The Long Awaited Writing Program Begins

The girls hard at work

I ordered a writing program for the girls some time ago. They have been really excited to start, well Madeline has at least. Marney could take it or leave it.

The program is called Institute for Excellence in Writing, and consists of DVD lessons for the girls, a huge training program for me, follow up lesson plans, and online support. This is the reason that we are starting it now, there has just been no time for me to sit down and learn everything I need to learn. Now that I have the time, I am really motivated to make this work and help the girls become good writers.

Writing is an area that I really feel my education is lacking (obviously!). Even though I went through a public school system with a great reputation, at 17 years old, I did not feel prepared for all the writing assignments required of a college student. In fact spending 4 (OK, 5) years in college (I have a BS in Dietetics-heavy on the science for a reason!) writing papers only gave me a phobia of writing, it did nothing to improve my skills. Which is why I still write like I talk, and chose only to go back to school if it meant very minimal writing. I'll take drug dosage calculations, memorizing medication side effects, and pathophysiology any day over writing a paper! I'm in a position now with both of my degrees to start working on my masters, but my fear of writing makes me cringe at the thought of taking that next step. But hey, we all have our strengths and graduate with holes in our education no matter what.

However, I really want to do everything I can to make sure my kids do not struggle with writing. I think that if they are able to write well, without too much effort, they will have a lifelong advantage. So, finally we begin. Hopefully we will all learn a lot!