Writing Strands: Level 3

Starting homeschooling this year, I was daunted by the choices of curriculum. Our son (3rd grade) has never enjoyed writing and didn't do much of it in traditional school. We both like this curriculum. The author "speaks" directly to the student and is quite funny, so it makes writing fun. We're only a few months into homeschooling, but my son is quite proud of everything he's written so far.

I know the author discourages the use of exclamation points, but this book series deserves one. We only homeschooled for one year but I still bought all the books with the intent to use them to improve my own writing skills. They are that good. I highly recommend them for both homeschool and self-improvement.

I agree with the earlier homeschooling moms , this is a fun easy to use program. My reluctant 12 year old just finished book 3 (it took 2 years as we spread it out to his pace)and now he has written his own mini adventure series. The wrkbk is geared toward the child, it encourages independance and works in very small steps (strands) toward a goal. This made it much easier for my son who will begin book 4 and my DD begins book 2 this fall. Have fun learning!!

I am a home schooling mom and I am really enjoying using this book. My son is in 4th grade this year and the best part is... he can read it himself and do the assignments. The book is written to the student. It is serious and yet the author makes it very personnel to the student. I have not done a lot in it yet. My son seems to like it and is learning. THat's What I want. I recommend you buy Evaluating Writing to go with it. It's like the teachers manual in evaluating your child's writing unless you already are good in English yourself.

I homeschool my three children (ages 5,9,11) and am always looking for academically rigourous texts that are fun too. It's difficult to find curricula that fulfill both requirements, but this series does. Clear instruction focuses on an incremental approach to improving writing skills. My kids have learned (and continue to learn in level 4) how to use language with clarity, write to interest readers, organize information, write vivid descriptions. When so much out there is fluff (memorizing grammar rules, making kids worry more about how neat their handwriting is than how clear their thinking is), books like Writing Strands make me remember why I homeschool.