Thoughts on Jump In from Apologia

[Flowergirl159]

Jump in has been recommend to me to use with my 11 yr old. I do feel like I need some sort of direction in teaching writing styles. Previously, we have used copywork, dictation and now she is beginning written narration. 

 

Is there something else I should look at?

 

I am not wanting a program that needs to have time spent on each day, nor that needs a lot of my time. I need a program that we can just pick up and use when we get time or weekly rather than daily. Perhaps even something that she could work on, on her own.

 

What do you think?

[...................]

For an 11 year old it should be fine.

 

However, we felt the teaching was a bit disjointed and disorganized. If your child likes things to be clear, logical and organized she will not like it. If she is a free flowing artistic type she will likely enjoy it and the weird way it's organized will probably not bother her :)

 

and I do think if anyone is going to use it 11 would be a good age. The book says up to 8th grade but there's no way it would be good for 8th

[SebastianCat]

My 11year old has loved it this year. It's not hugely time intensive and that fits what I was looking for. I agree that the instruction doesn't follow a formal, logical sequence, but I think my DD likes it more for that fact.

[freesia]

It's been perfect for my 13 year old. She is a natural writer and most other programs we've used have been either too restrictive for her or too loosey goosey so that she doesn't have clear expectations .

 

She is seventh grade. I do think it would be fine for eighth grade for most children.

 

I don't think it would be great for once a week use, though. It would be better for something like do 2 weeks, take a break and do something else.

[SilverMoon]

Jump In was fabulous for my DD in 8th grade. :p  I think technical, STEM type kids may not appreciate it quite so much, though. 

 

As much as we enjoyed the lighthearted approach of Jump In, I don't think it's a good fit for once a week usage. It wants steady plugging through it to get the benefit.

 

 

 

Writing and Rhetoric from Classical Academic Press may be a better fit, and it's designed to stagger weeks with grammar instruction. The lessons would lend themselves better to larger blocks than Jump In.

[MerryAtHope]

It wasn't a great fit here. You might also look at Essentials in Writing.

[Flowergirl159]

Thanks everyone. Any recommendations for another program or resource that will teach writing genres? 

 

We don't need grammar - already covering that.

 

We tried Essentials in Writing in grade 5, I found it too bookworkish.

[Lori D.]

Another family for whom Jump In worked well with a struggling 8th grade writer.  Jump In is largely done solo by the student, so it fits that aspect that you are looking for. It does cover a variety of types of writing: Persuasive, Expository, Narrative, Descriptive. It also covers a variety of types of assignments: Cause and Effect, Biography, Book Report, Book Response, News Article, How-To Paper (also called Process), Compare and Contrast, Storytelling, Poetry.

 

Agreeing with SilverMoon about Writing is not a good subject to do just once a week -- I don't think any writing program is really set up to work as a once-a-week venture… But I do think you could schedule Jump In as larger enough "chunks" to do it 3x/week. Also, it is divided into about 14 units, so you could pretty easily schedule it to spend 1-2 weeks more heavily on writing and knock out a unit, then set writing aside for 1-2 weeks to focus on other things, and then come back to it when you have more time

 

Another thought: the program is designed to take 2 years, but because they have you finish a unit, and then take 4 weeks to do daily "free writes" -- we skipped that part, and finished in one year. Because you have a younger student, you could skip the free writes and plan to allow those units to spread out naturally over 2 years to fit into your family schedule in the way you suggested in your original post...

 

 

Edited March 2, 2016 by Lori D.