Bonnie Terry's Writer's Easy Reference Guide

Product: Writer's Easy Reference Guide
Company: Bonnie Terry Learning
Price: $17.00US

As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I was surprised when I was told that I would be receiving a Bonnie Terry product to review. As Bonny Terry Learning specializes in helping children that are struggling in particular areas (math, reading, writing, spelling) I couldn't see how her products would be a benefit to my son, who is actually advanced in most areas. A couple weeks later, I received Bonnie Terry's Writer's Easy Reference Guide. We haven't started a formal writing/grammar program with Liam, who is 6, so it is not something that I am readily able to use with him at the moment.

However, I do think that it is a worthwhile resource. I love how the compact 12 page guide is hole punched (with reinforced holes) and ready to place in your student's English/writing binder. While I believe that my son is too young to receive much benefit from this product, I think it would be suitable resource for a child who is learning how to write formal essays for the first time. In fact, there were times that I could have used this resource during my first year of college and had to keep looking up how to write a bibliography! According to Bonnie Terry's website, the reference guide includes "paragraph writing hints, essay writing hints, steps of the writing process, words to make your writing more interesting, common prefixes, suffixes and root words, grammatical and literary terms, how to write a bibliography." In addition it also includes a section on punctuation and capitalization rules (that I will be able to use with my son soon), a section on writing business letters, and a description of four of the basic essay types. This is a valuable tool for a student to use throughout the writing process. During brainstorming to get the main points of each paragraph down; during the writing and review process to make their sentences structure more interesting and varied, as well taking away the hassle of writing a proper bibliography at then end. If this guide is followed and used regularly, I feel that a student would gain confidence in their writing skills over time and no longer fear the dreaded essay.

For 17 dollars this is a reference guide that I would be happy to include in my middle school child's English binder at the beginning of the year. To find out more about this and other Bonnie Terry Learning products please visit her website here. To read reviews of this and other Bonnie Terry products be sure to check out The Homeschool Crew website.

***Any products reviewed by me as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew have been given to me free of charge in order for me to provide you with an honest review of the product and/or how we used the product within our family. I do not receive any other form of compensation for the reviews posted on this blog.