Sharon Watson, Author at Writing with Sharon Watson-Easy-to-use Homeschool Writing and Literature Curriculum

Writing in Summer?

It’s summer. A sweet breeze of relief flows through the family tree and tickles the leaves. You hear a child giggle.

But you’ve worked hard on this year’s writing classes, and you want to make sure that your children’s writing skills don’t completely deteriorate during summer vacation. What can you do?

Summer is fun, and your children’s summertime writing activities can be fun for them and for you as well. Otherwise, it’s not really summer!

The most important feature of writing in summer is

Trees: Be Specific When You Describe

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Let’s talk about trees.

Something interesting just happened to you. Right now. This moment.

When you read “trees,” an image of a tree or trees popped into your head. What was it?

When you write to describe something, you want to be specific. You DON’T want to write like this:

What Famous Person Would You Like to Interact With?

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

So you’re driving your taxi, and someone hails you from the sidewalk. In comes a man you eventually recognize, and you get so excited that you shout a phrase from one of his movies to him.

He laughs and joins in the fun. You drop him off, but that is not the end of the story.

Later, he sends you tickets to his latest Broadway show, and you go and even get to meet with him after the show in his dressing room!

You can read the whole, fun story about the taxi driver “Mr. Ferrari” and the famous actor

Gender-Neutral Language in Writing

SHARON’S BLOG

Here’s a free grammar lesson for your teens from The Power in Your Hands: Writing Nonfiction in High School, 2nd Edition. It’s on gender-neutral language in writing—and it has the answers at the end! Keep reading to see this valuable lesson. Enjoy!

Incidentally, the subject of gender-neutral language is not related to the transgender movement or any biological issues.

Fun with Morse Code

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS.

In the mid-1800s, Samuel Morse helped create a code that was used in his new system of communication: telegraphs.

You may be familiar with the Morse code for “SOS”:

· · · ― ― ― · · ·

(or “dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot”).

The three dots stand for “S” and the three dashes stand for “O.”

In Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey’s memoir Cheaper by the Dozen,

A Sonnet: Be the Shakespeare

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Today you get to be Shakespeare and write a sonnet.

A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines. The last two lines, however, are separate and either sum up the rest of the poem or provide a new twist, as does the sonnet below.

Let’s look at Shakespeare’s Sonnet 62. The letters at the end of each line are Shakespeare’s rhyme scheme, but ignore that for now. Take a few moments and read the sonnet. Then I’ll explain it:

National Poetry Month: Do You Haiku?

April is National Poetry Month. What a wonderful time to try your hand at writing a poem!

Haiku (high KOO) is a beautiful poem form that comes from Japan. It is usually about nature and can be spoken in one breath.

Syllables are important in a haiku. Words can be broken into parts based on their vowel sounds. Those parts are syllables. Tree has one syllable. Forest has two. And timberland has three. When you speak these words out loud, you can hear their syllables.

Haiku poems have another feature: They do not rhyme.

National Poetry Month: Write a Diamante

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Let’s write a fun poem to celebrate National Poetry Month!

A diamante (Dee-a-MON-tay) is an interesting type of poem. It is a diamond-shaped poem of opposites, and the last word in the poem is the opposite of the first word.

Time Travel: Make Your Reservation!

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Do you want to time travel?

What was it like when your ancestors first set foot on American soil? What did the Egyptian pyramids look like when they were first built, gleaming with layers of gold?

How did Jesus perform the miracle of healing the ten lepers? When you are twenty years old, what will the world be like?

One famous scientist, Stephen Hawking, believed people can time travel if they

The Melding of Humans and Technology

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

“Within 30 years, we will have the means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.” -Vernor Vinge, in “The Coming Technological Singularity”

Raymond Kurzweil, a futurist, inventor, and author of books on artificial intelligence, believes that “we’re approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more intelligent than humans. When that happens, humanity—our bodies, our minds, our civilization—will be completely and irreversibly transformed…. Maybe we’ll merge with [the superintelligent computers] to become superintelligent cyborgs, using computers to extend our intellectual abilities the same way that cars and planes extend our physical abilities.” *

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