TOS REVIEW: The Write Foundation

He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock- Luke 6:48

The Write Foundation

Level One: Sentence to Paragraph Writing; Suggested ages- 11 to 13

Format: Spiral Instruction Manuals Lessons 1 – 15; Student Worksheets Lessons 1 – 15;  Sentence to Paragraph Additional Resources CD

Price: Complete Lessons 1-30 $100 +tax/shipping OR Lessons 1-15 $65 + tax/shipping OR just the worksheets- $15 +tax/shipping

Additional materials needed and that would benefit those using this program: 

1. Mind Benders® A1, A2, A3, and A4 (optional)
2. Highlighters (in 5 different colors- the program uses blue for nouns and subjects, orange for verbs, etc)
3. 3 ring binder for the student
4. Bible
5. Dictionary
6. Thesaurus

You can check out the syllabus for Level One but for a quick and simple run down:

• Reinforces the construction of a basic sentence
• Improves sentence structure with basic grammar and figures of speech
• Teaches the organizational process of  brainstorming, outlining, rough draft and editing.
• Quickly develops more interesting, informative sentences
• Steps to writing the basic paragraph 
• Progress to writing two-paragraph papers
• Guidelines, checklists and correct structure
• Creative poetry writing

 

Through The Old Schoolhouse Crew I have been able to use The Write Foundation's Sentence to Paragraph Lessons 1-15 writing program.  The age suggestion for this program is a good fit with my ds, who happens to have turned 11 at the end of July. If you are unsure about what level to start your child with this program you can find a nice run down the suggestions here. When I saw that I was going to be reviewing this product I immediately scoured the site. I wanted to know what to expect. There are sample pages for each program so that you can see if this is something that might work with your children (and you).

My son, who I used this program with, does not hate writing (or he didn't about this time last year). He would write creative sentences when he was being silly. Sometimes he would write stories and they were good. Very creative. As the year has moved on, however, he simply does not want to do things dealing with writing. I don't know if it is the physical act of writing or the mechanics of 'writing' (nouns, adjectives, verbs, sentence structure, etc)- perhaps both. Because he has such an aversion to writing I hoped this program would help him switch gears and enjoy be able to do writing without so much grumbling. 

I believe it has done that.

I did not opt for buying the Mind Benders books but would definitely recommend them. The one that was given at the beginning of Lesson 1 was enough to get ds hooked on them. They help the students have a little fun while they are still exercising their mental muscles. I wish I had of purchased the books.

But even without the Mind Benders books the program has been beneficial. It is set up for a classroom setting- or a co-op. There are examples of schedules included in the Teacher's Manual (TM) for using the program not in that type of setting but we had to tweak it a bit more to fit in with our schedule. 

How did we use the program?

We did this on a 4 day schedule with Friday being 'homework' day. Generally we began a lesson on Tuesday (we have Co-op all day Monday) and continue on through Thursday. Usually we got to the Poetry work on Thursdays. Friday whatever 'homework' had not been completed was to be done that day. I guess you could say that we did our lessons in 3 days some weeks. There have been some Fridays where there is no writing to be done. 

For this program, it is set up that each student has a 3 ring binder for organization of their materials (I think this is great). In this binder you are to have them put 8 divider tabs. Personally I really like folders. 3 Ring binders are great but I really like folders :) so in place of divider tabs we have 8-2 pocket folders. I hole punched them so that they could be secure in the binder. The rest of the organization instructions I followed.

It is recommended for Sentence to Paragraph to take about 1 hour a day. It took us that long some days; longer others; and some times none at all! (Friday occasionally)

How easy is this program to use?

Very easy.....once you get the hang of it! When I first received this I read through the beginning pages of the TM and was so confused! I'm not even sure what I was expecting but it threw my brain for a twist that's for sure. It would be to the benefit of both the teacher and student for the TM to be read through (or quite a bit of it) before starting. This isn't something to just jump in first, ask questions later- or you will have a lot of questions!

So, once I got over the fact that this was actually going to be a challenge to figure out how to use and I did figure it out, it was easy. The first page of each lesson pretty much tells what you will be covering (or what is expected of the students from the previous lesson). I definitely recommend that you prepare ahead for each day's lesson. What, am I the only one that doesn't do that every day? Well, if you are at all like me, take my advice and prepare for the lessons! You'll thank me for it!

Are there any CONS to this program?

The program itself, no.
Did you read the paragraph above? I didn't like that it was so confusing at first to figure out. But if you are already in 'teacher-mode' or 'English-teacher-mode' especially, I don't think this will be a problem. And not only that, if you ever have a problem with understanding how to use the program, Rebecca is just a phone call away. (Btw, I did not have to call but did send a short email once- which was answered promptly and with much information.)

I mentioned that the TM was confusing at first...a short time into using the program, some edited material was sent to me via email to help alleviate my confusion. I thought that was very nice.

There were typos in the TM...or would it be the student worksheets? When doing a lesson there were a few occasions where my pages did not match up to ds' but it wasn't too big of a deal. We figured out what was meant and just moved on.

But the program itself is good.

Would I recommend this program to another homeschooling family?

Yes! It is a good program as far as I can tell but it requires a lot of participation from the teacher and also it really needs a certain teaching style oriented person to really get this, in my opinion. But one of the great things about homeschooling is that any curriculum can be tweaked to suit you and your family.
And if you do opt for this program- get the Mind Benders! ;)

Bottomline

I believe this is a good English/Writing program and well priced for the material. My ds may not love to write but now he grumbles a bit less and I feel that he is learning from this program- that is what I wanted in the first place. I am actually interested in the next level of this program for coming years.

See what other Crew Members say about this program.

**Disclaimer: I received these materials free from The Write Foundation through The Old Schoolhouse Crew. I was not compensated for this review; I received the items in exchange for an honest review. All statements/opinions are my own. See more Disclosure/Policies.**