Writing with Ease: Level 1 Workbook (The Complete Writer)

Both my husband and I are very impressed with this workbook. And (even more important) our kids enjoy it and are learning to listen actively and narrate clearly. I bought this book as a supplement to a language arts curriculum that already includes copywork, so I don't require my children to do any writing. We simply use it orally during dinner: I read a passage, my kids answer the following questions in complete sentences, they each compose a sentence about the passage, and I write down their sentences and read them back while showing them the written work (there are fun little pictures on the pages intended for recording this narration). I also show my children the copywork passages (printed in the workbook) and ask them to point out the specific things the workbook highlights. My husband enjoys being a part of the process, and often the kids beg me to read another passage and ask them more questions. The literature selections are well chosen and entertaining, and often make us want to find the original source and read more. Having my children learn to listen and narrate effectively is very important to me, and I find that Writing With Ease Workbook 1 is a painless, entertaining, and effective way to move towards this goal. I'm getting comfortable enough with the method delineated in the workbook that I find myself using it with other read-aloud literature, too. However, I appreciate the diverse selection of passages in the workbook (many I would not otherwise choose) and I love the convenience of having everything in one easy-to-use package.My one criticism of the workbook is that the spaces between the handwriting lines provided for the instructor to record his/her student's narration are huge. It's actually difficult for me to write large enough letters to fit inside those lines.This workbook has all the literature passages and narration questions in the front; then a large chunk of workbook pages with serrated edges (2 copywork passages and two narration pages per week). I immediately tore out all of the workbook pages, hole punched them and put them in a 1" binder, which made things much more managable. The book grants permission to photocopy these pages for use within your own family, so I photocopy the two narration pages for each week back-to-back before I record my children's sentences. This way, I will be able to use the workbook again for my 4 year old and my 1 year old. This makes it fairly cost effective for our family.My children are currently 6, 4, and 1 years old. I hadn't anticipated including my 4 year old yet, but she participates eagerly and her comprehension and ability to narrate has really surprised me. She's definitely listening more actively in general than she did before. I plan go back through the workbook with her when she is older.I did not buy the Writing With Ease textbook. I own The Well Trained Mind and am familiar with the method of writing instruction recommended by Susan Wise Bauer. I have found the workbook to be perfectly sufficient for our purposes. I look forward to purchasing and using Levels 2-4 with my children.

I bought the workbook along with the complete writer text book even though I read reviews saying you don't need both. They were right! I appreciated seeing the high level big picture in the text (really just two pages at the very beginning of the book), but since I am using the workbook, I can't imagine I'll ever crack that one open again unless I want to refer to those two pages...You might prefer the text to the workbook though, so I'll try to walk you through picking which one is right for you, and at the end of the review I'll describe the WWE program itself.If you use this workbook:You will need to buy a new one each year (almost $30 each time), BUT every single piece of copywork and every passage for narration and dictation is provided along with a paper on which to do the copywork, narration, or dictation... Everything is laid out and you just need to follow simple instructions. If you have multiple children, you can just copy these pages instead of pulling out the originals (perforated) and reuse. No lesson prep time needed, except to make the copy or pull out the page, and the literature Bauer uses is really great. We have used it as a guide for ideas for new readalouds (Little House in the big woods, Pinocchio, The Blue Fairy Book, etc.)If you use the text:You will have the plan for all four years, and it does walk you through how to progress week by week, BUT you have to come up with your own copywork and passages for narrations and dictations. This is the less expensive way to go by far ($30 each year for four years, or $15 one time) but it will cost you big time in terms of lesson prep time and effort. For me, I know that I may not always get the prep done in time and end up skipping the lessons :( AND since the copywork and passages are high quality, I see no need to reinvent the wheel.The program in general:Bauer's philosophy is that writing is really two tasks combines into one. There is the part where you come up with what to write, and the part where you write it down. For young kids, expecting them to do both is unrealistic, but allowing them to learn each one on its own sets them up for success. They start out alternating copywork (learning to physically write) and narrations (coming up with their own words, but you physically write it for them. Then they progress to doing some very short narrations, and then copying it down after you write it down. Later, there are dictations, where you speak to them and they write what you say. In this way, they learn the different aspects of coming up with things to write and writing them down, and then the skills slowly get put together until they can come up with ideas and write them down. Intellectually it makes perfect sense, and in practice, it really seems to be working. My boys (5 and 7) are enjoying the program and succeeding, rather than being intimidated and stressed by writing.

Whilst having a script there for the parent to 'teach' the child from for every single lesson, the format is the same every single time and my children all got VERY bored, VERY fast.The selection of books used as examples is mostly ok, but not very diverse and is primarily older titles.I ended up buying Levels 2 and 3 to see if they were any better or more complex, and sadly they were not. I cannot recommend these at all.

Good for developing comprehension skills. Can be used from 7+ up (recommended age) but the author recommends starting with this book even if a child is much older than 7, because it builds on a set of skills needed to deal with the higher level workbooks in this series. I found my children really enjoyed many of the literature selections and it actually spurred them on to wanting to read those books where the passages came from. Also their ability to understand more complex sentences and more classical literature improved as a result of using this book. I use it for my 8 year old as per the schedule (although for the copywork, she does all of the sentences rather than just pick one of two each copywork lesson as the book suggests), but I speed it up for my 12 year old (i.e. I do 2 lessons per day with her and get her to do all of the copy work sentences) so she can finish this sooner, get used to the format and build a foundation for moving on to the higher levels in this series, which will come in really useful for developing summarising skills.

Very good basics book. Second half is entirely student worksheets to pull out and use with the lessons from the first. We did not use the worksheets.

I adore the classical education series and have bought many of the recommended books etc. These workbooks for "Writing with Ease" though, are not really worth the money in my opinion; over half the book is simply lined paper for the student to write on, that you're suppose to tear out of the book.Instead buy "The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease - Strong Fundamentals" it has all the levels & lessons already contained in the book, so there's no need to buy the separate workbook levels.I hasten to add the language workbooks are very good and as far as I'm aware are not duplicated in a single tome.

The Complete Writer Writing with Ease Level 1 Workbook has made teaching my son so easy. My son has multiple disabilities and the lessons are clearly written and easy to follow. We are seeing good progress in his ability to read and answer questions about a story. It also offers the opportunity to teach about sentence structure with a clear, step by step approach.