Home Schooling with Writing.com

         I hope it goes without saying that your children will be writing thank-you's for the gifts they received for Christmas? In our family, I require hand-written thank-you's for each gift from outside the home (though thank you's to siblingss & parents might be appropriate, too???). Adjust your expectations according to age/writing ability of your kids. Minimally, require correct spelling & neatness. For all except the very youngest I also require that they chat a bit about their holidays or some other recent event. None of those scant "Thanks for the ________. Love, Billy"- type notes. Having them add drawings is a nice touch.

         We do one letter per day until they have thanked everyone. In our family, I have all the kids write to the same person on a given day (like to grandparents) so we can mail them together.

         If letter writing is new to your kids, you might want to teach some basic letter format first- greeting, body, paragraph indents, etc. These thank you's are informal, so don't do the business-letter stuff right now.

         BTW- Thank-you's should also be routine at other times of the year- any time someone does something nice for the family. Besides instilling an attitude of gratitude, it's a great real-life way to learn to write. And it earns great brownie points with grandparents!

Note for 1st-3rd grade:
Have the child dictate to you words they need help spelling. Then have them refer to the list rather than continually asking you how to spell a word. Learning to accurately copy from one sheet to another is very important.