Customer Reviews

Writing Strands Level 3 (Writing Strands Ser)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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 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!!

If you are looking to break out of the traditional worktext mold in educating your child/children, this book may be a great place to start.
You'll find this series, beginning with level 3, recommended by many home education authors.

As another reviewer noted, the humor is dry... BUT that should not keep you from trying this great resource. My 9 yr. old daughter (4th grade-ish) has no problem following the directions... although that may mean reading a section two times. She is able to follow the program - working two to three times a week - with no assistance from me. It encourages independent thinking and allows the child to work on his own. This is a great help for any homeschooling family, but especially those with multiple children.

This is NOT complete language arts curriculum. We use this along with Primary Language Lessons and Sequential Spelling.

Most importantly, my daughter's confidence and writing ability have improved since beginning WS3.

Highly recommended.

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 used this book with my son last year in third grade. I liked the way the writing assignments were broken into manageable chunks. This helped my son to visualize how long a writing assignment might take. It makes the whole "write a story about..." assignment much less overwhelming. My only complaint is that the book is heavy (in my opinion) on writing stories, which is not the type of writing that my son enjoys doing, though he did turn out some pretty good yarns.

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 don't get what is supposed to be so great about this series. My daughter did level 3 and four before we decided to call it quits. We both found it a pain to follow the instruction and methodology. Level four consisted of assignment after assignment doing things like making lists of items in rooms and describing where everything is located, such as the south wall, north wall and so on. We both found them very boring. It was very difficult also to see where all this list making and organizing of information, which didn't really feel like it fit us or would be our style of doing things, was headed. There was no feeling of having really learned something valuable or sense of accomplishment on having finished the books. We have switched to Saxon Grammar and Writing and are liking it much better. My daughter has written some essays that I have been proud of in just the first few weeks.

The author's attempt at humor is difficult to read for an adult, let alone a child. Though I have two college degrees, I have to re-read the lessons again and explain them in my own words to my child as she has difficulty comprehending the dry wit. We have also had to add extra practice lessons into the mix that I've made up at home. I am surprised this book is so highly recommended. I will finish the one I have, but not certain if I'll continue with the series. That said, I do have an appreciation for what the author tries to get from the student.

My 5th grader doesn't like to write much, but he enjoys the independent work in this book. His sentences are improving with each lesson. My 4th grader loves writing and is becoming an even more detailed writer!