Story Starters: Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Before

My 6th grade son enjoys writing and this has pushed him further in his creativity. We are thoroughly enjoying using this book and reading how it generates interesting stories.

Story Starters begins with an explanation of how the book is intended to be used, and how Karen Andreola used "exciting writing" in her own homeschool. The majority of the book is taken up with the story starters themselves. There are 67 pictures, with exciting story starters, to get our children started on their creative writing journey. At the end of the book, Karen has written a section entitled Hints For Polishing. Since this is intended for the older students, it is written directly to the student. It includes sections on adding descriptive language, engaging the reader's senses, choosing verbs carefully, and developing your character's description.24 additional pictures are included for story writing, without story starters. Karen walks the older student through the major components of a story, so they will be able to develop their own plot, create interesting characters, have a point of conflict, and a resolution.The final section of the book focuses on Charlotte Mason's views on narration. Narration is a natural ability, which can be turned into the ability to write, with guidance. Story Starters helps provide the guidance by allowing children to practice their writing skills in a fun and non-threatening manner.Story Starters made our first week of school fun! The children (grades 1, 4, 6, 8, and 10) enjoyed developing their exciting stories much more than writing an essay about their summer or jumping into a more serious writing assignment. More importantly, they are looking forward to continuing to use Story Starters. They count down the days until their next writing assignment.Story Starters does what it promises. It helps students write like they've never written before. Since Story Starters is reusable, non-consumable, and adaptable for every age of student, it's a great value for the homeschool family.

I love this book! Rarely do you fall in LOVE with homeschool curriculum. It meets the need, and you are happy, but this... well, I am VERY pleased. Both of my children, who did not enjoy writing before, now look forward to creative writing! My daughter is in 12 grade and my son is in 5th. The concept is so great because each story gives you some meat and potatoes first, not just a simple concept like "What did you do on your summer vacation?" The art helps as well. It is so fun to see the differnt direction each of my children go with their stories. I included my nieces as well and the preschooler dictate her story to me, asking her questions along the way about the things she was telling me. By the end we had over a full page of her dictation for her to take home to her mother! It is wonderful! Thank you so much Karen, for creating this wonderful book. What a blessing!

Fabulous! I cringed at the price, but just went for it anyway. My kids love this and ask for it on most days even when it runs their school day later and later. They listen intently to the stories just waiting for their chance to "pick it up" and finish it off. They love to sit under a tree outside and fill pages with their ideas of what happened and then share them all. There is lots of tips and teacher info that seems to be helpful, but I haven't really got into it all too much just yet. The pencil type drawings throughout are just enough to give a good idea, but leaves plenty for their imagination to run with. Love it!

This book has been perfect for our homeschool. My children had a great time just deciding which story to finish first!