Directed writing. Every step laid out for students and teachers. Complete and thorough editing checklist in which grammar skills are actually applied to writing (with clear check boxes and assignments). Essays. Reports. Stories. Twice Told Tales. Dialogues. Description. Persuasion.

Just a few phrases that describe the Meaningful Composition series. And I’m more excited about this series than ever!

Here’s why:

(1) I have been writing the series and testing each book three to six times with real students for nearly ten years.

It is only when you sit across from a twelve year old boy and look into his eyes that you know if a curriculum works. MC has been tested in small groups totaling over one hundred students a year for ten years.

Then guess what? I went back in and changed the lessons, projects, assignments, etc., as needed according to the facial expressions of real students in all grades.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

It’s been expensive and time consuming. But I can’t release books that have not been tested and rewritten. Period.

(2) As of August 1st, we will have twenty-one books in the MC series ready to go! Wowsie, wow, wow…that was a long process.

a) All first and second semester books for grades two through ten

b) A couple of upper level ones (Jump Start remedial book coming soon too!)

This means that you can start your second grader out with MC knowing that there are future books to go into! This means that younger siblings can now use the same series that older ones are using. (I started on the rewrites and new books for tenth grade and worked backwards—good thing since the two tenth grade books took me two years to write and several years to test!)

It also means that homeschool providers who have been offering less-than-complete or average writing programs can now offer MC as part of their package! (So spread the word to your favorite homeschool curriculum provider!). It also means that we can get re-reviewed by many people. (Cathy Duffy is waiting for the second grade books right now to review!)

We’ll be publishing more information (samples, reviews, videos, etc.) to help you learn more about this thorough, well-tested writing series. But I will leave you with these bits of info:

I. Video—below is a full video series describing all aspects of the MC series.

II. Try samples—we are putting two week samples of each book up at the Character Ink store for EACH BOOK. This gives you an opportunity to “try before you buy”! Keep in mind that you are trying two weeks out of the middle of a book, and there are a lot of skills taught earlier in that book leading up to that lesson. You can find the samples here.

III. Shorter lessons that are found in MC can be found as downloadable e books at all of our stores. We are putting these up regularly too, so check out the links at the end of this post.

Thank-you for your support of Character Ink Press as we work to bring you more and more outstanding homeschooling and parenting products!

Links:

Free Essay Lesson: Three Favorite Peter Pan Characters

How to Complete the Checklist Challenge–Level I

Write On! Series

Think Fast Grammar Quiz

Preposition Practice Packet

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The post Introducing Meaningful Composition appeared first on Character Ink.

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

Before you get lost in the product description, click on the video to see me teaching about this amazing product:

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

(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).

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.

Enter my Preposition Practice Packet! I use tricks. I use check sentences. I even use toys (“Preposition Practice Pals”!) to teach prepositions (and practice them).

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

This 80 page practice packet has fifteen lessons (with student assignments) introducing prepositions in a systematic order: initial letter, with the practice pal, as opposites, as synonyms, as compound words, and more.

When you use this packet, your student will learn prepositions by the boatload—but they will also learn them for their purpose.

Note: If you like the Preposition Practice Packet, you will love the Think Fast Grammar Quiz and Answer Key!

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The post Preposition Practice Packet Product Intro and Video! appeared first on Character Ink.

Subscribe to our Wondering Wednesday episodes on iTunes and YouTube!

Have a question you are wondering about for a future Wondering Wednesday?  Email Donna here.

Not signed up for our Freebie Fridays?  You can do that here! 🙂

Subscribe in iTunes and on YouTube!

The post June’s Wondering Wednesdays & Freebie Fridays appeared first on Character Ink.

The post Character Ink Press Downloadable Catalog appeared first on Character Ink.

We have another new parenting/character training product! A teaching that we offer in our Raising Teens With Character seminar (as well as in our teen workshops for conventions and small groups) is our signature Recipe for Rebellion. In this teaching, we bring to light four negative parenting practice that causes teens to rebel: giving rules without reasons, giving rules without allowing a response from our children, giving rules without consistency (without repetition), and giving rules without having deep, abiding relationships with our children.

