Feb. 5, 2009 - Write Shop Story Builders
The one thing I love about homeschooling is looking for ways to make learning fun. I remember years of forced writing assignments where the teacher told us what to write about and if we failed to do so we failed that assignment. Enter Write Shop. They have products to make writing easier (and fun!). I was given Write Shop Story Builders Animals and Write Shop Story Builders World of People to review and use.
These use story prompts that then allows the child to write a story of their own thinking. My oldest loves to write to stories and has a great imaginaton, well all three have that. The neat thing is even a young child, such as a PreK child, could use these. One doesn't need to know how to write to use these story prompts! They can be used for oral story telling which of course helps the child learn how to build speech and presentation skills.
Each comes with a deck of Story Builders cards in both color and black and white. You have to print them off and I suggest using cardstock, or laminating them. You also recieve instruction and ideas. I also color coordinated, when I could, the colored words to the cardstock. I store mine in a index file box with dividers I made myself.
One idea on how to use these is to put them in four stacks (character cards, character traits, plot, and setting) and roll a die and then picking the card that corresponds to that number. So if the child rolls a 3 then he picks the third card in the stacks. You could also do a blind pick which is where you pick whichever one your hand touches first. Let them begin writing! Watch the way the story comes alive when they are allowed to write what they want to write about. Another good way is to do a "round robin" type of game. This could be down orally where each person picks a card on get the character, one gets a trait, etc and you go around and have everyone add to the story. This would allow twists and turns as each member adds his or her own unique personality to the story. My description of a 'round robin' is not exactly as Write Shop describes it but that is the fun, tailoring it to your child and family. Doing a round robin would be fun if someone could record the story as it's being told, it could act as a family memory keepsake.
I like the possibilites that can come with these Story Builders. They are good for children who don't like to write and for those who love to write and all those in between! The World of People, World of Animals and World of Sports Story Builders retail for $7.95 and the Christmas mini-builder retails for $3.95. These come to you ready to use, directly to your inbox - just download and print. You do have to cut them out but that can be fun too!
Comments
Feb. 5, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by PumpkinsMomma
That sounds like a neat program! Thanks for sharing.
Marie
Feb. 7, 2009 - Question
Posted by LarabaK
Sarah,
Sometime I'd be interested to have you blog on what your schedule is for preparing home school material, reading up on new products, etc. You mentioned laminating something... do you do that often? And if so, do you take it somewhere or do you buy laminating materials and bring it home?
Honestly, this is where I struggle the most. I know my kids would benefit from more hands on projects like art activities and the like. I find it very difficult to go to a store. I have little time and taking the six kids with me just doesn't work well. Partly that is personality as I tend to stick close to home all the time, and especially in winter I am in hibernation mode.
I just wondered how you do it... I know you are not yet blessed with as many children but you do have young ones.
Laraba
