Welcome to Writing Tales!  The student workbook is now available at www.lulu.com/amyolsen.  The Teacher's Guide will be available any day now! 

I wrote Writing Tales originally for our classical homeschooling co-op, and the book received such great reviews that I wrote a companion Teacher's Guide and revised the workbook for publication.  I hope that the inclusion of Co-op Lesson Plans, as well as Homeschooler Lesson Plans, will set Writing Tales apart as a curriculum.

The course studies 15 well written "tales", fairy tales and fables, and teaches composition to middle grammar students (3rd-4th grades) by following the first level of the progymnasmata.  In a nutshell, the students use the model to practice copywork skills, grammar, vocabulary and spelling skills, and then re-write the model in their own words.  I deviate slightly from the strict classical method by encouraging the students to add a few details of their own to the final draft without changing the basic plot - I discovered the students felt more pride in their finished work when allowed to do this.