2025 With KidWrite!

Fill Language Arts Gaps

It’s hard to believe, but here we are in a whole new year. We still don’t have the flying cars I imagined as a kid, but we do have the ability to find and swap information and ideas over the internet. KidWrite is moving our afterschool program materials here, with more to come. Why not see if there are any Language Arts gaps your kid can use an assist to fill? As always, if you don’t find what you’re looking for, please let us know via our contact form.

Basic Skills

One way to decide if/where your kid can use a Language Arts assist is to ask their teacher. Another is to review their work. Or, you can make an inventory of the skills they have that are strong, as well as those where they can use some help

Reading

Reading comprehension is vital to anyone living in a text-based society. With all the written material on the internet, in emails, documents, and books, the ability to not only read but to read with comprehension matters, no matter what path your kid may choose. One way to see if they understand what they’re reading is to read it with them – either aloud or with your own copy – and then talk them about it. We have a growing series, Talk About, that gives you what you need to do just that.

Writing

Writing is about more than knowing how to hold a pencil. It’s about knowing how to write a complete sentence, what constitute a paragraph, what goes into one paragraph and not another, how to craft an opening sentence from a prompt, how to transition from one paragraph to the next, how an opening paragraph to a long piece differs from a single paragraph, and more. It’s a lot, and we’re preparing step-by-step activities that you can fit into family time. Here’s what we have so far.

Vocabulary

We call it Word Work. The approach we’ve seen work well is one that is focused on concepts. For instance, “HAPPY.” Kids without a robust vocabulary are left to say they are “very happy,” “really, really happy,” a little happy,” “not happy,” … There’s a word to express each of those. So, we have concepts for each age group that tie with what they’re learning in school. We have activities that expand the words they knew that are related to that concept. If you’re interested in learning more, please let us know via our contact form. Meanwhile, here’s an overview.

Grammar

Grammar. Usage. It’s about a lot more than where to put the period. Our work with kids has shown us that once a kid feels confident as a writer, they want to know how these “details” work. Suddenly, they’re asking if a semicolon would work or whether this is the best transition to use. It’s as exciting for us as it is for the kids. You’ll find posts and a Grammar Challenge here.