Homeschool Writing Guidelines

Daily writing is the first to be considered. Basically, every student from kindergarten and up should be writing daily. The amount and type of writing will depend on the type of home school program used. If a family uses a textbook/workbook program that has the student writing the answers to questions - that counts as writing. Of course, the answers need to be in complete sentences in order to count for daily writing. Some programs are less structured and use unit studies or other methods of learning. With these the student should use writing at least once a day to demonstrate their comprehension.

This type of writing is sometimes called "Writing to Learn." The student writes sentences and paragraphs to demonstrate what they learned about the subject matter they were studying that day.

The second guideline is for academic writing. This is "Learning to Write." Students need writing activities that allow them to explore and master different writing techniques. The most common type of writing for this academic writing is an essay. The student is asked to write about a topic (often of their own choice) with the goal of increasing the student's writing ability. They may write about baseball, ballet, beach houses, or any other subject. The goal is to enhance writing ability, not to study ballet.

Here's where these guidelines may be most helpful. In general, I recommend one academic writing per week for an "average" home school program. Some families may choose to do twice this amount for different reasons. They may be using a writing intensive program by choice. In this case, they may write two academic assignments per week. That would give the student one day to research and outline, and one day to write.

On the other hand, some families may do half this amount, or one writing assignment every two weeks. Why would they choose a lighter program? If their student is a good writer already, or if they find they are focusing on catching up in another academic area, they may choose a lighter program. Writing is just one part of a balanced education. There are seasons in your home school journey when it will have greater focus, and times when it will not. But it should never be dropped out completely.

How long should each academic writing be? Again, these are only suggested guidelines, but they may help give you an idea of the progression a student should be expected to make over time.

By the end of kindergarten: 2 sentences written on their own.
1st grade: 4 sentences
2nd grade: 6 sentences

Notice that we are now ready to transition into paragraphs fairly easily if the student is able to write six sentences on a single subject.

3rd grade: 3 paragraphs
4th grade: 4 paragraphs
5th grade: 5 paragraphs

6-8th grade: The 5 paragraph "essay" of an introduction, conclusion, and body of three paragraphs should become second nature. They should be able to expand from five to eight paragraphs over the middle school years.

High School: Reinforce the five paragraph essay if it has not been mastered. If it has, begin developing multi-sectioned essays.

If your student is not writing according to these guidelines - don't panic! Writing is a slowly developed skill. You do want them to be able to write a basic essay by the time they take the SAT tests or apply to college. This happens week by week.

It should be noted that many college students are unable to apply the guidelines listed here for middle school. This presents a problem for most colleges today. Ensuring that your student is able to write academically gives them a boost as they complete their high school education and head for college or the work force.

The last writing guideline recommended is for the research paper. It is a good idea to start having the student do an annual full-length report every year starting in fourth or fifth grade. Often, this paper is written over a period of three to six weeks. Other academic writing is put on hold as students focus attention on developing their report.

How long should this paper be? I recommend one page (250 typed words per page) for each grade. Therefore, a fourth grader would write a four page paper; an eighth grader would write an eight page paper, and a high school senior will write a twelve page paper. What happens when the student goes off to college and he or she faces the typical ten page term paper? "No big deal, I had to write a twelve page paper last year," is the student's reaction to a ten page assignment.

It needs to be stressed again that there is more to writing than length. Yes, I have had my students fill up papers with useless words just to obtain a particular number of pages. It is better to learn from you that this is not acceptable than to discover it in the work place or college setting. It will take time and practice for them to develop the skill of knowing how deeply they need to delve into a topic to produce a five page paper compared to a ten page paper. The skill of judging how much detail needs to be researched to produce a particular length is a writing skill of itself which is refined by practice.

There are so many resources for writing that the options can be overwhelming?

Do you prefer a writing curriculum to help guide your writing adventures? There are many great choices, and each one has a unique perspective that can offer a valuable skill to developing writers. No one source has it all.

Here are three different writing programs for homeschool that have been chosen because they offer separate lessons for each skill that are easy to follow and not overwhelming.

Write On: The Kid Friendly, Mother Pleasing, Gentle Way to Learn to Write
Visually appealing lay out with student samples draws the student into the writing activities. Grades 3 - 8, but the last 20 lessons cover high school and college writing skills. Comes in 3 ring binder, 100 lessons, multi-grade so it can be used by all students at once.

Igniting Your Writing
Inspire and enliven students with this two volume, spiral bound set. The first book is for young writers and provides 24 lessons, the second book if for intermediate and advanced writers and has 48 lessons.

Writing Strands
This is a sequential curriculum with a different notebook for each year. Additional titles are available for parental support and instruction.