A Review of Writers in Residence Volume 1 by Apologia

 Writers in Residence from Apologia Educational Ministries is a writing focused program with language arts included that is very thorough and really gets your child to think about what and how he wants to write. We have been through many writing programs over the years trying to find the perfect one for a child who does not necessarily like to write and this one is really a great program to use.

How this curriculum works is that it is divided up into different steps for the child to work through. It has them engage in different exercises by remembering and writing down certain things like "When I Was Young I Remember..." where they write down as many things as they can remember about a certain childhood memory. It takes them through all the steps of coming up with an idea to write about, listing out things about that idea, and then forming that into a writing piece. It has all the phases that a writer would go through before turning in their final copy including revising, editing, and spelling that the parents help with.

The curriculum comes with a large student book and a smaller teacher's manual and is reasonably priced at $89. I love that the book is designed for students to use independently because my son is getting to the point where he needs to be doing that more and he really wants to be independent from his mother standing over his shoulder telling him what to do all the time. The book is filled with stories from real Christian authors who tell a little about themselves and how they became writers. I think this is one of my favorite parts of this curriculum. My son loves to read real stories about real Christian people using their talents and making a difference in the world. He was quite proud of the first revision of a story he brought me to read and I enjoyed seeing that the curriculum helped him to put his thoughts in order and form a pretty good first story. It's also neat to go through the book and read his memories and the things that he took away from certain events in our lives that have happened in the past. This curriculum is really awesome at helping them pull thoughts out of their minds and putting them onto paper properly.

Overall, this is a solid and very thorough writing program and I am excited to carry it into next year and finish volume one in the series. If you have any questions please leave a comment below and I will get back with your. Thank you!