Literature and Writing Resources

• The Home Learning Source Book by Rebecca Rupp. This huge book lists and describes books, movies, games, software, ,and websites for all subjects, including great literature and writing resources. The Weare Public Library has a copy for your use.
• Let the Authors Speak: A Guide to Worthy Books Based on Historical Setting by Carolyn Hatcher ($18.95) Look for book ideas based on setting, author, or title.
• Beautiful Feet Books (1-800-889-1978), publishers of study guides and literature packs with a Christian emphasis.
• Waldorf Student Reading List (3rd Edition) by Pamela Johnson Fenner, Karen Rivers (ed.)
• Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
• Piping Down the Valleys Wild: A Merry Mix of Verse for All Ages, Edited by Nancy Larrick
• Cricket Magazine publications—–Ladybug, Spider, Cricket, Click, and Muse—which are full of good stories, poems, articles, illustrations, and NO advertisements.
• New Moon magazine. “With girl editors ages 8 to 14 and girl contributors from all over the world, New Moon celebrates girls, explores the passage from girl to woman, and builds healthy resistance to gender inequities.”
• Stone Soup magazine. “International magazine written and illustrated by young people ages 8-13; it inspires young readers and writers everywhere.” 
• Skipping Stones magazine. “A nonprofit children’s magazine that encourages cooperation, creativity, and celebration of cultural and linguistic diversity. We explore stewardship of the ecological and social webs that nurture us. We offer a unique forum for communication among children from different lands and backgrounds.” Published bi-monthly. E-mail or call 541-342-4956. 
• Writing Strands: Challenging Writing Projects for Homeschoolers and Writing Strands: Evaluating Writing by Dave Marks, National Writing Institute. “Problems with grammar can best by solved on a need-to-know basis. The way young people learn to write is by writing and not by filling out workbooks or identifying verbs and nouns.” Contact Mr. Marks directly at 1-800-688-5375 or order these books through the Rainbow Resource Center (see the next item in this list).
• Rainbow Resource Center (catalog or website) is a fairly comprehensive source of classic literature, including all the books used by the Learning Language Arts Through Literature program (based on Ruth Beechick’s method of teaching children language arts). They also offer Writing Strands and many other homeschooling resources. Call toll free at 1-888-841-3456.
• Ben and Meg, An Oak Meadow Reader is an ordinary, beginning reader (2nd grade level) except that the main characters are homeschooled children. This is a nice change from most early readers that have school days as their central theme. Available only thru Oak Meadow School.
• Families Writing by Peter Stillman, gives us all a reason to write. Chapters include: Why Write?, Journals and Journaling, Letters, Words as Gifts, Stories—Of, By, and For the Family, Poetry, Equipping a Place for Writers to Write, and More Reasons to Write. I bought this when my daughter developed an intense hatred for writing and it helped to get us both back on track. I found Stilman’s style to be witty, loving, thoughtful, and fun.
• Kids Have All the Write Stuff by Sharon Edwards. A good book of ideas for inspiring beginning writers (K-3).
• Write Source 2000 handbooks (Writer’s Express for the elementary grades; Writer’s, INC. for older students). We refer to our copies frequently. Call Write Source at 1-800-235-3565 or you can order the books from the Rainbow Resource Center.
• Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye (who also writes a book called Games for Math)
• Read, Write and Type software by The Learning Company.
• The Writing Roundup—This web page is devoted to helping kids (big kids, too) with writing. It features writing advice and several writing contests. Contest entries are judged based on the age and experience of the writer, not by comparison with others.