I was and am a prolific reader and writer, and exposure to and production of GOOD, and above all - accurate, language was paramount. In my own homeschooling experience, my parents didn't focus on the mechanics of language until I was 11 or 12. We started out with copying and then dictation so we were able ease into the production of correct language. My father, who was a stickler like no other, would put an "x" (or more than one - depending on the number of mistakes I generated) next to the line with the issue (spelling, etc.) and we had to figure out what the problem was. The writing also was never a decontextualized paragraph out of a workbook, but rather we always drew from topics that interested us. I am now pursuing my Ed.D. in education, and mechanics is typically not an issue that arises. :)