Excellence in Writing Review

Let's start this review for the Institute for Excellence in Writing by saying "WOW". What an incredible program, it is so unique from every other writing course we have ever tried...and there have been more than a few! I homeschool two children, our son is 15 and our daughter is 10. Our son is what I would call a reluctant writer, while my daughter enjoys writing stories just for fun, their differences continually amaze me...and force me to be a more creative homeschool mom!

I am blessed I had the opportunity to review IEW, we received the Student Writing Intensive Group B. It looks like this:


We received a binder and inside are tabbed sheets with each section pre-labeled for us.. We also received a manila envelope which contained the instructions for the curriculum as well as the lesson plans and student handouts. In addition we received four DVD's that would be our classroom as we journeyed through our lessons.

I used this curriculum with my son, as my daughter is too young for this particular series of lessons. We both absolutely LOVED Mr. Pudewa! He is an incredibly engaging instructor, funny, kept our attention and at the same time WE WERE LEARNING! He truly opened my eyes to some amazing insights into the teaching of writing. I was always under the impression that children had to always come up with their own ideas, that my help would not be beneficial, I was very wrong! He started the lessons with ideas and allowed the children to write based on that. He would even give hints and encouragement along the way, it is all apart of the learning process and that made my son so much more at ease when it came to working on these papers.

Classes are held on the DVD, it is a classroom or seminar feeling as you sit and watch in the comfort of your own home. There is a chart in the lesson plans that tells you when to pause, I found this a bit difficult as I would forget to be watching the time (and my DVD does not have the count running on the screen all the time), so I found we frequently went over a class....which did make my son feel like some of the classes were way too long. That was not the products fault but my own. I did find this a bit confusing at first I do admit.

So, does my son now love writing? Honestly, no. He would much rather sit and have a conversation with you about a topic, it is just his particular style. Did this program help our family, YES! I would also highly recommend Institute for Excellence in Writing to any family looking for an outstanding curriculum for their homeschool!

The exact program I used can be found here: Student Writing Intensive Group B
This particular program retails for $99.00 and you have the option of purchasing additional binders and packets for more than one student for just $18.00 each.

IEW is a full language arts curriculum resource, in addition to writing they also offer lessons in grammar, literature, poetry and spelling.


Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.