Writing Tales is different than any other writing program I have seen. It takes classic fables and stories (including at least one Bible story) and uses them to help teach writing, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. Copywork is also included in the lessons.
I was given a copy of both the level one and level two books as well as the teacher's manuals for them. I had Precise Prince, my 11 year old, work in the level two book and my 9 year old, Creative Princess work in the level one book. The website recommends level one for grades three or four and level two for grades four or five. You can go here to look at the scope and sequence of both books.
Your child takes two weeks for each story. During those two weeks, they will re-write the story in their own words and then embellish the story a bit with their own imagination. Each day they are given one or two assignments. Usually the first day is reading the story and then telling it to you in their own words. The next day is often copywork. Soon they are writing out the story in their own words and using their story to make a spelling list. They use words they misspelled to be the list of words they practice. I absolutely love this! It makes so much sense.
Grammar lessons are included each week as well. For example, they may learn about nouns and have a worksheet or two learning about nouns.
The teacher's manual is comprehensive. There is a bit of teacher prep most days-but it is small. Usually you are listening to the kids repeat the story to you or playing a game to help them learn. The manual also includes a large section for using Writing Tales in a co-op setting. Although we didn't use it as a co-op, I think it would be fun to do so.
The student workbooks are spiral bound making them easy to write in. The teacher's manual is not. This is my one issue with the program. I would love the teacher's manual to come spiral bound-it would be much easier to use, especially since there are pages meant for copying. The student workbooks are consumable so you will need to purchase one for each of your children.
Creative Princess enjoyed this curriculum more than Precise Prince. This isn't surprising. She is my writer and can often be found writing her own books. She would occasionally work ahead in the book when I assigned her pages and she really enjoyed being able to embellish the stories a bit on her own.
This review was an answer to prayer! I had been praying for a Language Arts curriculum that would be easy to use for next year. This is exactly what I wanted! We will be continuing with this program into the next year.
If you go to their main page, you can click on sample pages.
The level one workbook is $19.95 and the teacher's manual is $24.95. The level two workbook is $24.95 and the teacher's manual is $32.95. Go here to purchase.
Go here to see what my fellow crewmates had to say about Writing Tales.
(I was given book level one and level two teacher's manuals and student workbooks in exchange for my honest opinion. No other compensation was received.)
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