a review!

Teaching writing has never been my forte.
We have some prolific and some reluctant writers amongst our little crew - & no thanks to my painful efforts to teach writing - they're learning.


i've already written about our "summer school" supplies including a fresh faced little journal for each child to write in daily over our summer break, and this past year we successfully made it our goal to daily write "something, anything".
About a month ago, i was asked to write a product review - & since so many kind hearted friends reviewed my novel, i decided what goes around comes around & i'd take a look at his book & see what i thought.
Brian Cohen sent me a pdf of his book titled, "500 Writing Prompts for Kids: First Grade through Fifth Grade". Now, i'll admit here that what he provides in his book could easily be accessed by a google search for writing prompts - o yeah, trust me i've done that before... But here, in one tidy little package, he provides 500 thoughtful questions complete with the natural follow up included, "... *why do you think that*? and *how did that make you feel*?" (that little ones like mine might have neglected to answer in their hurriedly scrawled four word response to the original writing prompt), giving them further inspiration to get their ideas down. He makes it easy to sift through to find what we're looking for by dividing the 500 prompts into categories like: Memorable Events, Relationships, Technology, Life Lessons and even a 'Grab Bag' section. He also includes a small appendix giving suggestions for ways to use the prompts.
His book (available on amazon here) is a neat little tool that might fill a need in a homeschool where mama is tired of hearing, "But i don't know *what* to write about...."

*** Here is a word from the author on your chance to win a sweet give away***
"Author Bryan Cohen is doing a giveaway of his book 500 Writing Prompts for Kids for the next week along with a grand prize drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card! Simply post your e-mail address and you are entered in the drawing for one digital copy of the book on this site (there are over 10 sites involved in the giveaway, with one winner of a book per site). One lucky winner will be picked from all the sites to win a $50 Amazon gift card. If Bryan's book, 500 Writing Prompts for Kids reaches the top 500 in sales this week, he will add another $50 Amazon gift card to the drawing. The drawing will occur on June 22nd, so post away! Visit his website at Build Creative Writing Ideas. "