Demystifying the Institute for Excellence in Writing

Institute for Excellence in Writing

Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)

Home educating mothers tend to be overwhelmed by two subjects in particular.  Science and writing.  OK.  Upper level math too.  Since I’m not much of a left-brained gal, I won’t be writing any posts about dead animal dissections or the wonders of derivatives, but I do love English—and writing is something I like to read and write about.

Ten years ago I started using the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) program, and while I tend to dabble around with various curricula in almost all of the other subjects, for writing, I’ve found a place to permanently hang my proverbial hat.

But for newbies, it can be confusing.  I’ve had countless conversations with moms who are interested in this program but feel faint when visiting their website.  The website is actually well organized, and, I think, pretty clear on things.  BUT there is so much information to process that it feels overwhelming.

It also appears to cost a lot of money, and you sort of feel like, if you have to refinance your home in order to invest in one of their seminars, you want to make sure you get the right one—and that it delivers.  You know—the next C.S. Lewis, straight from your womb to the world.

I can’t promise that your child will be John Piper when he grows up, but I can tell you that he (yes, even “he”) will be able to write better and more interesting papers than most (maybe all) of the college students I tutored many years ago.

When he is in junior high.

So how can you avail yourself of this writing method when, after spending several days studying the website, you still have deep insecurities about where to begin with your particular child?

That’s where this post could come in handy.  I’m going to do my best to make this easy for you, not necessarily by saying anything that their website doesn’t already say, but by laying it out in a more conversational format to make it feel more like “you can do this.”  I’m not an affiliate nor is anyone giving me a freebie for writing this.  I’m really just trying to help.  So let’s get started.

Where Do I Begin?

Not with IEW.  (GASP!)

For your little ones, you can simply focus on learning how to read and copying simple words and sentences.  I love the McGuffey readers for this purpose.  If you get the Parent-Teacher Guide for the Original McGuffey Readers book along with the Eclectic Pictorial Primer, Eclectic Primer, and first reader, that will give you all the copy work your child will need until they are around 7-9.  No bells and whistles needed.

It will also give your child practice writing good sentences.  That’s a solid foundation on which to build the rest of their writing skills.  Think about it.  Apprentices, whether they are learning how to paint pictures, sculpt statues, shoe horses, or build websites, learn best by copying.  In the “old days” when literacy was at a high in our country, students learned to craft excellent sentences by copying excellent sentences.

This is all you need for reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and penmanship for those first 2-3 years.  Seems too simple (and inexpensive) to work, but it does.  And you don’t need to use the McGuffeys.  That was just one idea.  Craft your home school any way you’d like.

Three Routes to the Same Destination

There are three ways to go about the IEW program.  You can pick one—or be like me and try them all.

Way One

Learn how to teach writing by purchasing and watching the 10 hour seminar for parents and teachers, Teaching Writing: Structure and Style ($169), and then tailoring the program to dovetail with whatever you are doing for history or literature studies.  This is the most cost effective option IF you are confident and determined to learn how to do it yourself.  I learned more about how to teach writing just by watching this seminar than I did in college.  (I have an English Education degree!)

In other words, you could potentially purchase that seminar, learn the ropes, and never have to purchase another product from IEW again.  You’d be set to teach writing to all your children, at any level.  All you’d need is motivation.

This is the option I chose back when I had two school aged children and no money.  It was a huge investment for us at the time, but I’m really glad I had that training as a foundation for what followed.  Because after I started adding more children, I started losing motivation to teach writing on my own.

Way Two

Step aside and let Mr. Pudewa teach your children via “Student Writing Intensives”.   It’s painless, he’s funny and motivational, and your kids will enjoy it as much as any kid COULD enjoy this subject.

But here’s where the “intensive-confusion” begins.  So let’s break it down.  There are two Student Writing Intensives: {1} the Student Writing Intensive ($109), and {2} the Student Writing Intensive Continuation Course ($199).

