My 10-year-old daughter requested a unit on poetry. Since we've included poetry in our main lesson blocks as part of the lessons or opening activities, we had a lot of resources to choose from. I narrowed down the lessons to focus on three main areas: biographies, poetry and composition.

If you are new to Poetry Teatime or poetry in general, this book will be perfect for you!! Poetry Teatime Companion edited by Julie Bogart is a sampling of British and American Poets. Each poem comes with an illustration as well as information about the poet including birth place, family and more.

We first introduced poetry in our homeschool as part of a unit study in 2008. One of our most memorable takeaways from that units was The Caedmon Poetry collection (link below). It's a collection of poetry read by the poet, and it's an amazing resource and treasure.

I love the concept behind these language arts workbooks. They are paired with popular and classic novel to help students learn vocabulary, reading comprehension and literary analysis in a fun and engaging way. I'm just sad it didn't work well for two of my children, but there's hope for my last student!

When choosing English literature books for my 9th grader, I looked for ones with a historical theme, set in a time period we were studying or were American classics. That way, the books my son was reading for English complemented his US History studies.

Each week a name of Allah will be focused for the duration of the week. On Day 1 of the week, the new sentence is presented and the student copies the sentence in the workbook. On Day 2 (the the previous lesson covered by a piece of paper), the teacher reads the sentence to the student who then writes the sentence into the workbook.

How do you do copywork and dictation? I share snippets from our homeschool day via Instagram Stories to show you how we do Copywork and Dictation in our homeschool. These are live lessons. To see more of our homeschool day, be sure to find me on Instagram.

Copywork and Dictation for the Muslim child is a curriculum using ayat which mention the 99 names Allah as content for copywork, dictation and memory work.

We’ve worked through the Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise and Susan Buffington twice! I didn’t use this curriculum with my oldest child, but I used it with my second and third child and am undecided on whether I’ll use it with my fourth one.  Since we use a Waldorf curriculum, I want to clarify that the Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading is not a Waldorf or Waldorf inspired curriculum.

Do you struggle with getting your kids to write? Why not try these educational games to inspire creative storytelling. You can play these games for fun or as part of your homeschool or to support your child’s education. I struggled with storytelling for many years. Often my stories were endless descriptions of settings with no story. Or a monotonous journey with no action. Though these games may not solve those problems, they will give your creativity a boost.

Here's a live homeschooling lesson for cursive handwriting for my 12-year-old son. Handwriting has always been a struggle for my boys, but with practice, they've definitely improved. I've teetered on the fence of whether or not to teach cursive handwriting and insist that my students master this skill.

We made some DIY handwriting paper. We used our chalk pastel pencils and chalkboard to make “paper“. They worked well for our purposes temporarily. It would be especially useful for children who struggled with fine motor details as you can use chalk and write the letters larger.

We are making handmade handwriting paper with yellow and orange block crayons. Make your bands light so the handwriting can be seen. Also, the block crayons are rich in beeswax, so a light coat is better so that your pencil may glide smoothly.

Making your own handwriting paper for young students couldn't be easier. Just use two or three different colored block crayons and draw three touching parallel lines across the page using the medium side of the crayon. I recommend using light colors so it's easier for your student to see their handwriting.

Though these books are not part of the Waldorf curriculum, we do have an assortment of picture books. One way to repurpose a good book is to create new stories based on the pictures, so your children can enjoy some of the stories you make up. However, children respond really well to repetition so there’s tremendous benefit to telling the same story over and over again.

If you are looking for a literature-based unit study approach for your young children, Five In A Row is a great curriculum to use. Using picture books as the literature, FIAR (Five in a Row) derives lessons from the stories. The picture book is read five days in a row and each day a new lesson and activity are covered.

If you are looking for a literature-based unit study approach for your elementary aged children, Beyond Five In A Row is a great curriculum. Using quality chapter books as the literature, Beyond Five in a Row derives lessons from the stories.

If you want a literature-based all inclusive curriculum, Moving Beyond The Page may be the curriculum you're looking for. This curriculum integrates language arts, science, and social studies together using literature as the 'textbooks'. An independent math curriculum, such as Right Start Math, is suggested, and the website sells that separately.

If you want a literature-based all inclusive curriculum, Moving Beyond The Page may be the curriculum you're looking for. This curriculum integrates language arts, science, and social studies together using literature as the 'textbooks'. An independent math curriculum, such as Right Start Math, is suggested, and the website sells that separately.