Homeschool High School - Just how much is actually Too Much Writing?

The majority of high school student curriculum seem to have one five to six page paper given one or two times per year, with a few scaled-down papers in between. In public school, students are generally expected to write one or two papers like this per year. I personally required my children to write 500-1000 words per week when they were in 11th and 12th grade. That was around 1-2 pages typed and single spaced, most weeks of the year. It was not all for "English" since often the papers were for History, French, or Art.

This could appear to be an excessive amount of to you, yet the reason our writing program was effective was due to the fact I educated my kids at their level, not to mention I understood how much to push them so they would not break. That is why home schooling works. When you have them write AT THEIR LEVEL, they can learn. When you ask them to write too much, then they can get discouraged, resentful, or even worse, rebel. I recognize that I had my kids write a great deal, and I realize it was more than most. That is what my boys did because they were capable, and both developed into wonderful writers. Yet the reason it was beneficial was not due to the amount I had them write, it was due to the fact I asked them to work at their level.

Trust yourself on this. If you are linked to a writing plan, and the demands are killing you - STOP! You will find each child in your family might be different, also. Perhaps if you think about having them write for, say, an hour a day, that would be a more reasonable measure for high school. If you believe your child is being required to undertake too much, then I am 100% positive that it is too much.

Ask them to write everyday, and ask them to write various things. Good writing is about practice, therefore they do need to do some writing on a daily basis. But do not press them so hard that they detest writing. Keep a "five year plan" in mind, where they have a love of learning at the end of this great home schooling.