Creative Word Studio & Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 2 Review

 

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Structured writing is not a favorite subject for my teenage son. In fact, he doesn’t care for several of the structured writing program we have used over the years. He doesn’t mind writing especially creative writing. I always feel that he needs to fine-tune his writing skills and I like something that has more structure to it. 

We have tried several creative writing programs throughout the years. The most recent one is from Creative Word Studio. Up to this point my son has been enjoying using Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 2.

There are two books in this series Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 1 which is intended for 5^th and 6^th graders and Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 2 which is grades 7^th and 8^th. My son is in 9^th grade. However, I thought this would be a good fit for him as he could work on it independently with little assistance from me. You as a parent can also guide your student through the lessons if needed.

This is an all-in-one workbook. No teacher manual is needed. Each lesson is concise and gives you directions on how to do the lesson. This is not a full creative writing curriculum but a supplemental program.

The workbook is a consumable workbook. The book has a laminate cover and is a spiral-bound workbook that lays out flat while using it! There is an introduction for the student and an Instructions page.

This is a Christian Worldview curriculum that was created to be used for Christian Schools or Homeschool. A total of seventy-five lessons and if you do 2 to 4 lessons a week you will be able to complete this in a year.

The lessons vary with three kinds of lessons.

Free Writing

Free Writing lessons are intended to have you write anything you want non-stop for eight minutes to ten minutes. The intent is to get you comfortable writing. There are writing prompts to help out. Some have pictures, poem, or a question.  You are not obligated to use them and can write anything you want for the allotted time. A few examples are “Something I Want Badly” from Lesson 12. On the page, you have several lines appropriate for the time frame. Also, it has 2 other different prompts on the same page.

Reading Responses

Uses other writings that you will analyze their writings. The writings are wholesome literature or scriptures, well-known books like Little Women, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and other classics. All the reading material is included on the pages. Each one also has several questions you can answer from the material you just read.

My son is writing a menu for a bear

Mini Writing Lessons

Mini Writing Lessons are created to be fun writing exercises that have you think outside of the box. They cover things like making a list, writing a menu, writing an illustrated limericks, writing a recipe, and other tasks like using being verbs, action verbs, and other engaging activities.

Other aspects of the Mini Writing Lessons are “Gold Pieces” and “Friends Lessons” those lessons you will see the symbols on the lessons. The “Friends Lessons” you can do with a friend and help each other by talking or brainstorming the lesson. This didn’t apply much to us but I offered to include myself if he wanted. The “Gold Pieces” are lessons that you do your best work on. You edit and clean them up to show your best work.

At the back of the book, there is a Rubric for grading the “Gold Pieces”. It is broken down by attitude/effort, following directions/priority to learned skills, interesting/creative/personal, puncture/grammar, spelling/neat handwriting, and points for doing the assignment. Underneath the rubric is 10 Writing Tips Towards Captivating Writing.

For the most part, the lessons are in order: Free Writing, Mini Writing Lessons, an Reading Responses.

How Did I Use Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 2?

First off my son has enjoyed working through Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 2. The lessons kept his attention and didn’t feel like a lot of meaningless busywork according to my son. He liked that the structured writing didn’t feel like it took too long and the content was easy to work with. The topics felt natural and came easy to add the content to the lessons.

He worked a few lessons each week without complaint. My son was able to do his lessons independently. I would look over his lessons daily to follow up if needed. 

He enjoyed Lesson 41 that  had him create a word cloud. He made it into a tree of technology and gaming. He decided to do the tree based on the themes but instead of a family tree a gaming/technology tree. Perfect for a teenage boy! If he isn't complaining I will take that as a good fit for him.

I'm really happy with the ease and contents of this creative writing program. I hope to see more writing programs in the future from Creative Word Studio.

Visit the Homeschool Review Crew to find out more about Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 1  and  Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 2 and Creative Word Studio.