Growing up, I was homeschooled from 2^nd grade through 12^th grade. When I was twelve years old, my mother had her third child and only son, Elijah. I had always wanted a little brother, so from the very beginning, I had a special love for the little guy. Being so much older than him created a unique relationship between us—making me something of a mixture between an Annoying-But-Loved Sister and a Cool Aunt.

As my brother has grown, I’ve done my best to meet him on his level and connect with him through play. One particularly dear memory I have is when I unintentionally introduced him to creative writing before he had even learned to write words on his own.

Creative Writing Before Writing Words?

One day when my brother was around three or four years old, I cleared a space on the floor of his bedroom for the two of us, pushing all the toys and shoes and blankets to the side. Elijah and I opened a new box of crayons and drew together, holding those one-sentence-per-topic conversations that happen with young kids.

“So, Bub, what’s your favorite color?”

“Blue.”

“That’s a nice color.”

“Velociraptors are my favorite dinosaur.”

“That’s cool. I like stegosauruses.”

“Uh-huh. I saw a dog eating a bug.”

“That’s gross.”

“I like baseball.”

And so on.

The previous Christmas, I had given my brother a little homemade storybook about a knight who saves his sister, a princess, from a dragon (starring ourselves because I’m adorable and sentimental like that). That must have been what brought the idea to our minds, for before long, our random colorings became a project to create a new storybook. I told him that he could come up with the story and draw the pictures, and I would write the words.

The project was on. He’d draw a picture, and then I’d ask him to tell me what it was. (After all, I knew his markings meant something, but I couldn’t decipher them whatsoever without his explanation.)

“Okay, so what’s happening here?”

“These are pirates!”

“Wow, that’s really cool! What else?”

“Um…they like PUPPIES! They love puppies.”

“So they’re nice pirates. Gotcha. I’ll write that down.”

I labeled the picture according to his description, then asked him, “What do these puppy-loving pirates do?”

“They…go on an ADVENTURE!”

“Brilliant! Draw the picture of their adventure.”

Back and forth we went. I kept asking him what happened next. It didn’t matter if it didn’t make sense. It didn’t matter if Elijah told me something that wasn’t in the picture he drew. No matter what, I wrote down what he told me for the story.

I wish I still had that collection of pictures we amassed, or at least remembered more of what we came up with. The only other details I remember of that afternoon are one particular image and my brother’s description of it.

The page had four small, clumsy squares drawn at the four edges of the paper. Lines connected the squares to a circle in the middle of the page, inside of which were several squashed and deformed figures I knew to identify as puppy-loving pirates at this point.

“What’s happening in this one?”

“They’re down a hole.”

I decided that we didn’t really need to know how they got down the hole for the sake of the adventure.

My brother continued, “And there’s smashing things.”

“Smashing things?”

“Yeah, smashing things.”

After scrutinizing the page, it dawned on me. “Oh! The squares! Those are the smashing things?”

“Yes!”

“And they are going to smash the pirates who are down the hole?”

“Yes!”

“Oh no! How do they escape?”

“They…They get away.”

In spite of this rather anti-climactic description of the dire escape, I knew without a doubt that the scene playing in his little pre-K brain was of Indiana Jones-level epicness.

What about you and your homeschool student?

What does this matter? How does this story affect homeschooling and writing at all? After all, my brother didn’t actually write anything that day.

Or DID he?

Even though my teenage-self was not trying to teach my brother a lesson, I realize now that I did. I not only encouraged creativity (“Let’s write a story! You tell me what happens.”), but I also demonstrated how you can express what is in your mind in a shareable manner. Elijah’s ideas became pictures. At my promptings, he had to explain the pictures to me verbally. That verbal explanation became written words at the bottom of the page—words that he couldn’t even read yet but still knew somehow communicated what he was thinking.

He wrote the story, even if he never picked up the pen.

Writing is one way to clarify and to express your ideas in a sharable format. Creative writing and story-telling are ways to learn to express what is happening in your brain. And in this form of writing/expression, you don’t have to worry about having “the right answer,” because there isn’t one.

Try it yourself! Whether your homeschool student is physically writing yet or not, you can teach them to be creative and put their thoughts into words!

