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Write On! is a creative writing email correspondence course created by a homeschooling mom. Write On! is written for grades 3-12 and covers a variety of writing topics, including description, persuasive writing, narrative, comparing/contrasting, and point of view.
The activities in Write On! are pretty typical of most writing programs, with one exception which make the program so successful. Personal critiques by Gwen Simmons offer valuable feedback from someone besides the parent. Too often, we moms/teachers only see the wrong things our children do in their writing. We often concentrate on the mechanical issues, such as grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and forget to comment the wonderful thoughts our children come up with. Rather than emphasizing the mechanics, Gwen offers encouragement and suggestions for each assignment that actually improve the content of their writing. She does not give grades but instead promotes improvement for each student.
The activities are interesting and foster your student's creativity. Assignments include describing a Norman Rockwell painting, completing story starters, using a thesaurus, writing a persuasive essay, describing three people you know, and writing a "how to" paper and other topics. Many assignments involve choosing one of the starters included.
A Write On! course runs for 13 weeks, with one assignment each week. The price includes a personal critiquing of each assignment. Gwen doesn't send the critiques until there are three to send at once, which saves time. Your critiques will arrive via snail mail. She also does not accept attachments, so each assignment must be cut and paste into an email.
Excellent Essays is a 15-week correspondence course designed to prepare seventh to twelfth graders for the essay portion of the ACT/SAT. Again, each assignment is personally critiqued by Gwen Simmons. This course includes topics such as the paragraph, transitions, thesis statement, What is an essay?, openers, and vocabulary (how to use it in the essay). The first half of the course is completed by the student but not sent to Gwen. Then the student completes four timed essays to send to her for grading.
If you are intimidated by teaching writing or you want someone else's opinion of your child's writing, both of these courses are for you!
Product review by Dawn King, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, September 2006
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