Sandra Garant’s Catholic Heritage Curricula Writing Workshops Review

Do you know what a spoonerism is? What plot might your daughter develop when she looks at a photo of a dancer about to go on stage? What dialogue does your son create between a football coach and player who scores a touchdown for the wrong team? Similar questions are explored when your children take part in four inspiring Writing Workshops authored by Sandra Garant.

Provided by Catholic Heritage Curricula, Mrs. Garant’s Workshops, are a breath of fresh air for educators and young writers, ages nine and up. Because children past the primary level are preparing to tie parts of speech, usage, mechanics, and spelling together, workshops akin to Sandra’s are essential for improving writing skills and making writing enjoyable and exciting. Catholic Heritage Curricula offers Garant’s colorful workshops in E-book form. Parents may purchase four workshops, through the middle school years, for eleven dollars each. Not computer savvy? These E-books are easy to save, open, and print for your own family.

Sandra Garant provides lessons in her workshops that focus on language and composition skills. Word games and unique assignments encourage children and parents to write and share with one another.

Each lesson follows a consistent format to draw learners into writing. Garant begins with discussion about the English language. For example, home school families will read about why we use certain words in talking versus writing. Garant then suggests writing samples about the related topic. Fun begins when students and teachers play word games and activities. In lesson one, Workshop I, students write tongue twisters and spoonerisms. A spoonerism is an entertaining play on words. Your sixth grader might change “wave the sails” to “save the whales.” She will also create several originals.

  

All lessons conclude with a writing assignment that produces creativity, enlightened thoughts or laughter. Nonsense words are created in the first assignment. Children provide amazing adjectives to describe strange qualities; or new nouns, such as “Amnedreamia – the feeling you get when you have a great dream, but forget some of it, so you go back to sleep.”

In Workshop II students write dialogues for silly situations to learn the proper use of quotation marks. Garant has wonderful ideas for emerging writers. Once edited, revised and rewritten, evaluation occurs with a teacher/student checklist.

Workshops I and II teach basic writing structure and language skills. A handful of topics include:

• Word play
• Riddles
• Character development
• Plot
• Dialogue

Workshops III and IV perfect upper middle school students’ writing skills. The topics are more advanced. The writing process will now take several days. Six of the twelve topics families learn about in these workshops include:

• Word choice
• Interviews
• Cause and Effect
• Pacing Narratives
• Conflicts in plots
• Parody

As educators and parents we see our children becoming overwhelmed with the many ingredients that go into good, correct writing. Garant’s workshops bring joy to writing. Our own family looks forward to “Writing Workshop Day,” where we invite friends over to read through a fun lesson, play a game or two, and begin an original writing lesson from CHC Writing Workshops. I can’t resist joining in. You and your children will feel the same way.

Find Garant’s Catholic Heritage Curricula Writing Workshops here.

Although Julia Johnson loves being a mom and wife she anxiously waits for her six children to fall asleep in the evenings, so she can stay up late to pray and write for blogs like Curriculum Choice. Learn more about Julia’s faith, six blessings, husband, and home educating at Catholic Teacher Daydreams.

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