TOS Review: The Write Foundation

Writing. It’s the bane of my homeschool teaching existence.  I’m comfortable teaching all other subjects, even advanced math. But writing scares me. You’d think with me being a blogger, writing would be a no-brainer, but it’s not. So I’m always looking for new ways to teach writing.

I was given the opportunity to review The Write Foundation, as part of my involvement with the TOS Homeschool Crew. There were three levels of writing from which I could pick, and I picked the easiest: Sentence to Paragraph Writing, figuring it would be good review for my oldest.

About The Write Foundation

The Write Foundation is a curriculum designed for reluctant writers. It’s focus is on the basics of writing, getting thoughts from the student’s head onto the paper in an organized way.

The Write Foundation is also set up for the reluctant writing teacher. According to the website, a teacher should be ready to use the curriculum after spending 1-2 hours reading through the teacher’s manual.

Our Experience with The Write Foundation

I chose the lowest level of writing to use with my daughter, as she gets overwhelmed when I change curriculum on her too many times.  My plan was to use Sentence to Paragraph writing as a general review and to beef up her basic skills.

I read through the teacher’s manual, and it seemed pretty straightforward. I put together a binder for Stargirl, as outlined in the lesson plan. That was really helpful in organizing her work.

The next week we just jumped right in! A lot of the work was review for Stargirl, so she didn’t have any trouble understanding it. A lot of the lessons focused on Logic, which is the core of The Write Foundation…writing as a logical process. The worksheets were a lot of fun. Stargirl’s favorite assignment was writing silly sentences about her cats, using alliteration.

I was a little intimidated with teaching the writing lessons before we got started, but once we jumped in, it was easier than I thought it would be. Each lesson is divided into 6-10 different sections, and we just divided the sections up evenly over the week, so we didn’t have any particularly heavy days. If a lesson was particularly long, we took more than one week.

Both my daughter and I are very concrete learners, and the format of The Write Foundation really worked for both of us. I can definitely see that Stargirl’s writing has improved since we started using Sentence to Paragraph writing.

The Nitty Gritty on The Write Foundation

The Pros:

• Great for concrete learners.
• Lessons are fun
• Assignments are clearly written
• There are lots of examples in the book
• Covers basic, structured, creative, and formal writing

The Cons:

• Cost
• Must also purchase Mind Benders, if you want to use the program to the fullest extent.

My Overall Opinion:

I really liked using Sentence to Paragraph Writing by The Write Foundation. Stargirl really liked it too. The Write Foundation was useful in improving Stargirl’s writing in a fun and non-intimidating way. I’m keeping this one on my list of curriculum that I’d use again!

Important Information About The Write Foundation

• Website: www.thewritefoundation.org
• Suggested Age Range: 11-17
• Levels: Sentence to Paragraph Writing, Paragraph Writing, Essay Writing
• Cost: $100 for 30 lessons, teacher manual, and resource CD
• Other Recommended Material: Mind Benders
• Yahoo Support Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thewritefoundation/

To see what other Crew members are saying about The Write Foundation, visit the TOS Crew Blog!

*Disclaimer: I received 15 lessons from The Write Foundation in exchange for my honest review.