Today I feel like sharing the love. And may I just say that I love The Old Schoolhouse? This company does so much for the homeschool community. I want to let you know about some of their great free resources as well as a few other special offers and opportunities. Take advantage while they last!

FREE Resources to Download Now

Right now, TOS is offering two excellent—and free—digital resources!

The Old Schoolhouse Guide to Examining Curriculum will help you better discern how to find your way through the maze of homeschooling products. Includes helpful articles, tips, and suggestions for understanding book reviews and shopping for curriculum. Also includes a number of product reviews.

Homeschool 101 is the perfect place to get a broad overview of homeschooling in general, or enjoy reading up-to-date articles from some of the best authors and homeschool companies. With almost 200 pages full of articles and resources, you won’t want to miss this . . . and you don’t have to—it’s totally FREE!

More TOS Opportunities

The Schoolhouse Expo virtual homeschool conference was a rousing success. Did you miss it? That’s OK. Expo To Go! will provide you with all the sessions from the Schoolhouse Expo—you can listen to the MP3s of 36 different sessions.

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Vote now and be heard with the TOS 2010 Excellence in Education Awards. Take this brief survey to vote for your favorite homeschooling products. The results will be featured in the Spring 2011 issue. At the end of the survey, you will be redirected to a page where you can download two free gifts just for taking the time to vote!

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For a limited time, TOS is giving away this great tote with a subscription to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. You get 9 issues for the price of 8, the Homeschooling with Heart tote bag, E-Book: Dreams and Designs–Homemade Supplies to Complement Your Homeschool, and the July through December 2009 Schoolhouse Planner modules. It’s a $146.65 value for only $39.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve given you tips on how to write various kinds of curriculum and product reviews.

• Part 1: Four Basic Steps for Writing a Book Review
• Part 2: The Neutral or Unbiased Review
• Part 3: The Positive Review

As we wrap up the series in Part 4, let’s look at the personal review. This type of product review makes a personal recommendation. It not only presents the facts, but it adds the writer’s opinion based on her experience with the product.

So even though Part 3 explains how to write a positive, opinionated review, using the materials is not a criteria. On the other hand, the personal review must be written by someone who has actually used the program, book, or product. She loves it and will gladly tell you why. 

The personal review will include facts sprinkled liberally with opinion. The reviewer may also indicate how her children enjoyed the materials or how their skills have improved as a result.

The following review is written by a mom who uses and loves WriteShop. She glowingly describes how her kids’ writing has improved, what she loves about the program, how easy it is to use, how helpful various parts of the Teacher’s Manual are to her, etc. You’ll easily see how you can use this method to review any of your favorite products!

Review by Heidi Shaw

for The Old Schoolhouse magazine

This is a GREAT program. I don’t usually start out so strongly but a program like this in the home school community has been needed for a long time. Let’s take a look.

Starting with descriptive writing, and carrying on with narrative and informative, WriteShop has everything you need to guide your students on the path to becoming excellent writers.

Sure, I can hear you say, but how will I KNOW they are becoming excellent writers? Aha, that’s where the beauty of this well laid out program becomes evident.

Lesson by lesson, step by step, the student is taught how to evaluate and improve his own writing. And the parent/teacher is taught right along with him. Every lesson has self-checking evaluation worksheets for both student and teacher. They actually teach us how to assess and edit every lesson. We start with describing an object and move on up through to conducting and writing an interview; the lessons are interesting and fun! Each lesson follows a basic format so it is easy to implement…. (Read complete review here. )

You never know when you’ll have the chance to review a book or curriculum, whether it’s a brand-new product or an old favorite. Now you have the tools to write with greater confidence by following some simple steps and then deciding whether the review needs to be neutral, positive, or personal.

Reviewing a homeschool curriculum or textbook is different from reviewing a novel. In Part 1 of this series, I shared four basic steps to writing a homeschool book review, and Part 2 looked more closely at writing a neutral or unbiased review.

But what if you’re so impressed with a curriculum or book that you feel you MUST give an opinion? More than simply summarize its main features, you want to share your enthusiasm and encourage others to check the product out, too! If ths is the case, you’ll want to write a positive review.

This type of product review is designed to influence a purchase. It not only presents the facts, but it adds the writer’s personal bias.

The reviewer has not used the material but clearly loves what she sees, and doesn’t hesitate to say so. So when you write a positive review, even if you haven’t used the product, share why it appeals to you and mention the features that make you say, “Wow!”

If you’re visual like me, it always helps to see an example, doesn’t it? This review, written by Deborah Cariker of Eclectic Homeschool Online intermingles facts about WriteShop with her personal excitement about the program, even though she hadn’t used it herself. While she stays focused on the program’s key features, she also manages to impart a “Where has this been all my life?” flavor to the review.

Review by Deborah Deggs Cariker

for Eclectic Homeschooling Online

I met veteran homeschoolers Kim Kautzer and Debbie Oldar, saw their curriculum, and knew that I was looking at something special. I am a writer, but I never really learned how to write. No one sat down and taught me how to paint pictures with words. I did very well in English and Literature, but can’t tell you why. I won the National Council of Teachers of English award my senior year and had my essay published in an English textbook, but can’t tell you what was so special about what I wrote. I have believed throughout my ensuing writing career—for radio, television, newspaper, and magazine—that “my ability” is God’s gift. I also thought that this was impossible to teach.

Wrong! (Read complete review here.)

Next week, we’ll close out our series, “How to Write a Book Review,” by taking a look at Part 4: reviews written by homeschooling moms who have actually used the products they’re reviewing.