The Student Writing Intensive is shorter and can be completed in half a year.  Then you can simply use the remainder of the year to practice the things they learned in the class.  The Student Writing Intensive Continuation Course takes a year to complete (which is why it costs more).

You will want to start with the Student Writing Intensive if you’ve never used this program before.  There are three levels to choose from here: A, B and C.   All three of these levels basically teach THE SAME THING but at an appropriate level for that age group.  In other words, there is not a progression of material in these levels—but rather an age-appropriate presentation of the same material.

This is approximate, but choose level A for students ages 9-11, level B for students ages 12-14, and level C for students ages 15-18.  Easy enough.  BUT what if you have, say, a 10 and 12 year old.  Do you have to buy both level A and level B?

Maybe not.  With this program, you can fudge things a bit.  If your 10 year old is quite bright, you could get away with starting them both in level B.  Likewise, if  your 12 year old struggles, you may want to start them both in level A.

I’ve stretched the rules quite a bit over the years and found that the program is fairly elastic.  Generally speaking, you’re pretty safe with level B for ages 11-15, and then if you want to move on to the Continuation Course, you can branch out to level C for the oldest students and get the level B again for the younger ones.

Speaking of the Continuation Course, that’s the next step after your child has completed the Student Writing Intensive.  It CONTINUES, or picks up, where the first one left off, and again, you get to select the appropriate level: A, B, or C.

Since you will probably be doing the Continuation Course the following year, your student will be a year older, and depending on their age, you may want to move them to a different level as well.

For example, let’s say you have an and 11 and 14 year old who completed the Student Writing Intensive in the Level B together, and now the 11 year old is 12 and the 14 year old is 15.   You may want to get the Continuation Course in Level B for the now 12 year old, and in Level C for the now 15 year old.

If you’ve got a dozen children, you’ll likely end up collecting the entire, well, collection over the years.  The nice thing is, you can recycle the classes over and over again as many times as your family size dictates.

Here’s another idea: you can save some money by going through the classes with another family and sharing in the cost.

Way Three

Go through the Teaching Writing, Structure and Style seminar for parents/teachers and then use their theme based writing lesson books.  You do need to understand the methodology behind this program in order to teach the theme based writing books.  Because they are written with the assumption that the parent knows the program, they can’t be used as stand-alone curriculum.

Last year I took my 10 and 12 year old through the Ancient History based writing lessons (great for students in levels A and B) because we were studying ancient history at the time.  I loved how it laid everything out for me painlessly—and added to what we were already learning in history.  This next year we are going to do the Medieval History based writing lessons.  As I’ve looked over these new lesson books, I’ve noticed that they built in more grammar practice than they did with the Ancient History lessons.  This is a nice bonus, I think.

Other Excellent Resources

I’ve used some of their other writing resources over the years as well.  The Elegant Essay will teach you and your older student (13-18) the steps to writing—elegant essays.  I went through this with both of my older boys one year, and I still refer to it when I’m having them write an essay for any given subject.

For example, my 16 year old has a reading list each month for the upcoming school year, and he will be required to write one essay per month based on something he is studying either for literature or for history.  Since he has already been through The Elegant Essay, he knows the steps and is able to execute this assignment on his own with very little help from me.

Another resource we have LOVED is Windows to the World: An Introduction to Literary Analysis.  Again, we took a year to work through this resource, and it enabled our sons to be able to read a piece of literature and know how to analyze it on many different levels.  Some of the papers Phillip will be required to write this next year will involve literary analysis.  He can do that because of this training.

Our boys have also worked through the High School Essay Intensive, How to Write a Story,  and their Speech Boot Camp.  (We did this with 9 other home schooled students and had a blast!)  I’ve never been even slightly disappointed with any of their resources, and I’ve learned so much right alongside of the kids.  It has really provided a far better foundation for teaching writing and literature than anything I experienced in college.

This upcoming year we are trying their Fix It grammar books for the first time, and after looking them over in preparation for the year, I’m very excited about teaching grammar this way.  I’ll have to let you know how it goes when the year is over!

