Teaching the teacher and then teaching the student with IEW

Institute for Excellence in Writing

Five years ago I attended a small homeschool conference in Spokane, Washington as a vendor representative, this led to a chance meeting that would leave a lasting impression. I met Andrew Pudewa and talked with him about writing and teaching writing. Moving forward to 2013 and working with the Schoolhouse review crew, I was over joyed to see IEW appear on our vendor list and was even more excited when we were chosen to review these two products. 

Teaching the teacher with Teaching Structure and Style

Are you ready to learn as the teacher? Teaching Writing the Structure and Style is a 10 DVD set (6 DVDs are the teacher's course work, 1 DVD of tips and tricks , and 3 DVD of Student Sample workshops 1 for each level A,B, and C) along with the binder full of source material, seminar materials, chart, and tools for teaching the program to your students. 

The day it arrived I watched the first 2 DVDs that afternoon and evening and started the activities in the binder. My husband even watched bits and pieces with me, finally deciding that he wanted to watch the student version with the boys instead.   The series retails for $169.00 and is more than worth the investment. I love the videos and the way Mr. P (as my boys have started calling him) breaks down each of the steps. There is still a lot of flexibility with the program, I know that some areas are going to take longer for the boys and some things they are going to get right out of the gate. 

I love getting the history of the program, it made me think of a Chemistry class I took in high School. We didn't learn a lot of chemistry but since it was an advanced class the instructor felt we needed to learn things that would get us through college and beyond (testing techniques, note taking techniques, and how to mark in a textbook for study purposes), oddly enough I still have that chemistry book (the school district was going to throw them out at the end of the year and our teacher managed to swing us keeping them).

Understanding the tricks to teaching our students and even a group of students the foundations for thinking was a huge break through for me. It isn't about writing a research paper where we hand them an idea , give them a few books to reference, and send them on their way; it is about teaching them to think and understand the why of the assignment.

Teaching our children to think, will lead them to much greater things then if we are to teach them how to rewrite what has already be rewritten.  

The boys loved the fact that Mommy had to spend some serious time working through TWSS before I could introduce them to the program. They think it is fun to watch Mommy learn something new. As I worked through the DVDs my goal was not only to do the work but to also make notes for myself as the teacher to use as we worked through the program with the boys. Knowing that I would be presenting the program to not only the 2 little boys but also my husband meant I would need to have a strong grasp of all the aspects,so with post it notes in hand and my pencil I made a variety of notes to myself as I worked through the various units. 

Units 1 and 2 introduced me to a new way of note taking as well as retelling from notes rather than having the source still with me. 

Unit 3 really gave me a way to look at creative writing differently and story telling in a simpler way.  

Unit 4 reminded me of all the copious notes I use to take and how I struggled to sort through them when it came time to use them, I am grateful for this system to teach the boys how to take notes without overwhelming themselves later.

Unit 5 I have to say at first I wasn't sure about unit 5, but as I worked through it and thought on it more, I gained more understanding of writing from pictures. I also love the handling of the "verbs of being" . Teaching  children at a young age how to use concrete verbs sets the foundation early on. Relearning this concept in college is not the way to do it.

Unit 6 Since my boys are younger I only spent a brief amount of time on this and will be revisiting it as we continue on our writing journey. Unit 6 is a continuation of unit 4.

Unit 7 This unit inspired me to change how I will be teaching creative writing in the fall to our co-op class of 3rd graders. I love the list of ideas for Creative Writing Assignments in this unit.

Unit 8 Essay writing, definitely a topic I never thought I would revisit after college, but here I am getting ready to teach my boys how to write an essay, yikes! Thankfully I can depend on IEW and TWSS to help me through the process.

Unit 9 Critiques like reviews of products and books is something I feel pretty solid in but am still grateful for the lists and technique.

I love the tips section of the binder, page after page of helpful little bits to add to the whole experience teaching the boys. Finally the binder ends with an Appendix, where I found great tips for lesson planning and expectations for covering all 9 units and not getting stuck on units 1 and 2, I will most likely make a copy of the Lesson Plan page to include in the boys' planners or at least Mom's planner for August through December.

Teaching the student with Student Writing Intensive

Now that Mom managed to learn the Structure and Style method, shall we introduce it to the boys?

