These two soft cover workbooks, one Primary and the other Intermediate, are intended as a Language Arts supplement in the areas of capitalization and punctuation. The Primary workbook has 79 pages and is intended for grades 2-4. The Intermediate workbook has 94 pages and is intended for grades 5-9.

I requested these workbooks for review because my daughter (age 9) had just gotten her results back from her standardized testing (ITBS), and her two main weaknesses were capitalization and punctuation. I needed a supplement in this area, and that is exactly what I got with these books. In the Primary workbook, there are 79 self-directed exercises that cover the basics of capitalization (sentence beginnings, the word "I," names, places, weekdays, months, titles) and punctuation (periods, question marks, exclamation points, and comma use in greetings, closings, dates, addresses, series, and direct address). The workbook also has eight exercises covering abbreviations for days of the week, months, streets, titles, initials, states, provinces, and countries. It was the perfect book for "filling in the holes" in my daughter's knowledge. She needed practice, and this was the perfect book for it. Another plus from my point of view is that the workbook pages are simply designed--black and white and straightforward. They have nice, appropriate graphics and well-written instructions.

After my daughter completes the Primary workbook, I plan to have her complete the Intermediate workbook. This one will require more of my involvement, as there is a "pretest" for each section (8 pretests, 35 lessons in all), as well as dictation sentences at the end of each lesson. This workbook reviews all the skills in the Primary workbook and then builds further, adding practice with interjections, titles, capitalizing poetry, commas in conjunctions and appositives, punctuation for direct and indirect quotations, writing conversations, apostrophes, and colons. Again, the workbook is simply designed--black and white with appropriate graphics and straightforward instructions. Most of the exercises have the student adding in the punctuation and capitalization to prewritten sentences and paragraphs (correcting). The student can either edit the sentences on the page or rewrite them with correct punctuation and capitalization. The workbook encourages a little of both. Even though my involvement is required a little more with this workbook, it is still mostly student-directed. The instructions are written directly to the student. It will be easy to use, and my daughter will even be able to tell me when it is time for me to give her a test or dictate some sentences.

If you visit the website to purchase, take note of a couple of things. To find this particular workbook, I had to type "Capitalization" in the search window. I could not find it just by browsing the Language Arts books. In addition, when I first clicked on the workbook to find out how much it cost, it seemed to only be available in packs of five. I called the company. She informed me that if you look carefully above the order line, there is a small sentence that tells you to "click here" for individual pricing. Also, something I missed entirely on the homepage is the "Homeschool" button. If you look at the top right, there is a small yellow button (very small!) labeled "Homeschoolers." If you click there first, when you do find this workbook to purchase it, it will appear as single pricing. The price of one workbook is $8.95, which I feel is a good value for the specific need it is able to meet. I also asked if the products from this company were available through any retail outlets and was informed that they generally are not. A quick search of Amazon.com turned up a couple of used workbooks available for purchase.

If you need a self-directed educational supplement for your elementary or middle school student in the area of capitalization and punctuation, this fits the bill. That was what I needed, and these well-written Capitalization and Punctuation workbooks from Curriculum Associates have my seal of approval.

Product review by Camilla Anderson, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, February 2009