Happy Writing!

***Update in 2013***  LOVED the Fix It grammar books!

A mother of nine, homemaker, business owner (Apple Valley Natural Soap), and most importantly, a Wemmick loved by the Woodcarver.

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57 thoughts on “Demystifying the Institute for Excellence in Writing”

  1. Thank you for this. You have answered the questions that have been rolling around in my head for months! I am very impressed with IEW, but until have not been able to wrap my brain around the ‘how-to’s’ when figuring in to our schooling schedule. I get it now!

  2. Nataly,
    Thanks for this overview of IEW. Even though my son works for Andrew, I still haven’t ‘demystified’ it’s use in our home. Or better yet, I haven’t developed the self-discipline to build the routine in our home.

    But we have used it off and on for years, and we have been to several of Mr. P’s live seminars. We thoroughly enjoy his teaching style and I tell my son that I wish they would put out a daily seminar. I’d pay just to have Andrew teach my kids every day. He’s a master!

    Thanks so much for taking the time to write this.
    Terry

  3. This was great timing for me. I own a few of the IEW curriculums and have never used them. I think I am ready to start though and was happy to read that my plan to use SWI followed by the Continuation Course is a good path. My kids were late readers and writers and we just never got around to IEW. Really appreciate the info here!

  4. Thanks for a great post! Feel free to give our customer service a call for advice and recommendations!
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  5. Natalie,

    Our family is looking for a new change for writing. Specifically, I’m needing to find a complete curriculum that will take 3 of our middle-ages kids step-by-step through the basics of writing, along with daily lesson plans. I think the Student Writing Intensive ($109 version, level B) would be a good for starters. Are these daily class instructions (on DVD?) and would we also need to purchase workbook curriculum to go with these? Could 3 kids go through the course together? Is there a book or workbook that we would need to purchase for each of the kids? How much daily/weekly teacher-intensive-time is required to make this program work? (I’m considering several different options right now. I really need to find something all organized in daily lesson plans that the kids can progress through, mostly independently.) I’m not sure if this would be the right curriculum for us, but it sounds good.

    • They can absolutely go through it all together. It comes with the student workbook…(I think it may be a download now?) and you can make as many copies of that as you need for your family. It is laid out for you in nice bite sizes for each day. All you, as the teacher, need to do is let them know what they need to watch that day…and what their assignment is. For example, they might watch the video clip on Monday, write up a key word outline on Tuesday, write a paragraph on Wednesday with the dress ups, go over it with you on Thursday (you will have an objective check list, making it very easy to correct their writing), and rewrite it on Friday. As they grow more advanced, the assignments may be longer, but this gives you a basic idea of how it practically plays out. Writing is always going to be one of the more “teacher-intensive” subjects…but this program makes it less so than most I’ve seen. And having Mr. Pudewa do the actual teaching is a sheer delight. You are, more or less, simply monitoring their work.

    • Thanks Natalie, for taking the time to explain the details of this writing program! These specifics really answered my questions.

      Blessings to you!
      Ann

  6. Thank you so much for this review of the IEW program. Just this week I was trying to decide which items to purchase. This helps so much in understanding the program better.

  7. Wow! Thanks for this, Natalie! I was given the IEW Student Writing Intensive, level C but have been so intimidated by the website. This helps a ton. You’ve inspired me!

  8. Oh my goodness! God’s timing is amazing! We are bringing in two IEW instructors to our co-op this year to teach writing to our 5th-12th graders. They are using theme based lessons, your option 3. I have been getting questions about the program I can’t answer. I’m sending out your post to our whole co-op. Thanks friend! 🙂

  10. Oh I am SOOOO saving this post in my Favorites!! Probably the most helpful homeschooling post I’ve read yet this year!! Going into our 17th year of home education here and IEW has always scared me. I might get up the nerve to try this!!

  11. Excellent post!
    I have a son that is preparing for the ACT. I see two essay programs, High School Essay Intensive and Elegant Essay. Is there one that you would recommend over the other?

