For Your Consideration: The Writing Course

I recently had the opportunity to look at a writing program geared toward the homeschool community — The Writing Course — Educator’s Version. The course consists of a set of 21 audio lessons, with an accompanying ebook (a transcript of his seminar), workbook, answer key, and a few handouts. There’s also another course for learning to write essays. The author, Fred Lybrand, is a pastor, author and teacher who has used this approach with his own five children (some of whom are now grown and in college). Lybrand uses a conversational tone in the audio and written materials,  and it’s a very accessible style. His approach doesn’t focus on grammatical terminology (though he does talk about correct grammar), but instead on building confidence through practice. He does a good job of addressing many people’s initial fear of writing and teaches ways to overcome it. He recognizes that it’s OK to write something that’s less than perfect, then revise and rewrite to make it better. I think if I were teaching my children to write, I might find this course helpful, though I would probably supplement it with other English materials to help with grammar and spelling.Visit Lybrand’s company, Advanced Writing Resources, to find out more.