Homeschool writing

We had a nice Thanksgiving on Thursday. We went for a long walk, had an early dinner and then went to the movie "The Life of Pi". The movie was rated PG and it seemed like both kids did ok with it, even though there are a few scenes that are a bit disturbing. I think this is the first movie that A~man hasn't fallen asleep in.

The day after Thanksgiving ended up being one of the worst days I've had since becoming a parent. I'm still trying to figure out if I should post about it as I have major guilt despite the fact the "situation" that happened was out of our control and very unexpected. What happened also goes along with Prader-willi syndrome and autism so maybe if I write about it (when I'm ready) it might help another parent. 

For now I will talk about how we do writing in our homeschool. It's a loose approach that most likely we will need to do more formally next year, but for now it works for us. Both kids like to write letters to friends and family which is very rewarding as sometimes it results in them also getting mail. For whatever reason Z hasn't had a lot of luck with "penpals", (maybe people just email now instead of snail mail?) but both kids know that sending a letter to one of their grandmas or my sister will always get them a letter back. Several times a year Z~girl will also make a newspaper that basically updates our family, that live far away, on what our family has been up to.  Here's a few photos of past issues.

And we cannot forget the comics!

This year both kids are also working on some keyboarding skills. I really like the handwritten papers (and plan to keep them forever! :) but I'm hoping with each paper the kids will be typing more of the articles for the paper. Z~girl is the head editor, but A~man has contributed art so far. Hopefully with the next issue he will type something up as he has been working hard to use the keyboard the last few months. Making a newspaper for family has been a great creative writing help!

Oh, I almost forgot! This last month I was able to read and do a review for Lets Homeschool High School which is a new website that concentrates oh the High School levels of homeschooling. The book I read was called Grading with a Purple Crayon: A Developmental Approach to High School Composition for Homeschooling Families. I had thought about posting the review in my blog but thought adding a link would give anyone reading this the chance to also check out the new website. Let me know what you think!