Student Writing Intensive level A is a 5 DVD bundle with binder full of reproducibles and dividers. The DVD box holds the 4 student DVDs plus an Overview of Structure and Style DVD. The overview DVD is just that an overview of the methods taught in Structure and Style. Level A is appropriate for grades 3-5 or children writing and reading at around those levels and retails for $109.00.  The SWII program comes with  Teacher's Notes for each lesson that include the time stamp for various lessons on the DVDs. The time stamp notes helped immensely as we never left the DVDs in the player and sometimes watched the DVDs on the computer rather than the TV. 

Since I plan on having our youngest go back through the program again next year,  I had Cameron put the tabs and copies of certain pages into a separate binder.  The 5 tabs in the binder make it easy for the student to find materials needed: Models/ Sources and Checklists, Outlines and Compositions, Structural Models, Style Charts, and finally "Banned" Words. Not all of the accompanying pages fit under those categories so I store them in the striped binder. The Teacher's notes and the student handouts store nicely out of the way of a child who frustrates easily when it comes to writing. When Nathan starts the program I think I will use the SWII notebook and move the extras to my TWSS binder as there is still plenty of room in it.

Watching the DVD lessons with Cameron , actually Nathan and Daddy watched too was a relaxed fun way to get through each lesson, a note to self though: We need a functioning remote for the DVD player so pausing and replaying is easier. 

As we worked our way through units 1 and 2 and Cameron improved with those tasks, we decided to change things up a bit to inspire him as we worked through unit 3. Cameron loves Star Wars and has several easy readers and graded readers related to Star Wars. We used the various stories to have him summarize the stories, after 3 or 4 stories we decided to skip ahead a bit and have him write his own Star Wars story using the structure and style techniques he had learned. I had him write the Story Sequence including the Setting, the Plot, and the Climax. I added a word list for him to create so he would already have his -ly words. He included several "Who/Which" clauses as well. Thankfully he enjoyed the rabbit trail project. The program inspired him so much he has actually asked to continue using IEW products for writing including Following Narnia. Nathan is eager to start the program more seriously so he can try out the Rocket, Radar, and Robots book. I hope I don't overwhelm them but I really want to add the history series to our history shelf . 

Institute for Excellence in Writing even inspired my husband to relearn writing technique, trying his hand as retelling a story from a key word outline. He got right in the thick of it with the boys and followed all the rules, skipping lines, using a pen, drawing a single  line through words he wanted to change, and writing quickly but neatly. Some days it is a good thing having three students. 

You can find out more about these and other programs by visiting IEW on the web,, on Facebook, and Twitter

The Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewed these 2 products as well as Teaching the Classics. The various reviews can be read by clicking the button below.

Grammar anchor charts for homeschool writing #sponsored

"I used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because even the English major turned homeschool mom can use a little help."

We are hitting the books pretty hard this summer, especially with writing and grammar. Since the boys seem to struggle with very simple plain writing, I was looking at some ways to help them . Searching Pinterest I found a couple of interesting ideas, but actually felt that I could make my own fairly easily. I hit the Dollar Tree for sheets of poster board on the cheap ($.50 a sheet). I cut each sheet into quarters since I do not need huge charts, so each chart starts out with a cost of $.125.

The first chart I made: a collection of NOUNS to go with story stones (I'll share those in another post)

I dug through my stash of old Creative Memories stickers and ABCs and found the perfect collection. I used 2 sheets of ABC stickers and 2 sheets of the coordinating stickers. I color coded the squares and the words to help the boys see the whole word and not mix it up with the word above or below. This chart has 22 simple nouns and is for Nathan more than anyone else.

The  Adjectives chart came from a Pinterest post by Step into 2nd Grade. The boys already love the design and examples. I kept it to 3 colors (Pink, Green, and Blue) as those are the colors we tend to use (Pink for Mom, Blue for Cameron, and Green for Nathan)

Finally, the Adverbs poster. This is a combination of several charts and worksheets. I left space in each box for additional words the boys might find to add.

My next projective includes strong verbs and proof-reading/ editing symbols. I may also include a grammar symbols chart for Nathan to use when diagramming sentences. I am considering a set of anchor charts for Math as well, but that will have to wait.

Thank you to Grammarly.com for assistance with this post. Have you tried Grammarly yet? 

