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.

We’re rolling out three new features. Take a look!

We’re thrilled to announce that lessons from Level 5: Advanced Solo Editing are now live on our private membership site!

Does your child need support writing or editing an assignment for school or an application? We are now happy to offer support for planning & content development, translating pre-writing work into a draft, and editing as an optional service included in our standard membership program at no extra charge.

Check out a sample lesson from Level 5.

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 updated Live Help Hours.

Our top tips for writing and editing in SeeSaw.

If you’ve been itching to get your kid to finally (yes, a split infinitive) tighten up the mechanics of their writing—no more misplaced commas and complicated subjunctive clauses, etc.—this is the summer to realize your goal.

“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.