Writing Strands: Beginning 2 Lets Your Kid's Writing SOAR This Year! (review)

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge,from Masterbooks, for review purposes on this blog, No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about them.

Writing....

Ugh. 

When you have a child who is dyslexic, traditional writing programs are nothing but a recipe for failure! From the start, Miss Grace has loved telling stories, but HATING writing. So we have had a very hard time getting her locked into a good writing curriculum.

Last year we tried the speak and 'write' formula, and while it worked, the whole 'hamburger' concept was hard to keep in her mind and working with it.

So when I had the chance to check out a modernized writing program, Writing Strands from Masterbooks, I knew I wanted to check it out.

With over a 30 year history, Writing Strands has proven itself to be a solid, powerful tool for teaching students to write and communicate clearly. Modernized for the current day, the new series combines Writing Strands and Reading Strandes, for an all inclusive English series (you just need to add Grammar)!

The books come in 3 levels, and this is the recommended order to use them:

 • Beginning 1 in 5th grade

 • Beginning 2 in 6th grade

 • Intermediate 1 in 7th grade

 • Intermediate 2 in 8th grade 

• Advanced 1 in 9th grade

• Advanced 2 in 10th grade

However, the curriculum IS skills-based, so students should be placed in the level that most closely matches their writing skills. If you're not sure which of the Writing Strands books you should start with, you can have your child take their placement test, and see which is the best starting point for them. 

The books are available in softback, or as downloadable editions!
I knew that with the issues Miss Grace has, might be better to start lower and work ehr way back up, if the program was successfull, so we started with Writing Strands: Beginner 2: 

Synopsis:

Writing Strands Beginning 2 is designed for students who can independently write paragraphs (theoretically 5th - 8th grade), as it focuses on foundational skills, written exercises, and the overall writing process. Writing Strands Beginning 2 is a hybrid course that combines Reading Strands and Writing Strands Level 3 into one course. Worksheets are now provided to add structure to reading assignments chosen by the teacher.

Writing Strands Beginning 2 explores the art of writing effectively—and creatively! In this comprehensive course, students will discover how to create engaging sentences, craft vivid descriptions, introduce characters within a story, identify cultural aspects of literature, and so much more! Through interactive, guided exercises students will learn how to: 

- Follow written directions

- Structure sentences & paragraphs

- Create character thoughts

- Organize information

- Design relatable characters

and so much more!

Writing Strands Beginning 2 takes a comprehensive approach to language arts, teaching students how to construct effective sentences, present a logical sequence of events, and structure paragraphs while also developing the student's reading, writing, and speaking skills. Students will learn how to read and evaluate literature, practice spelling, analyze worldview, and write a story!

Review:

This course can be self-directed by your child, or used with your assistance. It  is meant to be a one year course, per book, with each lesson being 30-45 minutes, and being done 5 times a week. Now as you know, Miss Grace loves block scheduling and hates daily items. So for her, we decided to split the week's lessons into 2 days, and that worked out well for her.

She GROANED when I said we were starting a new writing program, no surprise there, but she was pleasantly surprised that the first couple of lessons were "easy and fun". LOL I loved how the chapters go slowly, but build upon each other and really help develop your child's writing skills, while they aren't realizing it! 

The guided writing exercises are fun and keep kids interested! Like the samples above, they aren't very hard, and when kids see how EASY wwriting can be, in the pre-writing stage, especially, then it makes more sense to them, when they have to go do the actual writing! 

I also love that kids had 2 different sources for reading- the Bible being the primary for literature evaluation, as it helps them with reading comprehension, and how to tell a story, especially the setting! And you know me, whenever you can have a course of study cover 2 subjects, it's a winner for me! The second source of reading is a book that the STUDENT picks out. Now as a parent you obviously can pick say 5 books that are acceptable, and then let your child pick from the list. I know for Miss Grace reading close to her grade level has drastically improved her sentence structure and how she organizes her tales. This book is helping her to better organize her thoughts to tell that story!

She has loved that she gets to swap reading and writing lessons every week, so she isn't getting BORED with the course at all. For the parent/teacher, the Suggested Daily Schedule saves LOADS of time when you are planning out your school year, and makes it wasy to keep up. The student worksheets are easy to download (or come with 3-hole punched/perforated pages if you get the physical book), and have your child write on them. I hand them out on a weekly basis, and that way she has all her lessons ready, and if she feels like it, she can work through all the lessons in one day. When she gets further along, especially with longer writing assignments, I'm sure she'll go to 2 days again. 

Overall, this is a very sturdy writing program, and we will probably look at using combining the next level next year into part of this year and next. Allowing her to get caught up, grade wise, and then use them grade appropriately from their. The only thing you are missing is a grammar/punctuation component, and you can read our previous homeschool curriculum reviews to see the ones we recommend!