I have been asked many many times, “how did you make grammar fun?”. It wasn’t easy, until I incorporated their favorite things in to our lessons, superheroes! Trust me – it works.
Superheroes for Language Arts
It first started with hand-prints. When my oldest son Jacob was in elementary grades, he saw someone else somewhere else make cute little hand prints and then painted them as superheroes. All he wanted to do one day was hand-print art. He sabotaged every single homeschool lesson that day pouting and miserable I wouldn’t skip our core subjects for art.
I’m not an artist. I hate the mess. I once had to create the hand-print Christmas tree thing one year because I was writing an “Easy Christmas Crafts” article for a magazine. It took days to get the green paint off my boys! You can image, I had no desire to pour out all our washable BLUE paint for some superheroes. Yet the belly aching continued and I started haggling. “If you can give me 10 Batman Verbs right now and 10 Batman Adverbs – I’ll let you paint all afternoon.”
What a mistake. That kid knocked out 20 words in less than 3 minutes. All because he knew Batman so well, he had no idea Batman was a real superhero for teaching grammar! You betcha. We created a lot of hand-print art that day. Then I made a YouTube Video how my friends can incorporate superheroes into language arts lessons.
It’s a great idea. But what about those kids who hate to get their hands dirty? What about the kids who just aren’t great at sketching? What about the kids who absolutely love coloring pages?!
No worries – I’ve come back around years later, with help from Jake to add some razzle dazzle to your language arts lessons!
Use Superheroes for Language Arts
No paint. No mess. No cleanup. You’re welcome!!
Print “lego minifigure” superheroes for language arts. Be sure to stack the language arts lesson before the art. For years I had it reversed and you’d think I was a homeschool demon for cutting art short after it ran on for 2 hours. Homeschooling a creative type when you’re not creative takes a lot of grace and love!
If I had it to do all over again I’d do it this way:
1. Print coloring page in secret. You can use our free pages:
Flash Coloring Page
Pirate Coloring Page
or feel free to print a blank lego minifigure.
(we’re just trying to help get you started. Some days a blank template is intimidating to young artists)
2. Chat up the next grammar lesson – on whatever part of speech.
3. Nonchalantly pull out coloring page. (this is the razzle dazzle step) Watch the interest level skyrocket! Giggle to yourself. Send us a thank you card later.
4. Discuss the superhero. What does your child like best about them. FYI – if they start going on to origin stories end it quickly or you will be there all ever loving day. Save yourself!
Example: FLASH
Ask, how does Flash run? Quickly, Rapidly, Instantly, Expertly, Carefully, Amazingly, Vertically, etc. Then I used to say, “show me how you’d run if you were Flash”. We were hitting all types of learning styles!!
5. Ask your homeschooler to write down however many parts of speech you want to have completed. I usually asked for 10 this and 10 that. 10 nouns & 10 adjectives. 10 verbs & 10 adverbs. 10 prepositions. 10 interjections (this is funny w/ the old Batman sitcom). However many words you want done – and make sure they spell them correctly!
6. THEN!! Let the coloring begin. Reheat your morning coffee & enjoy your 5 minutes of quiet. You deserve it mama!!
ADVICE!
Don’t be upset if Flash ends up green. This isn’t a superhero history lesson. When you get through the language arts lesson, the superhero has served his purpose!
Do not give 100 worksheets in one day. Let this new language arts interest linger a few days.