What Treasure Do You Want to Find?

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

So you’re out walking your dog one day, and you look down and see a rusty can partially buried under an old tree you’ve walked by hundreds of times. “Hmmm,” you say. “What’s up with that?”

When you investigate, you find not one but eight rusted cans filled with mint-condition coins from 1847-1894, neatly piled in each can according to their dates. Turns out, even though the coins themselves are only worth about $28,000, the value of the coins today is over $10 million. Eureka!

This scenario is exactly what happened to

Advertise Your Product

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Advertise A garbage bag that deters rats? A taco with the spices on the outside? Luggage you can ride on?

It seems we humans have a great amount of imagination when it comes to cooking up new products. But are those real or just someone’s dream?

3 Myths about Literature That Will Ruin Your Class

SHARON’S BLOG

Choosing a literature program for your teens isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Neither are actually having the class and getting teens to read the books. Are false ideas about literature sabotaging all of your good efforts?

Read on to see if you have avoided believing these three myths about homeschool literature. And before I forget, check out the link at the end of this article for your FREE downloads from our literature courses.

How Do You Make Friends?

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

how to make a friend You have friends. What did you do to make them? You are a friend, but how did you become one?

Have you ever thought of how to make friends? It is as simple as smiling when someone is sad, giving a genuine compliment, or being a good listener?

Or making a friend could be a process with many steps, beginning with step one and ending with step five (or as many steps as you like).

Change Nouns to Verbs for Clear Writing

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

change nouns to verbs Ever wonder why some writing is so confusing? You read it once. It makes no sense. You read it again and hope for the best.

Most business, legal, and government writing rely on lengthy and unclear sentences and plenty of nouns.

Nouns stop the forward motion of the sentence and often make the sentence longer, like this:

The addition of a 10-minute warm-up routine made the winning of the gold medal possible for him.

Why not punch up the sentence with specific, active verbs? This generally makes sentences shorter, and it definitely makes them easier to understand, like this:

How to Motivate Your Homeschool Student

SHARON’S BLOG

One of your students has submitted a stellar report on a country, including a baked and painted salt-flour-water topography of a particular geographic feature. Another drags his feet and submits a writing assignment late.

You want to reward the one and motivate the other. What can you do?

How a Tiny Tick Almost Stopped Her

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Angeli Vanlaanen has had it rough. When she was ten years old, she fell ill and continued to experience symptoms until she was twenty-four: headaches, sore muscles and joints, fatigue, fainting, blurry vision, and so forth.

The diagnosis

Still, she pushed herself to learn how to ice skate and snow ski. Her sport of choice is women’s halfpipe skiing, which she competed in despite the severe pain in her joints and her other physical ailments.

Doctors had long ago given up trying to diagnose her illness. Maybe she was making up the symptoms. Maybe it was all in her head—that is, until her aunt

The Enumerative Essay: Parking Spaces and Baseball

SHARON’S BLOG

My husband Terry gave me the idea for this writing prompt though he didn’t know it at the time.

A love of lists

Last summer we drove to our local grocery store, and as Terry pulled into a spot, he said, “I like to park here because . . . ,” and he listed four reasons why he likes to park in that particular place. Now that you know how exciting our lives are, you’ll be happy to know that his love of lists surfaced yet again—at the ball park.

We were watching the Indianapolis Indians play the Rochester Redwings when one of the Indians smacked a ball and headed toward first. Terry leaned over to me and said, “There are nine ways to get to first safely.” Or was it seven?

Terry was halfway to writing an enumerative essay because he began with a number (four or nine) and had a secure idea of a list.

A Moving Description?

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Aren’t descriptions those portions of books that you skip? Aren’t they boring? Don’t they stop the forward movement of the plot?
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Sometimes they do. But when you are the writer, you don’t have to stop the movement even if you are describing something.

Make something move.

An effective writer makes a description move. Wind blows the curtains. The sea surges on the shore in frothy waves. The train plows through fields of ripe winter wheat. You get the idea.

Read the following description of an abandoned cabin from Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire and figure out what is moving:

Wanted: Cowboy Poets

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Heifers. Cowpokes. Cottonwoods. Hullabaloo.

What do these words have in common? Well, if you were a cowboy poet, you would know!

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is held in Elko, Nevada, each year. Singers and poets compete, attend workshops, and dance. Watch Randy Rieman recite his humorous poem about being “throwed” from a bronco here.

The diagnosis

A love of lists

Make something move.

Looking for something?

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