The Neutral Book Review

In Part 1, I suggested four steps to writing a book review. Today, let’s zero in just a bit more on the neutral review. This type of product review presents facts and summarizes key aspects of the product or book, and should include very little to no personal opinion.

Sometimes it’s just best to give some examples. Below are some book reviews written by professional reviewers who did NOT use the WriteShop program. You’ll notice that the tone is, for the most part, neutral. Neither review gushes over WriteShop, yet both authors clearly favor it.

This kind of review is meant to give facts and to hold back on personal opinion as much as possible, but you’ll probably spot a few “bias” words such as “great resource” or “I like the flexibility of this option.” Still, all four reviews manage to keep their focus on the features of the programs without editorializing.

Reviews by Cathy Duffy

for Cathy Duffy Reviews

• WriteShop is a great resource for homeschoolers because it’s written for the teacher who knows nothing about teaching writing. It features detailed, daily lesson plans along with student worksheets that cover not only the lessons, but also evaluation and grading…. (Read complete review here.)
• WriteShop Primary, designed for grades K-3, was written by a different author than the original WriteShop. It has many of the same elements that make both programs good choices for homeschoolers…. (Read complete review here.)

This next writer begins her first article with a bit of personal commentary before launching into the neutral product description and review.

Reviews by Virginia Jones

for Eclectic Homeschooling Online

• One of the gripes I hear from other homeschoolers and professional educators is that a lot of homeschool students don’t know how to write. I also hear the opposite—that homeschoolers have excellent writing ability. I think it depends on the family; if there’s an emphasis on writing, competent, perhaps even superior writers will result. However, writing often seems to be the last thing we get to in our day…. (Read complete review here.) 
• WriteShop Primary A Activity Set Worksheet Pack is a set of worksheets used in the WriteShop Primary writing course. The set for Book A contains 20 activity pages plus two Primary Writing Skills Evaluation Charts geared to track your young student’s progress as you move through the program together…. (Read complete review here.)

Next week, we’ll take a look at some reviews that offer a more personal bias, even though the writers have not actually used the product themselves.

Photo © by Caitlin Burke. Used by permission.

Have you ever wanted to sing the praises of a book or other homeschool product you absolutely love? You may have found that it’s easy to fill your friends’ ears when you gather at park day, but if someone asks you to write up a review for your support group newsletter, you may have no clue how to go about it.

Or suppose you want to post a review in your blog.

Or maybe you want to assign a book review to one of your teens as a writing project.

No matter who’s writing it, you’ll need a different approach to review curriculum than if you were to review, say, a novel. But it’s easy—and fun—when you have a little formula to follow!

I’ve seen three different kinds of curriculum or book reviews. You’ll choose the one that best fits your experience with the product:

• Neutral review. Having never used the materials, will you simply explain the method and approach?
• Positive review. Based on what you’ve learned, will you also give your opinion?
• Personal review. Have you actually used the material? Can you review it based on your own experience?

Regardless of the type of review you write, make sure you include some basic information to familiarize readers with the product’s key features.

Describe the Book or Product

Start off with the basics. First, what is this product? What does this product cover? What’s included? Is it complete on its own, or will the parent need to purchase additional components to complete it?

Second, is it a book? Workbook? Is it hardback, soft cover, or spiral bound? E-book/download? Computer program? CD/Video? Game or manipulative?

Explain How the Product Works

Describe its purpose. Tell how the instructions say to use it. Or, if you’re reviewing a product you’ve actually worked with, describe how you’ve used it with your own child.

Next, tell who the product targets. What age or grade? What educational method(s) will it appeal to? What type of learner might benefit from this product? Is it created for homeschool use? If not, is it easily adaptable to the homeschooling environment?

Express Your Opinion

If you’re reviewing a product you have not used personally and plan to give an opinion, what appeals to you about it? What makes you excited? What do you think your children would enjoy?

And if you’ve actually used the product, how did it work in your homeschool? What did you enjoy or appreciate? Did your kids like it? Be honest but try not to gush.

Make a Recommendation

Again, if you want to give a personal opinion, use your closing sentences to let your readers know if you would recommend this product. Would you buy it were it not already in your hands? Offer a professional review, one that is honest but not overly enthusiastic. After all, this isn’t meant to be a sales pitch.

Finally, close by providing contact information, including company name, website, email address, and phone number.

This is a simple way to get started writing a review. As you can imagine, it’s always easier to evaluate a book or product you’ve personally used. But eventually, you can begin having fun reviewing products you’ve never seen before! And if you’re giving an assignment to a teen, perhaps requiring both kinds of reviews will help strengthen some of her writing skills as well.

Next week I’ll give more details about writing a neutral product review, along with some examples to follow.

Enter a Book Review Contest! [Contest has ended]

Successful-Homeschooling.com is sponsoring a contest with an opportunity to win FREE books! For every qualified product review that you submit by September 21, 2008, you’ll have various opportunities to win up to $100 in Usborne books!

So now that you have some tools in your belt for writing a great product review, what are you waiting for? Click here for contest information.

In Part 1 of our story, Debbie and I discovered that our plans for teaching our first writing class were very nearly doomed. Now for Part 2 . . .

Taking a Detour

It wasn’t just our own boys whose efforts cried out for help—every student in the group struggled at some level. So we canceled class for two weeks, scrapped the lesson plans we had so carefully crafted over the summer, and started from scratch. We had made a commitment to these parents, but clearly we needed to take a detour. Continue reading →

AS YOU pick up a grammar program, geography book, or other curriculum from the shelf of your local homeschool store, do you ever wonder how it got there?

Do you perhaps envision a talented team at work in some big-city corporate office building comparing research or collaborating over cover designs?

If so, let me QUICKLY dispell that myth for you! Continue reading →