  12. Hi! So I have been using Shurley English and just bought IEW. Now my question is do I “need” to continue with shurley English as well as the IEW program? Or is IEW all I need for my 6 th grader. We have been diagramming sentences the past 3 years I was not sure if I needed to continue…. Thanks!
    Kelly

    • IEW focuses on actual writing. It’s a holistic approach that incorporates sentence structure practice into the actual writing process itself. I did do some grammar practice on the side though. I didn’t make it a major focus though.

  13. Thank you for this very helpful post! I have been considering using the IEW curriculum for some time, but not sure if it was actually “okay” or “possible” to take the main seminar, and then just apply the principles–without the use of the Student Intensives. I’m really excited now. Okay, my kids are only 3 and 2 right now, but hey, you can’t start planning ahead too soon, I guess. 🙂 I did have a question for you. How much extra grammar, spelling, and language arts material is necessary to supplement this program, do you think? In the young grades, if they’re doing lots of copywork, is a language arts curriculum necessary as well? How much supplementation have you done? I want my kids to be as well-rounded and grounded in the English language and its use as possible, but I don’t want to spend an unnecessary amount of time or money on programs that couldn’t really improve much on what they would learn through the IEW program…

    • I wouldn’t worry so much about grammar in the younger years. By the time your kids are old enough for you to care – you will have a better idea of what direction you want to go. 🙂 We did do grammar on the side though – just didn’t make it a major focus in the elementary years. They really aren’t ready, developmentally, to grasp serious grammar at a young age anyway.

  14. Natalie,

    I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your post about IEW. I have been wanting to try out this writing curriculum since I first heard about it years ago. I went to IEW’s site right after reading your summary and confidently purchased what I KNEW I needed. Thank you really isn’t even a big enough word for the gratitude I have for folks like you who so willingly offer their time,wisdom, and encouragement to others. I feel so blessed by the amazing curriculum available-like IEW- as well as the homeschool community in general. My sincerest thanks to you.

  15. Natalie,

    I am a working Mom with a child about to enter kindergarten. While I live in an great school district (for now) I still have reservations about the product I can expect in the public school system. Unfortunately, public school is what I can afford and I can’t stay home. Would you recommend using IEW or any of the other solutions outside of the public school curriculum?

    I want to offer my child time to play and just be a child but I also want to ensure she gains confidence in her learning and the desire to learn all her life. I am looking at IEW for writing and Singapore math to help with math. While I am an engineer by training I have never felt like I really “got it” for math. I have heard from one home-schooling mother the Singapore math is an amazing tool to help your child really “get” match. I would love to have her experience that as I believe really understanding math is giving expression to a whole new vision of the world.

    Any advice is much appreciated for a working and tired Mom.

    Cheers,
    Rebecca

    • Rebecca, you may want to wait until your daughter is older before adding more academics into her life. The best way to foster her brain health is to engage her in problem solving skills that are age appropriate and can be integrated into physical play time. I’m unfamiliar with Singapore math, so I can’t speak to that. If it involves learning through active play (body involvement), then maybe that would be a good supplement. But if it requires a young child to sit and do more paperwork, I’d avoid it at this stage in her development. Having a couple of children with brain issues has led me to reading more about this, and now I see the importance of holding off on serious academics until they are truly ready. You can actually do more harm to their development by pushing them! I know it sounds crazy, but I’d encourage you to look into this. Books like Your Child’s Growing Mind are good places to start.

    • Math is my love! I’ve got some excellent books that I think you’d love! Kathy Richardson’s Developing Number Concepts series is really easy and fun. There are three books. Most of your time will be spent in the first book, and maybe part of the second book. Pretty much everyone I show these books to ends up buying them because they have tons of activities and also explain why each of those activities is important and what is being learned in the process.

