This post began as a response to Erica's comment on my last post, but after 15 minutes and a couple hundred words, I decided it merited its own entry. :)

We follow a relaxed, unschooling approach, and this year was my first year to formally study history, creative writing, or English. The curriculum I use is Sonlight, which I highly recommend. It's actually a history, creative writing, and literature course all rolled into one. Many of the writing assignments (which are plentiful) tie into the historical period that is being studied.

I'm pretty much self-taught as a writer. Mom always bemoans the fact that she never taught me anything about writing - not even basic grammar. (She had to explain to me that you don't start sentences with "But" less than two years ago. I still do it way too much.) Mom does help me edit my drafts when I'm writing papers or entries for writing competitions. She will definitely be enlisted to help me edit my book! But (see, I just did it!) generally, for shorter writing assignments, I'm on my own.

I have to say that I do NOT always feel like writing. Sometimes while I'm working on my book I'll just look at the draft on the screen and think, "I really do not want to outline Lovejoy's college years today," or "Surely there's something else I could be doing that would be more fun than writing a summary of Lovejoy's anti-Catholic prejudice." You know? Sometimes I just don't feel like it! So what do you do when you don't want to write? I'm not a homeschool parent yet (although I hope to be someday!), so I feel somewhat hesitant to offer advice on homeschooling, but I'm going to do it anyway!

If you have a child that doesn't like to write, I would suggest trying to find something that s/he is interested in and encouraging him/her to write about that. I am a strictly nonfiction writer and like to write historical research papers, but there aren't very many other kids in the world that enjoy that! My 14-year-old sister hates writing nonfiction but absolutely loves writing spiritual warfare thrillers (a la Frank Peretti). That's probably not the most useful or proper kind of writing, but at least she's writing!

My younger brother used to have terrible handwriting, so Mom would make him do a page of handwriting (roughly 50 words) per day. He could write whatever he wanted, as long as it was legible. He ended up writing a series of short stories on a character named Space Pig who explores the galaxy with his friends Solar Snake and Speedy Snake. Not classic literature, to be sure, but at least he was writing!

Josiah's stories about Space Pig eventually made it into the Roberts Family Times, a two-page, newspaper-format newsletter that I edited and sent out to friends and family when I was 10 years old. I would write up book reviews and articles for the newspaper, but what I really loved was getting into Microsoft Publisher and designing the layout. I was really writing without thinking about it. I was working on something I enjoyed (layout design), but I was also doing something I didn't enjoy quite as much (writing). It wasn't much, but at least I was writing!

So that's the first thing I'd say. If you have a kid that doesn't like to write, make this your rule of thumb: "At least they're writing!" With kids that aren't interested in writing, try to find a style of writing that suits things they are interested in. If you have a kid that loves to draw and loves reptiles, you might encourage that child to write and illustrate a book on turtles. "At least they're writing!" If they won't do that, maybe they would write a picture book, or even a comic strip. "At least they're writing!" More proper and traditional forms of writing will come eventually.

I wouldn't require much writing at least until 7th or 8th grade. Maybe the occasional book report or something, but I don't think it's good to require younger kids to write. And even with older kids, don't require too much. Even for a kid that likes writing, if you make them write five pages a day, they're going to be overwhelmed and hate writing in no time! Assign a smaller chunk - from a couple of paragraphs to a page a day (depending on the child's age, ability, and interest). And do your best to let them write about their interests. They will write more, and the quality will be better, than if you just assign them, "What I Did Over Christmas Break." You need specific assignments, yes, but try not to have too many!

One side note - I personally hate journaling, and I'm not going to make my kids do it! Yes, I know it's good to have a record of what you do and everything, but it's just not for me. Mom used to make me keep a journal, and I always used to get depressed and down on myself when I got behind. For some kids I'm sure it works well, but, like most (maybe all) things in homeschooling, it definitely doesn't work for everyone.