Homeschool Reviews

Jump In! A Workbook for Reluctant and Eager Writers
Author: Sharon Watson
Publisher: Apologia
For more information or to order: www.homeschoolingfromtheheart.com
(We are delighted to offer this outstanding resource!)

I don’t usually gush over curriculum, but I hope you don’t mind if I make an exception this time :-)  When I heard that Apologia had published a writing program, I knew I had to get my hands on it.  After having time to look it over, I have to say that “Jump In: A Workbook for Reluctant and Eager Writers” is quite possibly the answer to hundreds if not thousands of homeschool mom’s prayers!  Written for middle school students, but beneficial for high school students who are reluctant or haven’t had much formal writing instruction, “Jump In” introduces students to different types of essays beginning with persuasive/opinion.

Author Sharon Watson introduces each type of paper, and then walks students through various skills needed for writing essays, from pre-writing brainstorming to organizing and narrowing topics.  Students also learn how to properly create a bibliography.  After working through the skill pages, students are then given several choices of assignments to complete.  It will take about a year to work through all the material presented in the student workbook.  Topics taught include: basic skills, persuasive essay cause and effect, opinion, basics of writing an expository essay, biography, book report, narrative, newspaper article, and compare and contrast.

Sharon definitely knows her audience – middle school students will feel at ease, and the information is presented in a visually pleasing, step-by-step format.  With 8 – 10 “Skill Days” followed by an assignment that sometimes will take several days to compete, the student workbook will take about a year to complete.  As students work through the course, they are reminded of various “dos” and “don’ts” for the particular type of essay.  They also are instructed to check their work using the “Mistake Medic,” which helps them check to see if they’ve used proper spacing, look for run-on sentences, and much more. 

That’s all great you say, but how do I know how to grade my son’s or daughter’s papers?  Isn’t that the struggle most of us have?  Again, Sharon has come through for us in a BIG way.  The teacher/parent manual, appropriately called “The Lifeguard’s Locker” holds the key for evaluating your student’s work.  After tips on encouraging your child and listing the various skill sheets and assignments, Sharon provides us with some great tools in the form of checklists for both fiction and nonfiction work.  She takes this a step farther by showing us sample essays and explaining exactly what makes them an “A” or “B, C or D” paper, with comments, and the checklist marked how she would mark those papers.  Also included in the teacher’s manual are a year’s worth of “10 Minute Writing Prompts” taking what might be considered a one-year course and stretching it into two.  Student’s use the prompts four days a week, choosing one of their day’s writing for editing and rewriting at the end of the week.

There are so many things to love about this Jump In!  It is very reasonably priced; the instruction is clear and enjoyable for the learner.  Sharon Watson had done a great job of making the writing process make sense for both the student and the parent.  So, if you have a child who has struggled with writing, or if you’ve been putting off formal writing instruction because you just didn’t know how, what are you waiting for?  Jump In!