Essentials in Writing

Essentials in Writing is a complete language arts program.  The primary focus is on composition and writing skills.  This curriculum was created by a former middle school teacher, Matthew Stephens.  With this program your student will gain the confidence to become successful writers.  The lessons are taught step by step.  There are worksheets and assignments to work on at the end of each lesson Mr. Stephens teaches.

There are writing curriculum for grades 3-11 and also first grade.  Members of the review crew reviewed a number of these grade levels. 

We were blessed to review the Grade six.

With the Grade 6 level students learn sentence structure, additional grammar, capitalization and punctuation rules, proper use of a friendly letter, writing a descriptive, expository, and persuasive essays, five paragraph essays, effective writing skills, multi-paragraph composition and much more.

The Grade 6 level is available for ages 11-12 on the website for $40.

You can download a copy of the Table of Contents by clicking on the link.  You can also download a Sample Lesson on the website as well.

I used this mostly with my son who is actually 13.  But he has fought me every step of the way when it comes to writing.  I thought this would be a great change of pace for him.  He can listen to someone else teach instead of me!  I was right in thinking this.  He has never been more anxious to get at his language arts lessons than with this!  I printed the worksheets he needed the night before and he was able to take the DVD into his room to watch.  I was amazed that in just a month my son went from fighting me to asking me for his writing lessons. 

The first week we had this we used it as review of the basic grammar and punctuation.  At first he said it was boring because he already knew the material.  I said it never hurts to review.  Especially in the day of texting and shortened speech. 

After completing our review we jumped forward to the letter writing.  I am still amazed typing this up how much he has progressed in this.  He is a boy who did not like writing at all.  I cannot say he loves it now, but he doesn't roll his eyes and argue with me when I mention language arts class.   

I know we have certainly found the Language Arts Curriculum that will continue with us for the rest of his homeschool career.  A fun thing that happened recently is that a lot of his friends attend public school.  They had a day off and Andrew still had lessons to complete.  They were all sitting around the computer watching the DVD.  I heard things like, "dude you are so lucky to be able to work at your own pace."  "I wish my teacher taught me like this", "Let me work on that worksheet with you."

Thank you Matthew Stephens for creating something that works well for us!  I use to dread telling my son that it was time for Language Arts because I knew a fight was coming.  It had gotten to the point I would avoid it at all costs.  Not anymore!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

 

Disclaimer~ I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.  All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.