Clubbhouse Happenings: Home School Adventure Co~Creative Freewriting Adventure~A TOS Review

     Home school Adventure Co.has created a Creative Freewriting Adventure writing program for your most hesitant writers! It is a program that allows you to grab a pen, a piece of paper, a timer and your imagination to create great stories in just 15 minutes! Yes you read that correctly. It only requires 15 minutes a day! Great for those kids, who like mine, dread writing.
So how does it work?
The program consists of 10 short stories like :Thales, The Ancient Greek Philosopher, Democritus, The Laughing Philosopher and The Gallery. You will start off by reading the short story to your child. After each story comes the writing part.. There is a page that says what their assignment is... In one story you are a princess who steps through a picture frame into a different world, describing your actions and experience leading up to a big party, or riding a winged pony! Each assignment offers a list of questions to consider to help you write your story. Some of those questions:
Background:
Who is your climbing buddy?
Have you encountered anything unusual in previous climbs?
What, if anything, do we need to know about your climbing background?
The Dialogue:
   Do you meet anyone in this parallel universe?

Incorporate your senses into your writing:
What do you see?
What do you hear?

When the child is having trouble these question may jar their imagination and help them.
    The main approach and what I loved about this program is that your child is encouraged to become the character that the short story is about. For example, in one of the stories, it’s main them is a girl who steps thru a beautiful picture. The scene in the picture comes alive with the vivid details (blue summer sky, white fleecy clouds). Using the senses gives your child at least 5 things to write about in describing the story! The possibilities are endless and with two kids using the writings their stories were never the same!
To help them visualize and get into the mood, knowing that they only had 15 minutes, I would have them relax and close their eyes while I read the short story. Then with their eye still closed I asked them the sense questions. What are you seeing? What do you smell? What can you touch?
    My kids have always had great imaginations when it comes to playing with their Lincoln Logs, Legos, cars, dolls etc. As they got older and I would ask them to put it on paper, they would freeze! It always amazed me that they could play for hours creating this little world, but I say write me a paragraph about the town you just created, or the farm you are playing on, they were like a deer in headlights.
     I picked up a book on story story starters and we gave that a try. I got maybe a paragraph.. (SIGH). I get it. Not everyone will be a novelist! But I have tried many curriculums that would maybe pull something out of my kids when it came to writing a story. As of right now, sadly, I have been unsuccessful in that area. Given the opportunity to review this curriculum was exciting! I thought maybe this would be it! I eagerly waited for the information and was happy to get started.
     I also had the opportunity to review the coloring book edition. I think this was a great addition because it helped to shape the story when the kids colored the scene. For my kids it helped to get those juices flowing! They did write more on average than before and I think the main drive for that was the questions. My son in particular felt he had to answer all the questions. He wasn't as crazy about having them there. However, my daughter really enjoyed it! I think it is easier for girls to write..in general. They seem to have a great imagination.
There are several story starters in this list!
Creative Freewriting story starter examples:
       *stepping thru a picture into a different dimension
*A winged pony
*cliff climbing with a buddy!
   This program can be used as a stand along program or in conjunction with Philosophy Adventure.

SO what did we think?
The reviews are in from our house:

From the kids perspective: We had two kids using the program. One boy (7th grade) and one girl (5th grade. The 7th grader wasn’t a fan of the question. He said that the questions made it hard to answer and then put in paragraph form. The 5th grader liked writing the story but would rather answer the questions and be done.Spoken from a true “non-writer”!Overall kid grade: Okay.
    From the mom/teacher perspective:
I really liked the program. They were fun and different. So each time you were not continuing the same story. I think for kids who are reluctant to write this is a good thing. You stick to it for 15 minutes, then you don’t have to write about that topic again! I think that reading is like writing in the sense that the more you do it, the easier it comes to you. Not all of us are going to be born novelists, however with Creative Freewriting, you have the opportunity to try different scenarios, and with "limited" direction or the outcomes of each story will really depend on your child and where they feel like taking the story that day. Using the senses to set the background or tell the story is a great habit for kids to get into when writing. I think this is a great skill to help kids develop into vivid, descriptive writers. Overall mom grade: Great!
Thank you to the School Review Crew and Homeschool Adventure Co. for the opportunity to review this product!

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