Adult Training Seminars

We are excited to try something new! As we continue to search for a system that will work well to equip parents and leaders of educational communities with our writing methods, we are going back to where we started: we are now offering ATP Handbook Training Seminars. 

These seminars will take place on one Saturday each month using the Zoom platform. We will meet together for 6 hours, which includes break times. Attendees will enjoy five hours of live instruction and relational learning. The first seminar is scheduled in late July, and a seminar will be offered each month through November. Check out the schedule (use the filter to find the “Adult” class offerings).

These seminars are very practical; they are certain to equip you to more effectively teach writing to your children and students. They are also affordable, so we encourage you to have some friends join you as you learn the foundations of teaching writing to students of all ages. Our goal is to encourage and empower you to teach writing effectively. The results will be felt by your children and students as they realize that they can learn to write, and they can even enjoy writing once they gain confidence by utilizing our writing methods.

This program will teach you how to instruct your student on:

  • Gathering and organizing quality ideas 

  • Creating quality sentences and paragraphs

  • Understanding necessary grammar rules and how to apply them to writing

  • Editing independently to create the BEST writing

  • Developing critical thinking and verbal communication skills along the way

  • Suggesting methods to evaluate your student’s writing

  • and MUCH more!

Click to learn more about our ATP (Adult Training Program).

New Products

You may already own TWJ Writing Foundations Handbook and Student Lesson Guide, and very soon you will be able to add our Intermediate Writing Foundations Handbook AND Intermediate Student Lesson Guide to your family library! These products will be available as digital downloads on our website, just like all our other products.

The Intermediate level handbook and student lesson guide will teach a clear process for moving students from writing a single expanded paragraph to writing a multi-paragraph composition. Students will learn how to write the body paragraphs of a composition, even as they continue practicing all the writing skills they learned in the original handbook. At this next level, students will learn how to write a thesis statement, a transitional sentence, and an overall concluding sentence.

In addition, it will be necessary for students to write more comprehensively on a topic. They will need to dig deeper into the information and analysis of a writing prompt, while continuing to maintain quality ideas, clear organization, engaging style, and correct grammar. These new products are sure to challenge many writers as they grow in their writing skills and confidence.

Be on the lookout for our next newsletter introducing our new Intermediate level handbooks! In the meantime, check out our current handbooks and student lesson guide.

Follow Your Heart – Be a Boss

It goes without saying that every parent experiences moments of panic when it comes to raising our children. Perhaps they crawled behind a piece of furniture and we can’t find them, so we run to the bathroom praying they didn’t take a dive into the toilet. Or perhaps they became separated from us at the park or shopping mall, and our heart skips a few beats as we fight to take control of our thoughts so we can come up with a plan to find them. I remember that kind of panic! But there’s also the kind of panic that keeps us awake at night wondering:

  • Am I loving my children enough?

  • Am I disciplining them effectively?

  • Am I playing with them and laughing with them enough?

  • Am I cooking healthy food?

  • Am I protecting them enough . . . or too much?

  • Am I providing the best education?

I get it. The panic that comes from these questions (and so many more) is very real.

Now that I’ve really got your blood pressure soaring, let’s bring it down. As we begin this new year, I encourage you to remember that your children are a gift to YOU. That means YOU are the very best person to care for them. YOUR heart is your guide. Yes, we can find value in research and expert advice, but there is nothing like a mama’s heart to know what her little (and not so little) treasures need. YOU, not influencers, know when something is working and when it’s not. Trust YOUR heart. Friends and family may offer wise insights, but they don’t replace YOUR heart for your children and your deep longing to see them thrive.

Of course prayer and spiritual insight also enlighten YOU. Of course you will experience ups and downs, highs and lows, joys and sorrows, but that is simply real life. Learning to roll with reality is a challenge, and I think you’re up for that challenge. So let me encourage you to literally take a deep breath and let it out slowly as you remind yourself, “this will be a great year”, “eventually things will slow down and calm down”, “love will see us through”, “we will persevere”, “tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it” (Anne of Green Gables).

Finally, BE A BOSS. Take the lead. Make decisions. Speak life. Love well. Unplug and turn off. This IS going to be a great year! Believe it. Speak it.