*a portion of this post was sponsored by Grammarly, I have a membership with Grammarly that I pay for.***

Essentials in Writing: a DVD based Grammar and Writing program

I love writing so it has been a struggle for me to have a child that hates writing as much as my 4th grader does. He is a wonderful storyteller and has a wonderful grasp of language usage but when faced with putting the sentences together he freezes. Thankfully we received Essentials in Writing to try with him. We decided to stay with the 4th grade level and see how it goes. 
I wanted to make sure Cameron had a firm understanding of the grammar elements so I had him watch the first 4   lesson videos before moving on to the sentences and writing lessons.  We found a couple of issues so we spent some extra time on those issues before moving further. I would rather slow the pace and master the concept then move ahead and struggle more later on.
Having the worksheets as a downloaded .pdf file made it possible to actually print an extra copy of the pages we had trouble with to work on a second time. 


The DVDs played easily on our computer and made it simple to navigate as we moved around the lessons. Having 5 lessons show on the screen at a time kept Cameron from getting over whelmed. I did have Daddy watch a couple lessons with Cameron for a second parent interaction. Daddy had trouble watching and listening to the video as he is a sound engineer and the levels which the video was recorded at made for an off sounding environment. Since Mommy and Cameron don't have issue with the sound as much as Daddy we did ok with it. Although I have to admit there were elements of the lecture style that didn't sit well with me, but Cameron enjoyed the DVDs as much as a child who isn't a fan of writing can. He didn't argue or put up too much attitude when told his writing was next. 

The DVD set with .pdf download retails for $40 and if printing is an issue for you, they also sell a printed copy of the workbook for $20.00

Here is a sample of 4th grade  program. You can also download a copy of the Table of Contents and samples of the worksheets from the same page. 

While we will continue to use this program for the time being, I'm not 100 % sold on the format. I'm still trying to find the perfect program for my 4th grader, we will combine elements of this program with our Montessori style learning to hopefully cover it all in a way he can retain it.  We are always adapting our classroom / homeschool to fit their learning styles. 

The Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewed a variety of the grades that Essentials in Writing has available. You can see what others on the Crew thought by reading their posts HERE

No more tears with Handwriting without Tears 2nd grade

Handwriting is a very personal thing in my world. Your signature and how to write tell those around you something about you, so I asked my boys what kind of impression people would have of them with their handwriting the way it is? They both realized it wasn't going to be a very positive one. 


Thankfully I was able to tell them we would be focusing on handwriting a lot this year and would be introducing them to a new program, Handwriting Without Tears. 
We would be working through the Second Grade  with both boys, since both boys' handwriting left a lot of be desired. 

Nathan started out the program with a bad habit that I must take full responsibility for , writing in all capital letters. Cameron likes to write capital letters when and where ever, making reading some of his work difficult. Thankfully,  Handwriting without Tears has a wonderful teacher's manual that lays out each of the letters and tricks to easily teach the boys.  I decided to have Nathan work on Printing Power and Cameron work on through Kick Start Cursive since he is already in the 4th grade but hasn't worked with cursive very much. 


We started out with a little frustration from Nathan as he thought he already knew how to write, thankfully as we got into the book he realized he needed some work.  One thing he is frustrated with is the smaller lines in the 2nd grade book, but I have told him if he would like bigger lines I can make him some paper to use for copy work and creative writing.  He is really catching on to the cues in the book and with only a few reminders is seeing a lot of improvement in his readability   He was crazy happy about writing his name on the front cover of his book, we decided to hold off writing in the inside cover until his penmanship improves, kind of a before and after look at his writing. 

 Cameron has been very happy with learning cursive using the Kick Start Cursive even if it is a 2nd grade level and is even looking forward to starting another level later this year. I am so grateful for being able to be flexibile with the boys and show them that labeling doesn't have to mean anything. It is just a guide and a starting point. 

The teacher's manual retails on their website for $9.25 and the Printing Power Plus which includes both the printing and cursive books in a bundle is $10.25.
Handwriting without Tears has a full range of Preschool - 5th grade penmanship programs and various manipulatives to enhance the child's learning of letters and words. 
We have been very happy with the program and will be purchasing additional books for both boys to work through. 

 Click to read more reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew

P is for Playmobil

When I was working I always scheduled vacation for the week after Christmas as a way to unwind heading into the new year. I decided to take it easy with school this week for the same reason.  With that in mind I introduced a new activity to the boys. Playmobil story builder.

We started with a small collection of miscellaneous playmobil figures and pieces I picked up just before Christmas. I sorted everything into a plastic container. 1 row of girls, 1 row of guys, 1 row of accessories, 1 row of hair and clothing bits. The activity goes like this, pick 1 girl, 2 guys, 3 accessories, and 1 hair of clothing item. create a scene and write at least 1 sentence.

