Monthly Newsletter for Our Family

So, I mentioned in another post recently that I would like to post through the process of writing a monthly newsletter from our family.  I am not committing to doing this every month of the year-I like to set myself up to succeed as many times as possible!  We had a lot of "stuff" going on in February and I thought it might give us lots of good material to write about.  Also, once the articles are composed and illustrated, I may work on a little desktop publishing with the two older children just to test the waters and see how they take to it. 
You can click on the picture and see our list..there was a move we helped Grandparents make,  an anniversary, special Valentine's breakfast and more!

Today, I used our time to recall events from the past month.  Tons of stuff to write about here!  I gave them a little bit of time to chew on it and then choose the article they wanted to write about.  Then, we brainstormed the topics that they chose. 

I hesitate to state just how far we will get tomorrow because I make lots of plans, but the Lord sometimes has His own plans for our school days!  But, tentatively, barring intervention, I plan to help them get through a rough draft.  My 3rd grader will probably only be required to compose about two paragraphs.  My 5th grader can come closer to one page.  My 1st grader will dictate to me while I type his out and the preschooler--well, she's a whole 'nother story!!

I'll let ya know how it goes :)

Writing Strands -- Curriculum Review

Background:
This past school year was our first year using a formal writing composition curriculum. We chose Writing Strands based on suggestions in several articles I had read previously. We began using it in 4th grade for an average writer.

The Product:
Writing Strands is not a grade-specific curriculum. We began in Level 3, the first level recommended for my child's age. From the website: "It is designed to give beginning writers experience in organizing thoughts so that they can be understood easily by others. We have used it successfully even in tenth grade for students needing special help." This is a non consumable resource and can be reused.

My Thoughts
I really liked the conversational style in which this manual is written. You can almost hear the instructor chatting with the child about what the assignment will be and giving examples. Each exercise is broken down into manageable chunks. These were helpful and did not overwhelm the student. There was no feeling of burdening the child with unrealistic expectations. At the same time, I think the exercises were appropriate for a beginning writer with adequate challenge. I was very impressed with the pieces my child produced using this program. I emailed a few of her writings to various friends, family and acquaintances for input and received very good feedback. Most thought the writing was at least average. But many were highly impressed. We are using this program again for the upcoming school year.

While the manual is reusable, I am glad that I purchased the ebook because I can print out each exercise and my child can write on the pages if they so desire. I can just print more for other children later. Not all children do well transferring information from one source to another, so using the original copy is helpful.


Overall Rating: *****