Out of the Holding Tank: A Balanced Program of Language Arts for Homeschooling Middle School Students
Back when I started homeschooling, I wanted to make sure my kids weren't falling behind, so I made sure to get all the workbooks that promised to help them keep up. Only my daughters hated doing the exercises, and when I looked at them more closely, I realized that some of the instruction of them was either unhelpful or just plain wrong.  Happily, a few of the books I found were exceptional, and in time, I began to combine the practices that seemed best to me.  The result was kind of like those old Reece's Peanut Butter Cup commercials where someone trips and accidentally dunked a chocolate bar in peanut butter:  my daughters and I discovered that doing language arts via dictation and analysis was not only more helpful, but more fun than doing endless exercises.  Later, when I begin teaching my process in our local homeschooling community, students walking past our room would actually stop and say, "Can I join you?  I really need this."  Of course, language arts is not just about accuracy; it's about fluency, too.  When I moved to Guatemala in 1992 and discovered that I had a lot of knowledge about Spanish but pretty much no ability to actually speak it, I realized that straight A's in Spanish classes wouldn't get me far without the fluency to go with it.  That's why I recommend a reading and writing program for middle school students that emphasizes fluency through freedom, and I advise parents to tailor a home library with books that appeal to their students' tastes but also challenges them to stretch themselves to develop new interests.  I also encourage parents to take advantage of the middle school years by letting their students experiment with writing projects rather than imposing assignments for creativity.  In Grading with a Purple Crayon, my book for teaching high school composition, I argue that high school students need to learn how to write academic essays with clarity and coherence, but here, I suggest that middle school is the best time to hook students on reading and writing for personal reasons. I've developed this program over time, with my own daughters, and I've loved learning and playing with words together over the years.  My hope with this book is to save other parents from making some of the same mistakes I've made, and speed you along the way to making language arts a fun and meaningful part of your homeschool day.