Meet Frankie. Frankie is a little teddie bear that belongs to my daughter's class. Over the course of the year, each child has a chance to take Frankie home. Then the child writes in Frankie's book about their adventures together and draws a picture. This past weekend was my daughter Miriam's turn to bring Frankie home with her.
Although I have often seen activities like this done in school classrooms, this could also be an effective exercise for home schooled kids. Miriam was really excited to have Frankie visit her and do all of her weekend activities with her. Because she was excited to share her experiences with the other children, she was happy to write about it. She also read the entries put in by previous children. It didn't feel like she was working on reading and writing (literacy) because she wanted to do it and got to play with Frankie.
For most homeschool families, you can't just pass it around kids like you do in a classroom. However, you could start a similar activity with other homeschooling families. It could either be local (through people you meet or a homeschooling network, for example), or you could post it back and forth between homeschooling families anywhere in the world. Children will be excited to follow Frankie's adventures and practice their literacy skills with it.