Nathan wasn't sure he wanted to do it, but once he got started there was no stopping him. He is getting into the story writing as well as the Playmobil toys more and more.

Story writing is serious business. I think this new activity is going to be a  center or open learning activity the boys can do when they are waiting for the other to finish. I love combining something they love with something they can use more practice with.

Are your kids struggling writers? Create Better Writers can help! #hsreviews

Are you kids struggling with the basics of writing  a paragraph?

 What about a 5 paragraph essay? 

Do you need an action plan?

 We recently reviewed Create Better Writers, a complete program for grades 3 and up.  We received 3 separate e-books for the program. While my boys were no where ready to tackle a 5 paragraph essay, we were able to work with the How to Teach the Paragraph. This is the newest book in their collection of writing books and retails for $7.95 which is very reasonable and a good value.  Since the paragraph is a key building block to the rest of writing this is a great starting point. I like that the program focuses on teaching the students how to organize their thoughts. I remember even in college that was a critical issue for me, organizing my thoughts.

As a writer who studied writing and rhetoric in college I feel I have a pretty firm grasp on writing a paragraph and a 5 paragraph essay, but teaching it that is a little different especially when my oldest has such a different learning style. I was very thankful for The Homeschool Writing Action Plan  to combine with the e-books. I especially liked the road map concept. This little treasure added a huge value to the whole program and is worth $15.95. To add even more value they offer bundles as well to save you money and package the program for you.




We also received How to Teach the 5 Paragraph Essay which we will be using in the coming year as we practice the basic paragraph more and more. I have read through the program and feel it will also be a value. I am also thinking of having both boys and Daddy work through the program together to improve their writing overall.

Check out what the rest of the crew thought of the program by clicking the button below.

disclaimer: we received the above mentioned e-books as a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for our honest review.

Writing with WriteShop

I was crazy excited when we were assigned Book B of the WriteShop Primary series to review.  I have wanted to try WriteShop with the boys for the last 2 years and never took the plunge.

I started out by going through the Teacher's Guide and reading all the lessons to fit the boys into the program without too much overlap to what we have already learned. We decided to start with Lesson 2 and work forward from there.  The boys enjoyed a few of the activities but found writing the words 3 times each monotonous and frustrating, so I had them write the word list words twice, a simple difference but the happy medium to stop a battle.



We found some of the activities engaging but very similar to things they had already done and they had a hard time connecting it to anything we were doing in our other subjects. One thing we did gain which really doesn't have any connection to the writing, Nathan started to color and enjoy coloring. This has been a huge stumbling block for him; he has never been into coloring until now. Something about the activity pages tripped his trigger and opened the door to the wonderful world of coloring. That I am very grateful for.  


I did gain a lot of ideas from the Teacher's Guide for things we can adapt to our lessons and unit studies. I really liked the layout of the lessons in the Teacher's Guide and can modify the lessons to fit into our homeschool easily enough to get a lot of use out of the program overall.

WriteShop's website also has Placement help HERE  and you can view Sample Lessons HERE

The e-books range in price from $4.50 to $39.95 depending on which product or package you purchase.  The set we reviewed sells for $31.45 e-book and $34.90 print combined pricing for the Teacher's Book and the Activity Set.  In my opinion for the price difference I would buy the print version of the Activity Set and probably the Teacher's Guide as well since it isn't that much more for the print version.  Now as far as the value, I'm still not totally sold on the program and believe I really wanted to love it.

Interact with WriteShop on Facebook and Twitter
Check out what the rest of the crew thought HERE


Disclaimer: I received an e-book copy of this product as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew in exchange for my review of the product, all opinions are that of this writer.

Dinosaurs on the Loose

or at least the boys are...



Last week we started our dinosaur unit. using In  the Hands of a Child unit #1262. It is great for a couple of reasons. First off it is a PreK-6th grade unit so it has lots of traceables and cut and past answers. Next it doesn't have a timeline so we can teach Dinosaurs from a Christian perspective and not have to stumble of millions and billions of years.  Of course since it comes from one of my favorite homeschool companies I love it all around, and while it can be purchased in print form, I own it as an e-book so I was able to read the research guide to the boys (and have them read out loud some of it) via my Banrs&Noble Nook.

We are also using an ebook from Whole Word Publishing on CurrClick titled "God Created Dinosaurs", it is a copy work pack. I am having Cameron add a couple of these activities to him lapbook for some writing practice. The e-book is colorful and has wonderful scripture for copy work.

