Mandy Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 All of the reviews I have found on-line (Old Schoolhouse, etc) have praised it, but I would love to hear from some of you to hear your opinions. Mandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Me too! I'm strongly considering this for next year. I don't know if you saw, but on Apologia's site they have a full sample chapter up that you can read. Thanks for starting this discussion! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 OK, here goes. We tried it with 2. My older writer dd found it restrictive and too simple, my younger non writing ds hated it. My teacher dh uses many of the ideas with his class. I think it could work well with a non-motivated junior high age, and slightly younger, motivated child. We switched to IEW (just brought SWI, and SWCC) and whilst non writing child doesn't actually LIKE it he doesn't hate it either. Writing child LOVES IT. So what went wrong for us? I'm not too sure, the first chapter went well, but after that non writing child blew out. Too much actual writing, and unlike IEW not enough instruction of what to do. He hated the lists of things he had to come up with. "I don't know any....natural disasters...or whatever." Writing child felt restricted and cramped and complained she knew it all anyway. :tongue_smilie: We have kept it because dh uses it at school! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 We used Jump In last year with our struggling writer (then in 8th grade), and found it to be a very gentle, incremental writing program, much like Wordsmith Apprentice (though more in depth than WA). Jump In is a good, gentle next step after Wordsmith Apprentice for very reluctant writers. While Jump In says it is for grades 5-8, I don't think I would use it before 6th grade with an average writer, or before 7th grade with a struggling/reluctant writer, and would probably opt for a different / open-ended program with a strong or gifted writer. However, for our needs it worked *very* well -- it was a good match for our struggling writer, and he never complained about using it (which has been a big problem with most other writing, other than Wordsmith Apprentice). How the program is laid out: Jump In is written to the student, in an informal tone. Each chapter has several "cycles" instruction, then exercises, then shorter writing assignments that increasingly go into more depth, and then each chapter ends with a list of longer writing assignments to choose from. Jump In is designed as a 2 year course (they recommend interspersing the 14 chapter/units of the student notebook with "writing plunges" (10 minute "free writing from the writing prompts in the Teacher book). However, we easily used it in 1 year as our son was able to handle doing 1-2 exercises a day (they are usually quite short), which allowed us to then spend a week on the longer writing assignments. You could also easily break the exercises down into smaller "bites" and take a longer time on the writing assignments for a younger writer, or a really struggling writer. The first 100 pages of Jump In focuses on teaching the student how to: - figure out *what* to write - how to support the topic sentence - and how to organize his thoughts/writing/paragraphs The second half of the book focuses on applying these techniques to the 4 different types of writing (persuasive, descriptive, narrative, expository). What we didn't like: - The writing prompts for the free writing (we substituted other writing). - The Student Workbook printed format ("perfect" bound") The workbook is meant to be consumable -- in other words, the student writes right in the book -- BUT, it is NOT spiral bound, but "perfect" bound, which makes it extremely frustrating to get the book to stay open. Our solution: a spiral notebook instead. You could also slice off the binding and either 3-hole punch the student workbook. Or, have it re-bound in a format that LAYS FLAT! Note: Jump In is strongly from a Christian viewpoint (put out by Apologia); mostly this does not come into play, but some of the examples of good writing, and a few of the ideas for writing assignments do include things from a Christian viewpoint. And a few "hot button" issues such as abortion are included as the occasional example -- you may wish to preview the program first if this is a problem. See sample pages at: http://www.christianbook.com Hope something here is of help. Below are links to past threads not only on Jump In, but also other writing programs. BEST of luck, whatever you go with! Warmest regards, Lori D. Anybody else liking Jump In? http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55968&highlight=jump Put That in Writing vs. Jump In http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52413&highlight=jump Writer's Jungle, Wordsmith Apprentice, Jump In -- Confusion, Confusion! http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45952&highlight=jump Jump In?? http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37991&highlight=jump Please Help Me Sort Through These Writing Programs http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11399&highlight=jump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Posted March 7, 2009 Author Share Posted March 7, 2009 That was such useful information. I can't tell you have thankful I am for your taking the time to respond in such detail. I think I am going to give it a try! Mandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Wisc Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I can't tell you what works for other people, but Jump In has made been a relief to me! I'm using it with a child who likes to write, but really struggles to do so. He's in 9th grade. We've tried so many programs, and this one is gentle and structured, and the work that my son is turning out is good (Yeah!). You can download the 1st chapter on their website and give it a try. Jean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasharowan Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Another one that tried it and didn't like it. My 7th grader is a very reluctant writer and still depends too much on me to tell him what to write. Jump In was missing some steps that he needed. He has a solid grasp of paragraph, but is still in the simple 5-6 word sentences that sound really repetitive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cougarmom4 Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 We love it! I love the clear explanations written directly to the student and the way things are broken down into small steps. My son hasn't always enjoyed writing, but he is now. And he feels a lot more confident in his own ability to write. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Thanks so much for writing all of that! Can I ask what about the writing prompts didn't work? Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 For a number of reasons a lot of the prompts did not connect. As I recall there is one prompt idea per week, and we would often read through 2-3 weeks worth of prompts and not find one he could "free write" for 10 minutes on. Partly, he was in 8th grade, so I think some of the prompts seemed juvenile to him. And frankly, I thought most were not that great either -- boring; "too Christian" (and we are Christian); didn't connect or spark any interest in writing; not enough variety. A friend is borrowing our copy of Jump In, or else I'd give you real, specific examples that didn't click for us. We ended up using some prompts from a huge list I had printed off several years earlier from an online source (so sorry! I can't remember where I found that!). Then we entirely dropped the free writing for a few months. And then for the last 2 months we all did timed essays from past SAT writing prompts for the "free writing". While he complained about it, I think he was really ready for the more advanced topics of high school essays, rather than the late elementary-level topics in Jump In. Did that help? Warmest regards, Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Did that help? Warmest regards, Lori D. Yes, thankyou! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Reading the other posts I am wondering if it didn't work for us because of the ages of the kids when I tried it. It was too hard for a struggling 10 year old, and too easy for a writing orientated 14 year old. Any average 12 year olds out there? ;) Willow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenKitty Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 We like it here. I only wish they would have put lines on the pages, where they are to write. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolchic Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 We love this program, except for the binding. We had to cut and spiral it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 Reading the other posts I am wondering if it didn't work for us because of the ages of the kids when I tried it. It was too hard for a struggling 10 year old, and too easy for a writing orientated 14 year old. Any average 12 year olds out there? ;) Willow. It has worked well for my 12-13 yo (and for my friend who has a struggling hs writer). I did need to break things down for him (putting together a finished 300 word piece takes him longer than what the book outlines), but I think it's been very worthwhile to go through the process. I tried it briefly with my 10-11 yo this year, but quickly decided that my oldest needed lots of one on one with it & I would burn out if I tried doing both kids this year! So I may try next year or the year after. Haven't decided yet! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennyradmer Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 My daughter loved Jump In, but her writing did not improve. It was not concrete enough. She did great at opening and concluding, but it did not help her write the meat of the paper. We had to switch to something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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