Writers in Residence Homeschool Writing Curriculum

Writing and Math. Those are the bane of my son's existence. He's not a fan of either one, but if he had to choose one over the other, it would be writing. Finding a homeschool writing curriculum for him has been a challenge. I haven't been too impressed with the options I've found and neither was he. So, this year we decided to shake things up a bit and I jumped at the chance to get my hands on the new homeschool writing curriculum from Apologia.

*I was given this product for free. I was compensated for my time to review this product and was not required to post a positive review, but I’m happy to say that we’re actually going to use it this year for our writing curriculum. Affiliate links are present.*

Writers in Residence Homeschool Writing Curriculum

This year we're turning to Apologia's writing curriculum for homeschool to help my son, hopefully, get through a writing assignment without frustration and tears. Writers in Residence is a homeschool writing curriculum designed for kids 4th grade-8th grade. Writers in Residence is a writing-focused language arts program. While completing writing assignments, kids will learn about sentence structure, the parts of speech, and the conventions of the English language for punctuation, capitalization, and usage. This shows students how skill and understanding in the language arts enable them to create clear, engaging stories and essays readers want to read. So, it's writing and language arts all wrapped up in one! We are already using their Readers in Residence homeschool reading curriculum, so it was a natural fit for us.

The book has six units with each unit containing four individual modules. Each of the six units focuses on a different style of writing and features a model of the style from a professional writer. They read and study the author’s writing then use that model to inspire their own assignments. Along with the different styles of writing, they are also teaching basics of grammar and vocabulary words throughout the lessons. They sprinkle in different concepts in creative ways. They also incorporate classic literature, too.

What I like about Writers in Residence

~It's an open-and-go curriculum. There isn't any prep work for me.

~It creates independence. The curriculum is written to the kids with the intent that they will work through the booklet on their own with only small discussion times with the parent. The curriculum is written in a conversational way directly to the kids. This homeschool writing curriculum isn’t for mom or dad to read and teach from. There are highlighted vocabulary words in the sidebar to help kids understand terms like sentence, clause, and phrase.

~There is a suggested daily schedule with boxes to check off their completed work. With my oldest son starting the 5th grade and my youngest starting kindergarten, I like that this curriculum will free up some of my instructional time so I have time to focus on the youngest and create some independence in my oldest son. Up to this point, he has relied heavily on me to lead the teaching, I like that Writers in Residence puts some of the responsibility on him. The suggested daily schedule will help him to know what to accomplish each day without having to ask me.

~There are rubrics and checklists to help them know what the expectations are for their work.

~I love the focus on great authors. They talk about current authors as well as some of the greats from classic literature. It is a perfect way to teach kids to be good writers.

One thing I was surprised about was how thick the booklet is! It is an all-in-one student textbook and workbook. The kids read their “textbook” portion and then they actually write in the book as their “workbook” portion. With the spiral binding, kids can fold the booklet around so that it isn’t bulky when they are trying to write on the pages. There is a separate Answer Key for the parents to help them check the work.

I’m so excited about this year’s writing curriculum for our homeschool. I’m hopeful that it will improve my son's writing and his attitude about writing. If you’re looking for a writing curriculum for homeschool, I highly recommend Writers in Residence by Apologia. You can download a sample of the program to see if it’s a good fit.

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