      Number Sense is to math as phonemic awareness is to reading. Most of math study in the early years is heavily spent on number sense and that’s what these books focus on. They are not a comprehensive math program like Singapore, but they still cover the majority of the material taught in K-2. Read up on what number sense is and you’ll see how important it is. The brain thinks in images and pictures. A lot of kids don’t get math because they started working with the symbols too quickly and never got a deeper mathematical understanding of what they were actually doing with those symbols/numerals they were writing. Children should have an image of a quantity that comes to mind when they see a numeral. And they should be able to recognize that quantity arranged in different ways.

      The Kathy Richardson books are full of simple hands on activities that you can use over and over again. All of them are targeting number sense. Not a lot of prep is needed. Initially, some copying, cutting, and collecting manipulatives to use for counting is required. Once you’ve done that, there’s no more prep again and you’ve got lots of little games ready. Most of them can be used for varying degrees of difficulty. All you do is change the quantity you’re working with and use larger or smaller numbers. Or you change the manipulative. Same game but different items to work with. To the kids, it seems brand new, but they’re getting lots of good practice doing the same thing over and over. A third way to change things up is to require more writing and recording of what they’re doing…starting to link that symbol to the quantities. Again, it’s the same game, but adding writing to anything requires a much higher processing skill and makes it a lot harder.

      With math, there are three stages to work through things: manipulative, pictorial, and symbolic. They may be at different stages with different concepts or quantities. Maybe a child has a good handle on quantities up to 8 and doesn’t need manipulatives to solve problems with those numbers, but up to ten, or through 15 or 20 they need those manipulatives again. They might be at the symbolic stage for addition facts to ten, but the manipulative stage for facts up to 20, etc. The pictorial stage is a very important transition stage where the children are still relying on visual input, but don’t need all the manipulatives any more. Instead they can sketch what they would have done with the manipulatives by drawing them, or representing them with tallies, dots, or whatever other image works for them to use. So you can apply these stages to all the activities listed in these books and get a lot of use out of them.

      To go along with these books, I would recommend getting some pattern blocks, unifix cubes, and blank wooden cubes to create your own dice. Another way to vary the games is to sometimes use dice, other times numeral cards, or spinners. (Blacklines for cards are included in the books.) Also with each of these items, they can show dots to represent quantities, or you can write the numeral. Again, this varies the degree of difficulty. Sometimes my dice only have 3,4, and 5 all over them to give a lot of practice with specific quantities. I love using overhead transparent spinners. You can cut a square piece of card stock and tape it to the back of the spinner, then remove it to add a new paper with different numbers or directions. You can create as many spinners as you want this way. One great idea in the book is using a more or less spinner. Quite often when a child thinks they’re going to lose a game and can’t catch up, they lose motivation to play. With a more or less spinner, you can just play it for a certain length of time, and then when you stop, spin to see who wins…the person with more, or the person with less. It’s nice for teaching that some games require strategy and skill and others are just chance and there’s no need to get upset over the results when it’s a chance game. And they’re getting practice looking at quantities and being able to recognize which has more and which has less.

      Singapore is a good program. It’s comprehensive and highly known for it’s visual model drawings. Famous for teaching how to solve word problems! You could start it if you wanted to, but I don’t think it’s necessary yet. I think you’d have a lot of fun with these activities first and then pick up Singapore in first grade if you wanted to. You would still be using these same books to supplement Singapore anyway. Singapore is known for moving along a little faster than programs like Saxon where some kids can get a little bored. Saxon provides lots of practice, which is good for some, but not all. Singapore expects you to recognize when to stop and keep practicing something longer. Many people think they need more worksheets to do this, but for some kids, it just means more repetition in the manipulative stage first.

      Hope that helps!

  16. I am wondering about high school English credits for the IEW student writing intensive program. Would it count as a stand alone English 1 credit or would it need to be used in conjunction with another program?

    Also I have two other children and was looking at the Level B would that be suitable for a high school credit? Thanks for any help you can provide, I’m so confused.

    • You could use it for 1 English credit in “writing,” depending on the intensity of your program. We did it enough for me to count it as 1/2 credit of writing and then used something else for literature/grammar. IEW has some options there, but if you are only using their writing program then your student will have those gaps in his education unless you provide them some other way.

      If you have a student that is not as academically inclined or has mild learning disabilities, then level B works for high school. Otherwise I think you’d want to go with level C which will provide a better prep for college level writing. It really depends on the student.

  17. So, just to be really clear, if I buy the Student Writing Intensive, I don’t need to buy the Teaching Writing book. I’m considering using this for my 14-year-old who is a very good writer and capable of being self-directed. Would she be able to use the theme-based books after that?

    • Yes – if she completes both the Student Intensive and the Continuation Course at a particular level, she would be prepared to do a theme-based book at that same level. You would be out of the loop though unless you go through the Intensives with her. In other words, you won’t be able to help her with anything in the theme-based books as an instructor. She would be on her own at that point – needing to draw on what she learned in the Intensives. You also would want to make sure you get theme-based books that are at the same level as the intensive she completed. Each Intensive level adds to the knowledge/skill base, and the theme-based books assume understanding at that level.

  18. Hi! I am struggling using IEW. I bought both of the following sets: TWSS and SWI, level A. I watched most of the SWI with my son, occasionally falling asleep, not because it was boring, but because I was tired, but I feel like I’m missing something. (We’re on disc 4 but I don’t think we’ve done all the assignments.) It feels like we move along quite far in the DVD’s without doing a whole lot of writing. It’s confusing to me that the DVD’s don’t tell you when you should stop to complete work in the manual. Am I missing something? I’m realizing that I don’t really feel like watching the teaching DVD’s for myself. If I don’t, will my son get what he needs from the SWI? I’ve had the sets for a year now and we keep starting and stopping because I get so terribly frustrated.

      • Natalie , I am curious if you or anyone could tell me how IEW compares to or differs from the Writing Strands Curriculum ? both seem to me to be using a similar approach? am i wrong?

        • I tried Writing Strands many MANY years ago, so my memory is foggy as far as the specific similarities and differences, but when I found IEW there was no turning back.

  19. What an amazing article! I’ve looked at IEW’s website so many times and haven’t purchased because I just didn’t know what in the world I needed to get. Thanks so much!!

  20. We absolutely love IEW as well! As a good writer with a bent for it, I thought teaching my daughter how to write would be a cinch! Well, my middle schooler became very defensive anytime I proofread her papers and made suggestions. She perceived me as being highly critical. I knew how to write but I hadn’t ever thought out the process since it had always came rather natural to me. So after a few tears and a number of non-productive arguments, I broke done and bought IEW.

    She is now in 8th grade and finishing up the Continuation Course B. However, I do have some questions for high school. I like the looks of Elegant Essay and I plan to use it next year in 9th grade. I see that IEW recommends the Continuation Course C for high school as well. There is even a High School Essay Intensive that looks beneficial too. I would like for my daughter to learn and grow as a writer but I would also look for her to apply this knowledge of composition to her literary studies. Otherwise, I fear she will have quite a lot of work between a writing course and a literary analysis course. Is there a way to combine the two? She needs a foundation in literary analysis and I have been looking at Windows on the World, Excellence in Literature and even Hewitt Lightening Literature. After getting this foundation, my hope is that she can move on to American, British and World Literature courses. Does she need to complete another IEW Continuation course at the high school level? She would love to do so but I don’t want to find a balance between composition and literature. Any suggestions?

    • I would do the Elegant Essay (it’s excellent) to prepare her for the literary analysis you want her to do. You can just take the framework and apply it to any literature you have her read in the future. The High School essay intensive is good – but more geared toward short essays for test taking. If she has already completed the continuation course B – I would skip C since it will just be repeat – and focus on the Elegant Essay.

