Homeschooling High School English - 3 FREE or Frugal Resources for Creative Writing

Homeschooling high school is a lot more fun with creative writing added to it.  And that can really help your high schoolers improve their essay writing skills as well. #homeschoolhghschoolenglishcurriculum #homeschoolhighschoolwriting #nanovwrimo   Note - This post may included affiliate links to products that we love and have used or would use in our  own homeschool. Please see my disclosure policy.



Are you teens wanting to try their hand at creative writing?  Or do they struggle with writing essays and you are wanting to try something different?  

Why not try some creative writing instead?

My teen got so much out of creative writing during middle school and later in high school, too.  In fact, after we did a lot of creative writing and it helped her later in essay writing in high school. 

But how do you get your student started, if they are a little reluctant?

My daughter and I tried a number of things for creative writing through the years.  We found three frugal resources that became our favorites.  One of them was from A Beka.  

Let's start with that one first....


  1.  Creative Writing with Penmanship Skills by A Beka

A Beka Books put together an introduction to creative writing for 6th graders, but it can work for middle schoolers.  It is full of encouragement to get your children writing.  

They include exercises to help your young writers get in touch with their senses, and start to notice details, both of which are key to story writing.

These lessons included: 

1.  Observing details

2.  Journaling

3.  Mind Stetchers

4.  Poetry Writing

5.  Writing Memories, and much more.  

Even though this book is written for younger writers, it can still serve as an intro to creative writing for high schoolers.  

My teen loved working in this book, and the beautiful illustrations helped to motivate her.  It is a beginning guide to creative writing.  I have a review of it here. 

Next is a free resource for getting going in creative writing, or even the NaNovWriMo....Lots to see at NaNovWriMo.

Have you heard of that?  

There is something about October and having just gotten through all the busyness of early fall, with new curricula for the year, new activities, etc, that led us to want a break from our homeschool routine. 

Has your family ever joined in that in November? 

2.  What is the National Novel Writing Month - NaNovWriMo?

It's a guilt-free way of taking a break from your homeschool routine in November!

My young teen had an interest in story writing, and had written a few short stories during her middle school years.  

So when I asked her if she wanted to do more of that, we found the NaNoWriMo site, and decided to join in for our first year.

We dropped our other homeschool courses, and just did creative writing for the month!..

3.  Young Novelists's Notebook 

 National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has free or frugal resources.

They encourage kids to write every day during the month of November.  But their site has a bunch of resources for story writing which can be used at any time of the year.
 

You can download the High School Young Novelist's Notebook here.

These workbooks cover all the aspects of story writing...including creating characters, building settings and establishing plots.  

In our homeschool, we took the month of November, and worked on creative writing each year, from 8th grade, through 11th grade. 

It was a nice break from our routine, and my daughter ended up writing short novellas.  

She learned so much about literary analysis, by putting together her stories, and having to deal with the concepts of plot, setting, character development, etc.  

This helped her later, when she needed to study literature in her high school years.

Does creative writing really help your student?  We found that it gave my daughter 5 benefits: 

5 Benefits of Creative Writing:

1. First, it was fun!  It helped her to associate writing with enjoyment and positive feelings. It can be such a help in motivating reluctant writers.

2.  Writing a story is a great way to learn the components of good literature.

Putting together a fiction story teaches your teen all about character development, setting, plot, etc.  My teen learned the parts of a story, in a hands-on way, by writing one.  

3.  Story writing builds critical thinking skills, important for high schoolers, especially if they are college bound.

4.  Creative writing builds up the confidence needed for essay writing.

It can be made into a homemade course in writing.  Keeping track of the hours spent in writing, you can give your student a creative writing credit.  We did that, and it was accepted as a high school credit by all of our colleges.

5.  Creative writing is fun, and it is a great way to learn how to express oneself in writing.  

That is so important to later essay writing work.  Doing creative writing was a more relaxed way for my daughter to find her own voice.

What is your favorite frugal resource for creative writing?  I really do love reading your comments.  Do you have writers in your midst?  

Have you seen these art courses yet? 

Chalk for All Ages Bundle

Amazon

Paperback is on Amazon

This book is an easy-to-read guide to college for homeschoolers, recently updated with 

- My guide to the Common Application

- 100 High School Electives

- Where to find college scholarships

- SAT/ACT Prep

- How to make your own homemade courses

- Included are also 12 homeschool high school planning printables to make your record-keeping easier. 

Recommended by: Lessa Scherrer, certified college counselor from College Inside Track.

For more information, click here - Frugal College Prep for Homeschoolers 

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, highschool, 
college, gifted/2e and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition,   She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had some of her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

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