The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once, and we want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

In this episode, Michelle and Karen speak candidly about how to plan Writer’s Workshop units and how the program’s flexibility can really streamline your planning. Specifically, listen in on how to organically make decisions about what to teach based on your kids’ abilities, struggles, and interests. You, the parent, will be learning and writing right along with your kids. The notes you make for yourself in your planner will be the key to your kids’ growth as you notice small ways they can grow as writers.

Before you have a listen, go and visit our catalog to see the Writer’s Workshop units we offer. You might also be interested in the Writer’s Workshop Curriculum Guide for an inside peek at the program. If you have reluctant writers, this just may be the key to overcoming that struggle. Writer’s Workshop is full of small exercises that build skills and understanding as your family all tackles the writing process together.

• To plan Writer’s Workshop should be easy. It doesn’t actually require a lot of planning. When you purchase Writer’s Workshop, you are purchasing the plan, and then you get to make adjustments based on your individual needs and skills. The content you plan comes from your kids, not your plan.
  
  
• Your job is to be a mentor who notices your kids’ growth, needs, interests, and voice as a writer. Use your planner to jot down the things you notice that each child can work on and teach it in small doses during Mini-Lessons.
  
  
• Rather than planning ahead, plan Writer’s Workshop as you go. Use your planner dynamically instead of pre-planning so your Writer’s Workshop time is actually tailored to what your kids are writing.
  
  
• Writer’s Workshop is flexible, open-and-go, and repeatable. You can use the same units again and again over the years.
  
  
• Look for continual, small bits of growth in your kids. Those tiny bits together will result in your young writers growing by leaps and bounds.
  

Click the Play button to hear the podcast, then subscribe below!