      • Thank you so much for your insight. I ‘m decided on Elegant Essay for 9th and a little bit relieved that continuation course C is not really necessary. I like the idea of using the Elegant Essay as a framework for literature in the years to come. I believe you said that you used Windows on the World. Would you do that in the same year as Windows on the World or do you think that would be too much? Leesa Myers the author of the Elegant Essay also wrote Writing a Research Papers. Do you have any experience with this curriculum? I’m thinking about this for upper level high school. Thanks.

        • I THINK you could do the Elegant Essay the first semester and Windows the second semester. It’s been a while since we went through those, and I can’t remember how many weeks it takes to complete each one. I haven’t done the Research Papers book – but it looks terrific. I don’t think you can go wrong with IEW. 🙂

  21. I’ve heard great things about IEW but don’t know where to start. I have a 14 yo homeschooled daughter who loves to read and tests above average in her writing skills. I want assign her American Classics like Huckleberry Finna and have her write essays. I was leaning towards the a Writing Intensive C. Should I get anything to go along with this? If so, would she do both programs at the same time or one before the other?

    Thanks,
    Amanda

    • If she hasn’t done any IEW yet, I would definitely start and focus on the writing intensive C – and then add the literary analysis/essays in her last 2-3 high school years.

  22. I am one of those people that feels overwhelmed with my choices when I look at the website. I have two boys that will be in 3rd and 5th grade this fall. Am I reading correctly, that the best package to buy is the Student Writing Intensive for $109? Can I do this with both boys? And then, just to confirm….after we finish this course, we then buy the Continuation Course?

    • Yes, and yes. You may need to keep it simple with the 3rd grader. I’d do “A” for kids that young. You could possibly do the SWI “A” next year – and then do the continuation course at the “B” level the following year.

  23. Thank you! It’s true for me that the IEW site is overwhelming. I got the Student Intensive Level B used but was STILL confused on if I needed anything more. I think I need the student notebook. And I plan to borrow the teacher training and watch that. Thanks for a comprehensive overview!

  24. I’m very embarrassed to admit that my two children, ages 13 and 15, have very little writing experience. I don’t even know where to begin. They both do very well in grammar and reading comprehension but I really want to make this the year for writing (in addition to their workbooks.) My daughter (15) is very bright and has always tested above grade level in reading/reading comprehension and grammar, but doesn’t feel confident at all in writing because we really have done very little. My son (13) has always disliked writing, which is why I’ve avoided it so much, but does well in grammar. Could you please advise me where we should start? I’m incredibly stressed about this and would so appreciate your help! I’ve been looking at both IEW and Brave Writer. Thanks so much!

  25. Can you recommend a reader other than McGuffey? I’d like something I can check out from the library. Might regular children’s picture book (i.e. short) stories do?

    And for the age 7-9 kiddos, are you recommending copy work or can you recommend any other activities to enhance good writing skills?

    • There are dozens of readers out there – we used all kinds of them. I don’t know that any were better than any others. Copy work is a good place to start for younger kids – yes. Reading is another important activity that will develop good writing skills.

  26. Hi,
    I have an 8 yr old. We are doing Bible Heroes in IEW. I am finding it hard to get a whole lesson done in a week with all the other subjects we have to do. She can write a page so I know she can do the work. She loves figuring out the key words but I feel it is a lot. I want her to love writing but I feel I am pushing this on her to complete a final story at the end of the week. What are your thought on this? I already purchased this and I do not want to purchase anything different. How do you think I should scale down?
    thanks,
    Sam

    • Try doing one story every two weeks instead of every week. That’s the beauty of home education and curriculum like this. You have freedom to make it work the way you need it to work for you and your child!

  27. I have 1 more question…..As we train our kids on this style, how will they be able to create a story from their own ideas or words if they are used to pulling them from what is given to them? How will they know how to write a story with out a story to gather key words from. A creative writer?
    thanks,
    Sam

    • I believe they have options for creative writing now. I recommend contacting IEW to find out what they are offering. I wrote this post a few years ago, so I’m out of the loop a bit on what is currently available. Alternatively, there are other curriculum options out there that focus on the creative writing piece. The basics of writing (structure and style) should be in place first though. One step at a time!

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