Put That in Writing...anyone use recently?

[Teresa Hope]

I could use a review of either/or Level I or Level 2. I did a search and found about four threads comparing it to other programs -- although only Level I was mentioned. But only one reviewer provided a lot of detail, and definitely had a bad experience with it. Before I dump it as a possible resource, have there been any positive experiences? The table of contents and sample lessons don't look that bad -- although I didn't study it for typos. The one negative reviewer mentioned the sloppiness there, and like her, I tend to get impatient with homeschooling curriculum that hasn't been edited/reviewed well -- particularly writing curriculum. Still, if the process used for writing works...I might overlook it.

 

Thanks for any input!

[Sorbie]

:bigear:

[Brenda in MA]

I used PTIW1 several years ago with my oldest. I don't remember being annoyed by typos. I thought the program was pretty good. It was easy to use and taught the writing of a variety of different types of paragraphs.

 

However, since then, I've used IEW with my younger son. It turns out that I, personally, like IEW a lot better. Second son really needed work on making his sentences more varied and interesting. Organizing his writing needed some help, too. Using IEW's program (Ancient & Medieval History-Based lessons & the first book of the American History lessons) really took my son from a rudimentary writer to one that can write fairly easily with expression.

 

So which program to use would really depend upon what you want from it. If your student is already good at sentence structure & variety and just needs a little help with writing different types of paragraphs, then PTIW would work. If he/she needs work on the make-up of sentences, than I thought IEW was better.

 

What worked for us for IEW was for me to watch the Teaching Writing with Structure & Style course, and then for my son to use the history-based lessons. They worked really well with the chronological history sequence, and my son enjoys writing about history. IEW also has Student Writing Intensive where the student watches the DVD instruction. I looked at a sample of those, and they just weren't a good fit for us. So there are many ways to look at using IEW. It's expensive, and that's why I avoided using it for a long time, but in the end, it was money well spent. If you can borrow the TWSS series on DVD from a friend, watch it, then return it, you can save quite a bit that way. You could also buy it and then resell the DVDs.

 

HTH,

Brenda

[Teresa Hope]

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback very much!

[rjand6more]

We used PTIW 1. My son really disliked it and complained daily. We almost finished it. I did not love it either. I do feel that he learned some writing techniques, so I do not feel like it was a waste of time. Maybe with a different kid...