We are frequently asked by parents where their children should start in our curriculum. So, we’ve put together some tools that will help you get a sense of where your child fits into the June Writers program.

What does it take to write juicy essays with relative ease beyond the basic ability to write mechanically sound sentences and type or handwrite at length (both important)? The following are what June Writers ensures kids learn before they tackle essay writing:

How to decode unfamiliar writing terms quickly.

Our updated guide to where your child should start in our curriculum.

In Lesson 3.3, we ask kids to adapt existing paragraphs to appeal to specific audiences.

In Lesson 3.2’s practices, we are asking your child to put together the concepts of audience and argument, which is a Big Brain Leap.

What is editing for words and flow, and why is it an important skill for my child to learn?

The fun and challenge of editing mangled secular proverbs and aphorisms.

The value of teaching kids to write and think in metaphors.

What to do if your child struggles to write a first draft.

What to do when your child’s writing doesn’t follow linear time conventions.

Read our summary of the stages of children’s intellectual development as writers and critical thinkers and how these stages interact with editing skills below. Yes, editing is far more than correcting grammar mistakes!

Our top tips for writing and editing in SeeSaw.

“OK, but how does your program work?” Below is a breakdown of exactly what to expect from June Writers Academy, and answers to some of the questions we most often receive from parents exploring our program.

When kids first learn about commas, it’s helpful to ask them to say the word “comma” out loud whenever they see a comma in a sentence that they’re reading out loud as part of a worksheet or other school work (not when they’re reading a book for fun).

In Practice 4.4.1, we ask kids to notice that specific words may carry just as much emotion as an exclamation mark. Kids who have completed Levels 2 and 3 will already be familiar with pathos, one of the core rhetorical tools popularized by Aristotle back in Ancient Greece.

In Practice 4.3.4, we ask your kids to edit the Declaration of Independence, first to add appropriate commas and then to ruin it with fuzzy writing.

In Practices 4.2.3 and 4.2.5, we ask your child to misuse commas in ways that impact the meaning of the text—first at the sentence and then at the paragraph level. And then, of course, fix and explain the mistakes.

In Practice 4.1.3, we ask your child to connect their understanding of the concept of word and phrase classes with the way that words and phrases relate to each other in sentences.

We’ve written before about the importance of teaching kids to write multi-layered arguments early in their development process. Writing three-layered arguments is the key work of our Level 2: Arguments in Microcosm program, but most kids and adults don’t immediately understand what this means—or looks like. So, here is a breakdown of what the different layers look like when it comes to kid writing.