t recommend using a complete kindergarten/first grade curriculum to do this. Learning to read doesn’t need to take three to five years. If you get a good program, a child can learn to read in three to six months if readiness is in place. Get a good phonics program that teaches reading only (i.e. not complete language arts at this level) and use a word family phonics approach combined with readers. Some of my reading program reviews are found at Raising Kids With Character for Phonics Tutor and Saxon Reading.

b. If you do want to get an entire kindergarten program, do not get a textbook-driven approach. Again, Timberdoodle has wonderful preschool and kindergarten programs with many hands on and fun activities included.

c. Make kindergarten fun. If I had kindergarten to do over again, I would do all of the tips above and get Timberdoodle’s kindergarten fun things, a colorful math program that has manipulatives (Math-U-See and/or Saxon kindergarten math are very hands on!), and Five in a Row (and choose the activities that you want to do and leave the rest). But again, I would only do that after the first six things above are met!

 

 

Other Podcasts That Might Interest You:

How Do I Prepare My Child to Learn to Read? 

Summer Reading Help

RKWC Terms and Definitions

Chores and Chore Charts 

Story Time With Littles and Very Littles

 

 

Listen to the “What Should I Do With a Kindergartener?” podcast here!

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Podcast: What Should I Do With a Kindergartener? https://characterinkblog.com/podcast-what-should-i-do-with-a-kindergartener/ https://characterinkblog.com/podcast-what-should-i-do-with-a-kindergartener/#respond Wed, 08 Jul 2015 14:30:51 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=3157 Donna Reish, author of character quality language arts and meaningful composition, answers a couple of readers questions about kindergarten. In this podcast episode, she specifically talks about what types of behaviors parents should expect from a four to six year-old child before starting formal academics and the six most important things to focus on first, including […]

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What Should I Do With a Kindergartener?

Donna Reish, author of character quality language arts and meaningful composition, answers a couple of readers questions about kindergarten. In this podcast episode, she specifically talks about what types of behaviors parents should expect from a four to six year-old child before starting formal academics and the six most important things to focus on first, including obedience, morning routines, chore times, and informal learning. She describes the optimum learning environment and gives insight as to what to look for in readiness to learn to read. Join Donna as she describes some of the best years of parenting.

 

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