Pull up a carpet and create a story with your young student. They don’t have to draw pictures if that’s not their thing. They can tell whatever story they want. They can tell the story of the Lego build they’re constructing, or the frog they caught on the driveway, or the plan they have to clean the kitchen. (That last one sounds strange, but I have a friend whose toddler is very, very scrupulous about keeping things tidy and loves to tell people about his processes.)

Write down what they tell you, and let them see you do it. Show them that writing is thoughts put into words put onto paper, and it’s as simple as that.

And have fun with your kid! That’s what I did with my brother on that random day when we wrote the story of the Puppy-Loving Pirates and the Smashing Things.

Athena Lester

Head of Curriculum

“Excuse me, Athena. That sounds like a school activity, and the point of summer is that children are off school. Why would I want to inflict more compositions on my kids during their vacation?”

Thank you for that question! There are two main reasons homeschool parents may wish to require summer writing from their students.

1. Some homeschool students NEED the extra practice.

As Danielle pointed out in her “Summer Scaries” blog post, low-pressure, non-graded writing activities over the summer can help some students maintain their writing muscles. In some cases, these muscles atrophy over vacation, and students begin the next year having forgotten all they ever learned about composition.

Requiring summer writing not only provides homeschool students with practice, but it also demonstrates that writing is not exclusively an academic activity. Breaking that mental boundary may be the breakthrough your student needs to write well and freely.

(Check out Danielle’s blog post! Solid encouragement for homeschool parents entering the summer months.)

2. Some homeschool students WANT the extra practice.

Some of you may be blessed with a student who LOVES writing, and you should encourage that kind of expression and development! While these students may dive into writing on their own, a little guidance may benefit them—especially younger students.

With these two groups in mind, let’s dive into summer writing ideas! While I encourage you to develop your own ideas and prompts, here are some suggestions to get started.

(Check out the EIW textbooks for guidance about how to approach each of these compositions.)

Summer Writing Prompts

Expository Writing

Think about topics the student will want to write about or things you want them to think about. Writing about these important topics will help them put thoughts and/or feelings into words, which benefits their personal development and not just their academic performance.

Try some of these prompts:

• What kind of person do you want to be? Write a paragraph explaining at least two positive traits you want to see in yourself and why you want them.
• A goal is an idea that someone puts into action. What is one of your goals? Write a paragraph explaining what your goal is and how you plan to accomplish that goal.
• What is one of your favorite memories? Describe the memory and explain why you like it.

Journal Writing

Journaling is a way to record events, but it can also develop self-awareness. Writing journal entries will help students realize they can write for themselves, not just a teacher.

Here are some ideas for journal entries:

• Keep a daily journal of a trip you take this summer. Write 3-4 sentences about whatever you want to record about each day.

(Tip: When I was in elementary school, my mother purchased daily planners as “journals” for my sister and me. The planners provided a limited amount of space for each daily entry, which made the task seem less intimidating than endless empty pages.)

• Describe three things you want to do or be when you are a grown-up.
• Write a journal entry about ten of your favorite things, including items, activities, and foods.

Narrative Writing

Writing stories—original or reimagined—is a great way to foster imagination in homeschool students. Narrative writing can be entertaining and freeing, for there’s no right way to tell a story!

Let your student’s imagination run wild! But in case they need it, here are some suggested prompts:

• Is there a book, movie, or video game that has an ending you don’t like? How could the story have ended better? Rewrite the ending in the way you think is best.
• Write your own version of a fairy tale. Maybe Cinderella doesn’t want to go to the ball, but to the ball game! Maybe Puss in Boots isn’t just a clever cat, but a shapeshifter! Maybe St. George doesn’t want to kill the dragon, but learn to ride it! Rewrite a fairy tale in your own way.
• If you could go on a dream vacation this summer, where would you go? Write a narrative of your vacation—where you would go, who you would be with, and what you would do.

May these few writing ideas inspire you to come up with your own specialized prompts! Summer writing is a chance to shirk off the restrictions of academic prompts, which by necessity are general and impersonal. However, with summer writing, you can get personal with your kids!

For example, if I were coming up with summer prompts for my 13-year-old homeschooled brother, I would include:

• Write a paragraph explaining the best way to take care of the dozen baby chickens we just purchased.
• Journal about how you felt after seeing Avengers: Endgame on opening night.
• Imagine what it will be like to interview at the Lego Company when you are old enough. Write the story of that interview and how you get the job.

Happy summer, everyone! And happy writing

By Athena Lester
Head of Curriculum and Scoring