Write Away: A Handbook for Young Writers and Learners

My children were very inspired by this book when we used it last year in our home-education curriculum for 1st and 3rd grade. Write Away is written on a second grade reading level, with language that draws the kids in, and gets them interested enough to read on. It starts with a four chapter section on the process of writing, where it covers such fundamentals as pre-writing and drafting, revising and checking, and sentences and paragraphs. The second section covers various forms of writing with an introduction to each new form of writing, and then an example, using a cartoon student for your child to identify with as the "author", and finally, a step by step guide for your child to walk through as they try their hand at it. The third section of the book is entitled, "Tools of Learning", and concisely covers basic reading skills, introduces ideas about speaking and listening, and basically gets a student's feet wet with new terms and ideas such as "getting organised", "working in groups", and "taking tests". Next, there is a section on proofreading, followed by a student almanac. All in all, it's a simple, yet thorough coverage of writing concepts for the young elementary aged student. My children and I spent most of our time enjoying the Forms of Writing section. They loved the easy to understand, friendly language, and had fun trying all the different forms presented, there favourite was the "circle story". I was very impressed with this book, simply because my children learned a lot, and had fun doing it. I'll be using it again next year with my second grader.

This is one of the best all around resource books for younger elementary children that I have ever come across. It covers many areas in many subjects in the simplest way possible. My granddaughter uses it for all of her classes and she is home schooled.