Recipe for Rebellion

• Rules Without Reasons
• Rules Without Response
• Rules Without Repetition
• Rules Without Relationship

In this poster packet, I have taken the RKWC Recipe for Rebellion parenting teaching and put it into bite-sized posters with explanations of all four ingredients, Scriptures to remind parents of the importance of not using these harmful “ingredients,” steps detailing the appeal process, and suggestions for avoiding these pitfalls in parenting teens.

Two of the posters include poignant verses that remind us of how we should relate to our teens:

Ephesians 6:4 says, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”

Philemon 1: 8-9 …although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love” (NKJV).

This nine-poster pack (with 8.5”x11” colorful posters) is available at our Character Ink store and at our CurrClick store. It will be given in our Friday Freebies for newsletter and/or blog subscribers (so subscribe today!).

Learn more about the Recipe for Rebellion in our recent podcast episode.

Buy Now!

The post Product Highlight: Recipe for Rebellion Poster Pack appeared first on Character Ink.

To learn more about this product via audio, click here.

The “Six S Spelling Secret Packet” gives your students four helpful ways to practice their spelling words–three traditional methods and one “secret” method! These methods work for students of all ages, but are especially effective for second through eighth grade students who are able to self monitor their progress (which this packet will help them learn to do even more!).

Here are some suggestions for use:

(1) The first page of the packet is a traditional “pin-point your challenging words and syllabicate and copy.” This works especially well with spelling programs in which the syllabication is given for the student’s spelling words–though it is also effective for extremely phonetic learners who can syllabicate on their own. If the student does not desire to syllabicate, the lines are provided to simply copy challenging words multiple times for repetition. This step also gives the student the option of listing words under the coordinating spelling commonalities/word families in Language Lady’s Spelling Notebook. This is optional, of course, but for those desiring to create your own SN, the preview of the SN (available at this site) gives the Table of Contents that may be used to create a phonetically-based, systematic spelling notebook for recording mis-spelled words.

(2) The next two pages of this packet contain two pages of graph paper with two different sizes of boxes in the graph. This allows younger learners who write larger to use the larger boxed paper and older learners with smaller penmanship to use the smaller boxed paper. Writing each word, one letter per box, helps many students visualize their spelling words, one letter and one shape at a time.
(3) Lastly, the “secret” part. The instructions for the Six S Spelling Secret Sheet are given on the actual sheet for each student. Here are some other keys to using this document:

(a) Stress to the students that they only need to use The Six S Spelling Secret Sheet for words that they mis-spell in a pre-test. This alone is sometimes enough encouragement for a student to practice prior to the pre-test. (They will not have to work on any words
that they “passed” in the pre-test.)

(b) Work through the columns of the sheet with your students one column at a time for one word, completing each step that is listed for each column. You will want to do this several times in order for them to be able to do it completely independently as they study
for their spelling test.

(c) Emphasize honesty in the cover, write, etc.. portions of the sheet. While it isn’t a test per se, looking up the spelling (not covering or folding the page over) will not help the student learn how to spell the word (obviously). Encourage them to complete the sheet as
it is given, reminding them that this repetition and multi-sensory approach will help them become excellent spellers.

(d) For classroom use, I recommend that you have a pocket or stacking tray or other area in which students can pick up copies of The Six S Spelling Secret Sheet at any time (even if you pass out a sheet to each student weekly).

e) Consider passing out the sheet each week when you give new spelling words–and walk through one word (a challenging one from their list) with the students at that time. They will be more likely to use the sheets on their own if they are emphasized and even
re-taught each week.

Come back to my store often for writing lessons, graphic organizers, anchor charts, lessons, notebooking sheets, and more that have been tested with over a hundred students each year for fifteen years! 🙂

Other Products!

Letters & Sounds Preschool Programs

-ABC Letter & Picture Cards
-ABC Sound Song Posters (coming soon!)
-The Six S Spelling Secret Packet
–The Spelling Notebook

Meaningful Composition

CQLA

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The post Product Highlight: The Six S Spelling Secret Packet appeared first on Character Ink.