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Grading Essays Made Easy |Homeschool Life | Literature | Miscellaneous
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Want homeschool writing tips? Encouragement? Help grading those essays? Practical advice for your homeschool writing class? Insights into literature? Free writing prompts and tutorials?
Whether your student is reluctant or brimming with excitement, you’ll find solid, proven ideas here that will make your teaching life easier. And take advantage of the many writing prompts and tutorials posted here.
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Be sure and browse the weekly writing prompts for middle schoolers and high schoolers.
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Christmas Prompts
SHARON’S BLOG
An edict. A carol. A strange decoration.
What do all these have in common? They are all part of our fun Christmas prompts.
Enjoy these prompts created especially for 5th – 12th graders.
Ho, ho, ho, and away we go . . . (more…)
The Story Behind Dr. Seuss and the Grinch
You know about Dr. Seuss, and you know about the Grinch. But do you know the story behind the story?
When Ted (we know him as Dr. Seuss) was 53 years old, he was fed up with Christmas. He was tired of the noise, the constant activity, and the busy-ness, and he wished everyone would get along with each other.
His desire was that people would celebrate the joy and peacefulness of Christmas without all the hoopla detracting from it.
So what did he do? He wrote a story about it. He created a Scrooge-like creature who hates the noise and celebration of Christmas. Ted writes this in the story: (more…)
Hobbit Day
Happy Hobbit Day!
Did you know that September 22 is officially Hobbit Day and the beginning of Tolkien Week? You can read more about it here and here and here.
To celebrate, let’s explore the hero’s journey, an essential type of plot.
The call
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien is basically a hero’s journey plot. Is the lowly Bilbo a hero when we first meet him? Not really. But through testing and troubles, and by fights against giant spiders, a dragon, and miserable dwarves, he becomes a hero.
One important phase of the hero’s journey plot is (more…)
What Failures Will You Turn into Successes This Year?
Welcome to a new year!
A new year is time for new plans, new goals, and new ideas.
It is also a time for second chances.
So, let’s talk about failures.
Failures?
Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph (forerunner of the record player), the light bulb, and the movie camera, was told in school that he was “too stupid to learn anything.”
Walt Disney, according to the newspaper editor who fired him, (more…)
