{"id":1022,"date":"2014-12-06T22:10:25","date_gmt":"2014-12-07T05:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/?page_id=1022"},"modified":"2015-07-07T09:59:58","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T15:59:58","slug":"summer-journals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/summer-journals\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Journals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

There is so much more to write about in the summer!<\/p><\/div>\n

Writing in a journal is wonderful in the summer because there is often so much more to write about! Swimming, vacations, gardening, the county fair, church picnics, camping . . . all these topics give my children plenty of writing ideas for their daily journal entries. In the summer, when other schoolwork isn\u2019t demanding, a chance to write is a nice interlude. I like to use the quiet time after lunch, when the littlest children take their naps, as a daily journal writing time <\/strong>for the other children (and myself). If your children have a full and busy summer schedule, this natural break in the day is restful and refreshing.<\/p>\n

For kindergarten students, just a sentence or two on wide (5\/8\u201d) lined paper is sufficient. If your child has difficulty forming the letters correctly, you can write his sentence in yellow marker so that he can trace over the letters in a easy-to-hold fat pencil<\/a>. If he can form his letters correctly most of the time, then just print his dictated sentence on scratch paper for him to copy onto his journal page.
\nAs children develop, they will be gradually advance to creating their own sentences without your help in letter formation or spelling. I provide a spelling dictionary so my children can look up words on their own and thus be independent in writing their own journal entries by 6 or 7 years old. A spelling dic\u00adtionary is simply a small booklet arranged alphabetically with a short list of words most commonly used by beginning writers. There is also room for your student to add other words he uses frequently. This tool can really help a young writer become quite self-reliant. You will always need to go back and help your child correct errors to make journal writing a good learning experience, but as they grow, those errors get less and less frequent. My older children use pencil or erasable pen to write their entries. Erasable pen makes them feel grown up but still allows for mistakes to be corrected.<\/p>\n

\"homeschooling-journal\"<\/a>The lines on the paper are important. Start a 4\u20135-year-old on early handwriting paper that has 5\/8\u201d high spaces and \u00a0a dotted half-line. By the time your child is 6 years old, he will be able to write on 5\/8\u201d without the dotted half-line. A 7-year-old can write on 1\/2\u201d lines. Around 8 years, your child will begin to write cursive rather than print his journal entry. By 10 years old, he can use standard 3\/8\u201d wide rule notebook paper. If you want to preserve your children\u2019s writing for years to come, do not choose newsprint writing paper that will yellow and disintegrate before they reach adulthood.<\/p>\n

I like to use paper that is blank on the top half of the page for my children under 10 years old, as they enjoy illustrating their writing every day. Older children can write on lined paper and insert blank pages for drawing whenever they want to. We keep our pages in 3-ring binders. I like my children to remove the page that they are writing on because they have better penmanship when they are not struggling to position their hand around the rings in the binder.<\/p>\n

To preserve your summer journal, make the covers on cardstock, illustrating and often add their photo on the front cover. Then I take their journal to the print shop and have them bound with a comb or plastic spiral binding, which only costs a few dollars. I put a plastic sheet over the front cover before it is bound if there is a photo there. This makes a very nice book that the children love to show their grandparents when they come.<\/p>\n

Even if you do no other schoolwork this summer, do keep those daily journal entries coming.<\/strong> It gives children a regular chance to express themselves, it sharpens and maintains their penmanship skills, it provides a record of their summer adventures, and it exercises their English, grammar and spelling! \u00a0A wonderful daily habit!<\/strong><\/em>
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

May I recommend:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

\"homeschooling-nature
\nKeeping a Nature Journal
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

\"homeschooling_0034_ammonemily98\"
\nWriting in My Homeschool
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

\"homeschooling-journal\"
\nK-5 Journal and Language Arts Program
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing in a journal is wonderful in the summer because there is often so much more to write about! Swimming, vacations, gardening, the county fair, church picnics, camping . . . all these topics give my children plenty of writing ideas for their daily journal entries. In the summer, when other schoolwork isn\u2019t demanding, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[199,9],"tags":[71,110],"class_list":["post-1022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-writing","category-what-articles","tag-journal-writing","tag-summer","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/homeschooling_1081_zpicnic1.jpg?fit=343%2C274&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6IrRN-gu","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":314,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/summer-school\/","url_meta":{"origin":1022,"position":0},"title":"School in Summer?","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Mothers ask me why some years, we don't take a break when it comes to homeschooling. I wonder that myself! \u00a0I guess the answer is that homeschooling is just regular life at our house. We have done it so very long, that it is part of the routine. It is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "How to Homeschool"","block_context":{"text":"How to Homeschool","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"kid-673584_1280","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/kid-673584_1280-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":553,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/teach-children-to-write\/","url_meta":{"origin":1022,"position":1},"title":"Teaching Children to Write the Natural Way","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"I would like to share with you some of the things we\u2019ve done in our homeschool that have really worked so well over the years. Teaching my children to write\u00a0 has been a joy to teach, and any mother can easily do it without any expensive program. I start when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What"","block_context":{"text":"What","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/what-articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"My daughter Louisa has kept her school journals since she was 4 years old. What a treasure they are now! A whole childhood recorded.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/louisakto6.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":265,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/writing-in-my-homeschool\/","url_meta":{"origin":1022,"position":2},"title":"Writing in My Homeschool","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Come take a peek inside my homeschool. Here's how I teach writing! And it works\u2014one of my sons got a perfect score on the English portion of the ACT test for college. Journal Writing Each day I expect my students to write a journal entry. I use the number of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "English: Writing"","block_context":{"text":"English: Writing","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/what-articles\/english-writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"emily_journals","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/emily_journals-234x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":702,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/minimum-daily-requirement\/","url_meta":{"origin":1022,"position":3},"title":"Minimum Daily Requirement","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh, the holidays and vacation days are so exciting to kids! And it is nice to have a little break from teaching school ourselves, right? But I don't look forward to the days in January trying to re-establish habits and get control of our schooling again. So. . . rather\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "How to Homeschool"","block_context":{"text":"How to Homeschool","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"candycane7","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/candycane7-238x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2134,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/teaching-an-older-child-to-write\/","url_meta":{"origin":1022,"position":4},"title":"Teaching an Older Child to Write","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a 9th grade daughter that really struggles in writing. She does not like writing so it has always been a battle and I have not pushed it nearly enough. Now I find she is really behind in writing and I am feeling panicked because writing is so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What"","block_context":{"text":"What","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/what-articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photoxpress_4560323-150x150","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Photoxpress_4560323-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1155,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/child-writing-backwards\/","url_meta":{"origin":1022,"position":5},"title":"Child Writing Backwards? Letter & Number Reversals","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it normal for a 7 year old to still be turning the numbers around? When she points to or writes a number, for example \"27\", \u00a0she writes \"72\". It is most of the numbers 12-98. Answer: I know this can feel upsetting to us moms, to see our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Concerns"","block_context":{"text":"Concerns","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/homeschooling-concerns\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/positive-725842_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C926&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/positive-725842_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C926&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/positive-725842_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C926&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/positive-725842_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C926&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/positive-725842_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C926&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7364,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions\/7364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}