Here is yet another quality product from Resurrection Resources! In fact, this one was so great, that I had to show my homeschool group, and three families ended up ordering their own copies the next day with another two families that are going to use them for next fall!! There are two levels available, and I reviewed the first book, level A, which is written for grades 5-7. This book is awesome! It clearly lays out how to write an essay, with no stress! It is a no fear way to write essays, and even my writing phobic son wasn't scared of this approach.

The questions and topics are fun and interesting, and the whole thing takes such very little time out of your day, it is easy to incorporate it into any daily schedule. It is a workbook format, which is set up like a daily journal. The order of the elements for writing these compositions is carefully repeated in each weekly assignment. The idea is if the student writes daily, and correctly, then with regular practice and consistent order, the student will learn the proper pattern for writing essays and research reports. As the student learns the patterns of the compositions, then he/she is taught the underlying rules of each composition type. Each week begins with a new essay or research assignment. Each assignment is a five-day project. Each day the student writes one, four or five sentence paragraph. On the fifth day, the student rewrites all of the week's paragraphs into a final paper. At the beginning there are questions to prompt the student to write properly. For example, the questions asked on day one are designed so that in answering them, the student will write a topic sentence with information about the supporting sentences that will follow on the next day's assignment. The questions asked for Thursday's assignment would be asked in such a way that they produce a summary of the composition. As the student learns about how to write the various paragraphs, the questions are removed and replaced with instructions. Additionally there are pages titled Writing Tips and Practice Sections. These pages occur throughout the curriculum and teach grammar and composition rules. They contain practice exercises. When the Writing Tips and Practice Sections occur, complete them on the first day of the week before the student begins the first weekly composition.

The lessons are cumulative, and designed to be done one after the other. Don't skip around the book, or you'll miss important parts of the writing process. As with all of the other Resurrection Resource writing curricula, there is a grading chart at the back of this book that is to be used by you to help grade each composition. It is an excellent tool, and will help you learn what to look for in a good composition. This is an excellent product, and I really, really love it! It is so easy to use, but you get such wonderful results! This is not a big bulky binder either, it comes in a coil bound workbook, and so you should have one for each student using the course. I highly recommend this course, it is helping to turn my son into a first class writer, and I had trouble even getting him to start a paper before!



-- Product Review written by: Holly Cameron, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine