Posted in Reviews of homeschooling products
WriteShop is well known among high school homeschoolers with the WriteShop series. Well the exciting news is that they are coming out with a writing curriculum for K-3rd graders. Each day, you will have easy activities to do with your child! The strength of WriteShop is that it teaches the skills of the writing process.
This time you will find a multitude of activities and subjects to write with your kids as well as crafts and picture books. It is easy to adapt the WriteShop Primary to accommodate the beginners or more advanced writers in your family. You can even use it with pre-writers as you help them to start the thinking process of putting words on paper.
I had the opportunity of reviewing the WriteShop Primary Book A as well as the activity set worksheet pack both in the e-book edition. This product is recommended for students in Kindergarten or first grade but I adapted it for my 2nd grader during the review. I let him decide which subject he wanted to write and he thought it was fun to do.
This review introduced my child to the process of organizing your thoughts before writing something. He loved sitting down with me and writing about a topic he had previously picked. It made him think and look for the right words. I love hearing his laugh when he thought of something funny to write. So precious! The early lessons have the option of being done orally for the child and mom (or dad) would write what the child is dictating. I think this is very interesting because it forces us to slow down and speak to one another on a specific subject and to listen to what the child is saying. Then if the child can do copy work, he/she could easily copy the words the parent has written previously. My child was older so he was able to write directly in his book the sentences he wanted to include.
The objective at the end of Book A is to have your child to be able to learn how to plan, create, and publish simple stories with your help. Throughout the book, the child will learn to generate ideas, plan a story before writing it, gather information about a specific topic, use a story web to organize the information, identify the parts of a story (beginning, middle, and end), choose a title, think on how to improve the story, and publish the story. I think this series is amazing. I could easily adapt it to do the same thing in French. It’s easy to use and fun to do. Sitting together bring togetherness and laughter when your child tells you what he wants to write.
Yes I do recommend this writing curriculum for K-3rd graders. In addition to the Teacher’s guide, I also received the Activity Set Worksheet Pack that completes the program. This Activity Set is an integral part of the program and offers 20 reproducible activity pages to introduce and support the skills taught during the lessons. If you intend to get the writing program, do consider getting the Activity Set as well as they go hand-in-hand together.
The WriteShop Primary Book A is available at their website in two versions. The print version is 26.95$US (plus shipping) and the e-book version is 24.25$US (shipping included). As well the Activity Set is available in print for 4.95$US (plus shipping) or e-book for 4.50$US (shipping included).
The advantage of having an e-book version is that you can get the books right away without waiting or paying for shipping. You just have to print the document whenever you need it. And you have the option to print in a whole or just print a little bit at a time. I really like this option as I don’t have to wait for a package to arrive at my door! *grin* The good news is that WriteShop is planning to release Book B and Book C later this year (2009). Book B is planned to be released in June while Book C is schedule for August or September. I personally look forward to the day when these will be available. I think I have discovered a gem to introduce creative writing for my kids. It is possible for you to look at the scope and sequence of the WriteShop Primary Book A by going to http://www.writeshop.com/writeshop_primary_scope_sequence.htm . If you are wondering which book would be better for your student, you can visualize the placement chart at http://www.writeshop.com/writeshop_primary_placement.htm . Sample lessons are also available. For the WriteShop Primary Book A simply go to http://www.writeshop.com/images/WS-Primary-A-Lesson-5-Sample.pdf and for the Activity Set go to http://www.writeshop.com/activity_set_worksheet.htm . Look into it, you will be very surprised and pleased by what you will see.