Last week we built a model of a T-Rex, this week I'm not sure but I am thinking about some painting if we the rain holds off.

Lakeshore Learning: writing books

Since we were in the Lake Oswego area I figured it couldn't hurt to check our Lakeshore Learning's local store. I knew the address sounded familiar but it wasn't until we were almost there that I realized it was the South Lake Center and was actually in the location of an old J.K.Gill store that I use to travel to when I worked at the Hillsboro store years ago (almost 20 to be exact). Anyway, Mike and I were on a mission to find something for Nathan and Cameron to practice printing skills. I had thought about stamps , while Mike was thinking stencils for tracing... We found both but decided on wipe off books . I picked up the upper and lower case as well as the numbers edition.  I also found 2 basic paper journal books for Cameron to continue on his journaling adventures. Mike also found a solar balloon so his upcoming science unit on hot air balloons. Should be interesting...

Wonderful Writing Practice

Recently we were blessed by winning a blog drawing Sheri Graham and receiving "Pictures and Writing" by Diane Hurst. I had actually forgotten about the blog drawing until I received the email from Diane. We looked over the e-book and decided it would be gerat for Cameron to use for writing practice. After about 2 weeks, he loves it. The book is filled with writing/ drawing prompts and lots of space. The student draws/ makes a picture based on a prompt, then writes about the picture. It is that simple and at the same time it has given Cameron and wonderful outlet to create and feel like his sentence practice has a purpose.  Diane has created a wonderful tool for younger children that want to create and enjoy sentence writing. All I can say is "Thank you" both Sheri and Diane for a wonderful addition to our homeschool workboxes.

Cameron has the entire book in a binder that is placed in workbox number 5. He looks forward to box #5 and having a child look forward to something in school that is not recess or food related is a blessing.

Reach for the Stars: Book Review

One of the things I am way behind on is sharing some wonderful books with our readers. So today I am going to share one and will continue with 1-2 a week for the rest of the month.

Tonight's book is "Reach for the Stars" by Susan K Marlow. While my boys are still a little young for the writing portion of the book I took the ideas and turned it into a story telling / narration activity which worked and continues to work very well for Cameron. I will return to the actual lessons of the book  when he gets a little older and can write the stories himself, but for now we love the graphics and the ideas within the book.



The graphics are fun and colorful with lots of room for the writing portion of the activity.  The copy I reviewed was an ebook with black line masters so I can print what I need when I need it. I can also print the "textbook" portion 1/2 size and store it in a small binder (watch for a later post about what I do with ebooks).

The book has an entire section on reviewing/ editing your work with great activities dealing with the ever plaguing tenses. As a hobbiest writer I enjoyed the reminder and actually worked through the activities myself; sometimes the teacher needs a refresher as well.

If you have a young writer in training or want to introduce your student to creative writing, this is a great book. Fun, engaging, and easy to use; three very important traits for any homeschooling book.

Writing without worksheets: a New way to teach old school

I'm sure I'm not the first mom to come up with this... I know that I'm not as I was able to buy the products to do it.

We are working on our printing skills and I hate worksheets, and so does Cameron. So we got a wipe off board with primary lines at Walmart (there is one from Expo, but our was a back to school clearance item). We have 5 lines and the board is magnetic so we can use magnet letters to spell words then practise writing them.

Cameron took to this so fast that we have been letting him come up with "new" words on his own.

The idea isn't new, actually the concept goes back to slate tablets in schools long ago. This is just more colorful and has more options.

I was amazed at the options when we went to Staples to use our rebate coupon for some misc. supplies. WOW, the wipe off board and markers idea has taken old in a huge way. They even sell one that has felt on the backside and comes with foam letters (I didn't ever think about foamie letters on felt... )

Anyway just had to share a bit of sucess in our homeschool with everyone... I'll try and post some pictures of Cameron and his write board (as he calls it) this afternoon.

Ground Breaking of sorts....

I broke ground, for lack of a better term, on my newest idea today.
I'm blogging my novel , well kind of... I am using curtainjourney as my novel's termporary home. This way I can write and save from anywhere. I'm hoping this will help me stay on task with it... I feel like so many things are shifting in my life right now, this just seemed like the thing to do.
She is pretty vague right now, but I hope to have a background design created this next week and some base line characters listed and introduced...
Stop by and say hi, and join the journey.