Many students struggle with writing. Think about it—writing involves juggling grammar, spelling, sentence structure, logic, and knowledge. That’s a lot of elements to keep in mind for beginning writers! And that’s why Sandra Garant, author and homeschool mother, developed Writing Workshops.

Children who are beginning to put together sentences to express their thoughts can jump into the exercises and games in Sentence Constructors. They will learn to choose the right words and to put those words in the right places. They will think of lively verbs to replace dull verbs, practice building longer sentences, and order their sentences logically. Sentence Constructors is aimed at ages 7 to 12.

Ages 9 to 12 may begin with Workshop Levels I and II. These lessons teach basic writing structures and some grammar. Children will enjoy the reading resources and games that provide a warm-up to the writing assignment. Then they practice writing riddles, creating sound effects, using repetition, adding dialogue, and developing characters and plots. Self-evaluation questions guide parents and children toward the essential elements of each assignment.

Workshop Levels III and IV challenge middle school and high school students to fine tune their skills. Children will create brand-new words, develop conflict and suspense in their writing, design open-ended questions, write parodies, add subplots to stories, and practice essay writing. Children and parents may use the proofreading questions to review the completed assignments.