WriteShop – Writing Curriculum Review

One of my FAVORITE finds in the homeschool world has been Write Shop. Even before I had children old enough to use it, the samples caught my attention as something that was simple – easy for me to teach, easy for a child to learn.

I like to still think of myself as being young (LOL), and could see myself as a homeschool student really enjoying writing.

I am simply delighted to introduce you to Kim, from WriteShop.com, today! I encourage you to check out her links, especially if you are in the market for writing materials for your younger children - up to high school. Be sure to read our own little snippet at the end.

1) Hi Kim! First, why don’t you share a little about yourself and your passion for teaching writing skills to children.

  My husband Jim and have been married for 35 years. We have three married children whom we homeschooled through high school graduation, and now we enjoy six active grandkids, age 2 to 10.

 My own passion for teaching writing came about in a most unexpected way. Like me, our girls were intuitive writers. Writing came easily to them, so it was a piece of cake to help them hone their natural skills. And then our son came along! He was such a smart little guy, but he was a delayed reader and writer who had horrible handwriting and couldn’t spell to save his life. To meet his unique learning needs, I was forced to rethink my traditional ways of teaching. I also had to embrace letting Ben learn at his own pace.

Writing was our biggest hurdle. My friend Debbie and I even organized a homeschool writing class just so that we would be even more purposeful in teaching our reluctant 12-year-olds. It was through this class that we wrote the lessons that eventually became WriteShop I and II. As we watched the students’ writing skills improve—our sons included—we began to discover the simple truth that writing can be taught, and that with the right tools at our fingertips, we can encourage and motivate even our struggling writers.

2) What age do you recommend starting children on WriteShop?

For younger children, we recommend WriteShop Primary. Each level has a suggested age range, so you can just jump into whichever book is best for your child. Book A is for K-1 and reluctant 2nd graders, Book B targets grades 1-2 and reluctant 3^rd graders, and Book C is perfect for most 2nd-3rd graders and reluctant 4^th graders.

 Though WriteShop Primary was written for younger elementary ages, we discovered that Books B and C have also been meeting the needs of reluctant or learning-challenged 5th and 6th graders. As one mom wrote, ““Writing is writing, and giving the students steps to help them improve isn’t necessarily age-segregated.”

 If you’re not sure about the best starting place, here’s a helpful guide. And if you have junior high or high schoolers, you can start WriteShop I at any time.

3) What makes WriteShop Primary unique?

 The word of the day is FUN!

WriteShop Primary was developed to help parents gently guide their young children into a love of writing. You won’t find mindless workbook pages or boring exercises.

Each Activity Set includes creative, engaging ideas to help your child learn beginning writing skills, including:

• Prewriting games and crafts
• Picture books as prewriting tools
• Activities that engage the five senses
• Ideas for helping your child think of writing topics
• Simple but clever ways to help your child organize her stories
• Crafty ways to “publish” her stories
• Flexibility: “Smaller Steps” adjusts writing lessons for younger or reluctant writers, while “Flying Higher” activities challenge older or more advanced ones.
• Spelling tools and games (Books B and C)
• Daily schedules and lesson plans for Mom, including sample dialogs

4) If my child can’t write well yet, can I still use WriteShop materials?

 Absolutely! Because it’s meant to be an introduction to early writing skills, WriteShop Primary gives young children tools to experience success as they develop the ability to write. So whether you have a more advanced child or one who can’t read or write yet, the program is flexible enough to let your little ones work at their own level.

 WriteShop Primary encourages you to do as much of the writing as your child needs in order to feel successful. As he becomes more comfortable writing letters, words, and sentences on his own, he can contribute more and more to the actual writing. Meanwhile, he’s having fun with hands-on activities that contribute to the writing process in an engaging way.

 From personal experience, I’m a big believer in not rushing or pushing children who just aren’t ready. My son had lots of ideas in his head. He narrated most of his stories and reports to me well into junior high. But sometime around 10^th grade, everything clicked for him, and he began to soar. He’s now an excellent writer with a strong academic bent.

5) Is WriteShop an entire writing curriculum, or would I need to purchase other materials as well?

 WriteShop is a complete writing curriculum, but it doesn’t teach penmanship or grammar. For WriteShop Primary, all you’ll need is a teacher’s guide for you and one reproducible Activity Set Worksheet Pack for your children. You’ll also want to have an assortment of fun writing supplies on hand. Learn more about WriteShop Primary here.

 The older levels (WriteShop I and II) have both a Teacher’s Manual and student workbook. We also recommend a good thesaurus like The Synonym Finder. Click to learn more about WriteShop I and WriteShop II.

 We also carry an assortment of grammar and writing supplements as well as a series of award-winning writing prompts called StoryBuilders, which include World of Animals, World of Sports, and World of People.

6) If we started using WriteShop in the beginning of our homeschool education, how long would we be able to use this for our writing curriculum (how many years)?

 I’m really excited to share that there’s a new series in the works for upper elementary—WriteShop Junior. The first one, Book D, is slated for release in the spring of 2011, with Books E and F following within the year.

Once those three books are published, there will be eight levels:

• 3 WriteShop Primary levels – Books A, B, and C
• 3 WriteShop Junior levels – Books D, E, and F (coming in 2011-12)
• 2 WriteShop levels – WriteShop I and II

 This means that a child who starts out using Book A should be able to complete all eight levels of the program. If you’re beginning with a 3^rd grader, you’ll most likely begin with WriteShop Primary Book C. And if you’re starting fresh with a 7^th grader, you’ll begin with WriteShop I. No matter where you start, you just pick up with the next level the following year.

7) Is there anything else that you would especially like my readers to know about WriteShop?

 I have a really informative blog called In Our Write Minds with lots of tips, articles, and help with teaching and evaluating writing. It’s a great place to get encouragement and ideas.

 You can visit our website: http://www.writeshop.com/. We’re also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/writeshop.

I’d love to offer your readers a discount coupon, Candace! If they enter the code SONBEAMS10 at checkout, they’ll get a 10% discount on their entire order of $25 or more from the WriteShop store (valid through 9/17/10).

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Are you as impressed with WriteShop as I am? We were super excited when we received the WriteShop Primary B packet here a few weeks ago. DS1 is 6 now, and loves to write stories!

While I have always enjoyed reading the stories he has written, I’ve wanted to teach him  how to make his stories better – how to collect his thoughts and get them on paper in a more readable way.

One thing that impressed me was seeing how you aren’t simply putting words on paper for the activities, but you are shown ways to make your words more powerful, more interesting to read. (Hmmmm… maybe I should take a few notes myself… )

There is no way in the world that I could’ve ever come up with all of the activities and lesson ideas that just one of these books offer, and they have so many more – I just can’t praise these enough!

The teacher books guide you through EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of teaching the lessons. You are guided through the writing process – from guided writing, pre-writing, and brainstorming, to the writing project, editing and revising, and finally, publishing the project.

I was cautious about this being too hard for a 6 year old child,  but found that the Primary B book seemed right on target for DS. We have thoroughly enjoyed creating a word bank and coming up with our story from that.

We have taken a simply written story and learned how to make it more interesting. And one of our favorite activities from the book, we learned how to write a personal letter and mailed it off as a surprise! I think the grandparents were pretty excited about that one.

There’s really so much more to WriteShop than I can write out here, and I can’t encourage you enough to visit their website and check out their samples.

Thank you so much, Kim, for allowing us to meet you - and for the special discount!

*This is not a paid review, and there are no affiliate links. Opinions are 100% mine!

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