Speaking life,

Kris

Finding “The Light”

Who looks forward to the holiday season each year!? Hmmm . . . I think it’s safe to say that most of us stay focused on the beauty and joy of the season, but sometimes the holiday season simply overwhelms us: the parties, the gifts, the food prep, the decorating, the shopping, the lines, and on and on. If we’re honest, it can be at least a bit overwhelming, right?

Wherever you find yourself on the spectrum from ecstatic about the holidays to dreading the holidays, I’d like to encourage you to focus on LIGHT. Where do you find LIGHT? After all, it’s winter: the days are colder, damper, and darker. So where do you find LIGHT? I imagine you, like me, find LIGHT in many places:

  • Christmas lights – indoors and outdoors

  • Holiday scented candles

  • A warm crackling fire

  • The stars and the moon

And we also find a different kind of LIGHT that brightens our hearts and homes:

  • Laughter as we play games together

  • Hot cocoa or cider on a chilly day

  • GIVING gifts and seeing a loved one’s face LIGHT up

  • Music that reminds us of the reason for this special season

  • Cards and letters from friends and family

  • Pj days and piles of blankets

  • Christmas books and movies

  • Sleeping in . . . and staying up late

Many opportunities show up each day to brighten our day and shine a little LIGHT on us. I pray that as you choose to look for the LIGHT in many creative ways during this holiday season, you also focus on “The LIGHT” who is a person: Jesus. Jesus is the reason we celebrate the season. This baby . . . born long ago . . . is still celebrated today, and HE IS THE ONE TRUE LIGHT that will always shine.

As you focus on The LIGHT, I hope you enjoy this new song by Awaken Music, titled “The Light”. “The darkness cannot hide the LIGHT”!!

On behalf of everyone here at The Write Journey, we hope you have a happy, healthy, and blessed month of December. We can’t wait to connect with you in the New Year!

Speaking Life,

Kris C.

Help! My Child Hates Writing

First, take a deep breath. We all have things in life we don’t like doing, but that we have to do, like making dinner E-V-E-R-Y SINGLE NIGHT. We can help it become less of a dreaded task when we:

  1. Stay calm.

  2. Find a genre of writing our children like: poetry, storytelling, journaling, etc.

  3. Prepare ahead of time for the task. (Gather supplies and find a time to bounce around ideas for a brainstorm.)

  4. Set a realistic time limit. (20 minutes)

  5. Don’t correct anything about their writing; instead praise the things they did well.

  6. Reward them for completing the task no matter how much or little they completed.

If your child hates every kind of writing, I would consider a few questions? Do they hate the “penmanship” part of writing or the “coming up with ideas” part of writing? If it’s the penmanship, try teaching them how to use the FREE Voice to text option on Google Docs. This will also help with self editing since it doesn’t put all the punctuation and capitalization that is needed in a final draft. If they hate coming up with ideas, I would play an “I See, You See” game where they have to describe to you what they see in their mind, and then you do the same. This helps children practice getting the information out of their brain by verbally communicating the information first to you, in a fun way.

If you need a list of December writing topics try some of the options below. (These are great discussion topics too!)

December Writing Prompts

  • What is your favorite Christmas movie?

  • What is your favorite Christmas tradition?

  • What is your favorite Christmas food?

  • Do you have a favorite Christmas book?

  • What would you name a pet reindeer?

  • What do you love/hate about school?

  • What do you wish your teachers knew about you?

  • What do you want to study next semester?

  • What is the hardest part of your life?

  • What is your favorite Christmas song that you dance to?

  • Imagine you are in charge of your family’s holiday celebration. What supplies do you need? What are your plans? What do you want to do?

  • How would you describe a snowflake?

  • What helps you to settle down when you are upset about things?

  • What are you grateful for?

  • Who are you grateful for?

  • What things in your life are important? Why?

  • What do you want to accomplish with your hobby over your holiday break?

  • If you could travel anywhere over Christmas vacation where would you go and why?

  • Describe your favorite place to complete your schoolwork?

  • Describe what makes a great treehouse or fort?

  • How has the weather affected your mood?

  • What activities do you get to do now that the weather has changed?