My son started reading between the ages of three and four. Not because of anything I necessarily did; he was just naturally very tuned into letters, sounds and words. So, we read a ton and his reading skills took off at a very early age.
That was a huge win for this homeschool mom! (Even though I had little to do with his reading skills, it sure made me feel good!)
Ya know what was an equally large failure for the same homeschool mom (who happens to have a Masters in Education and who taught in First Grade for a decade before starting a family?) Writing. Yeah. Big, ugly loss from the very start.
Why?
Because I made the utterly ridiculous assumption that if he could read early, he could do EVERYTHING early.
So, as a four year old, I would sit him down at his little desk and ask him to write (I also asked him to take timed addition tests, but that’s for another post.)
Write his name. Write the date. Write about his favorite animal. Write about the book we just read. Write the months of the year. Write out a Bible verse. Write a letter to Gampen. Write down what he wanted for Christmas. Write birthday invitations. Write thank you notes for his birthday gifts.
And, oh my, how he detested the writing process! His little hand hurt. His little mind was tired. His little heart was probably crying inside.
Albeit very slowly, I eventually came to the conclusion that expecting him to write like that was way too much. It wasn’t that he was being an ornery boy who didn’t want to do work. It was that he was a little boy with little hands, little ability to sit still for long periods of time and little interest in writing the next great American novel.
Needless to say, my son’s journey as a writer started off very rocky and I take full responsibility for that (there is literally nobody else to blame when you homeschool.)
So, when we were ready to start a formal writing program, we fumbled around for a few years.
This curriculum was too formulaic. That one was too loose. This other program was painfully boring. And this very popular option was too repetitive (it was helpful for the first year and then seemed to add nothing in the following years.) For a few years, mixed in among the purchased curriculum, I just did my own thing with him. Afterall, writing was one of my favorite subjects to teach in the classroom.
But the one single problem with all of those choices was that I was the one reading and grading his work. And, probably because of mom-guilt related to how I threw him into writing so early, my comments were always positive and unconstructive. And, as much as we want to be our kid’s biggest cheerleader, when trying to teach them something new and/or trying to help them improve on a skill, constructive feedback is just as important as encouragement.
So, when a homeschool dad told me about the 1:1 feedback his students were getting from their Write At Home coaches, I was instantly intrigued. I had never heard of Write At Home and, for the life of me, I don’t know why.
Write At Home has been in the homeschool space for more than twenty years. Founded in 2001 and still managed by homeschool parents, Melanie and Brian Wasko, Write At Home offers comprehensive writing courses that cover a wide range of writing types, including creative, academic, and practical writing. Only offered in the fall, the courses run a full thirty-two weeks (not including breaks) but are asynchronous so you don’t have to be online at a particular time each week. Instruction is provided through an online platform and feedback arrives from a writing coach the same way.
Write At Home is thorough.
As mentioned above, Write At Home’s thorough writing courses include 32 weeks of content, assignments and coaching.
High School Level One “lays essential foundations for solid high school writing. Lessons provide an overview of basic principles that apply to writing projects of any kind. It focuses on the steps of the writing process and universal characteristics of good writing.”
High School Levels Two and Three “include a timed essay, a research paper, and essay writing. The first semester includes a variety of writing assignments that cover all four major modes of writing: narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive. The second semester of the course focuses on the two kinds of writing that are most important at the college level: research papers and formal, persuasive essays.”
High School Level Four is similar to High School Levels Two and Three but also adds in literary analysis.
Write At Home is adaptive.
Though the descriptions above for the four levels of High School list some of the same content, an important thing to note about Write At Home (as opposed to other writing programs,) is that Write At Home is tutorial in focus. Their courses are designed to adapt to the student’s writing ability. The coach’s job is to assess the writing ability of each student and push them toward improvement.
Instead of simply expecting the student to independently build on his skills from the year before, Write At Home guides the student to the expected progression. And, depending on the student, the coach might push him even further to an unexpected new level.
Write At Home is unbiased.
For us, this is the most important feature.
Just like I needed somebody else to teach my kid math, but for different reasons, I needed somebody else to read my son’s writing, offer suggestions for improvement and hold him accountable for progress. And that’s just what Write At Home has done for us.
Instead of his mom writing things like, “Fabulous Job!” and “Love this!” at the top of each paper with a few proofing edits thrown in for good measure, my son receives weekly, concrete feedback based on a detailed rubric and constructed by an unbiased professional.
And that is what took him to the point of thoroughly researching and independently writing a ten-page paper on “The Undeniable Importance of Ants” (which, by the way, led him to buying his own queen ant and starting an ant colony in our basement.)
A full review of Write At Home is coming soon. In the meantime, you can read more about what they have to offer here.
