How we tackle the ThinkWrite assignments

Cheryl from Tennessee says:

"Our approach to the ThinkWrite questions has been one of deep discussion and clarification. My 15-year-old son and I spend a good bit of time talking and working through the questions. What does he think? How can he prove it? Why is it important to him and to history in general? Through these discussions, we come up with a clear thesis that he can develop."

"With my younger students who are not yet writing five-paragraph essays, we do something similar, but I require only a paragraph or two depending on their ability and interest. Sometimes I must first make the effort to limit the topic so they can cover it well in their shorter writings."

"Occasionally, the kids come up with a topic that is more interesting for them than the ThinkWrite, and I will let them write about that instead, provided it is a valid and worthy topic. By the way, I don't always have them write for the ThinkWrites. I often use IEW to do other writing assignments based on our history study as well."

Kimberly from North Carolina says:

"Don't get too hung up in how much your student writes, but focus instead on how clearly he/she can convey important thoughts and ideas. In the beginning, you can do the ThinkWrite exercises as discussions between parent and child. If you want your student to write frequently, why not allow him to choose a passage to copy, or a quotation? If he does this a little each day, he will begin to grasp the ideas of the time and then be able to respond with greater depth to the ThinkWrite questions, which are not daily work, but mini-assimilation exercises. They ask what we have studied so far? how does it all fit together? how is God either involved or forgotten by these people?"

Michelle Miller, author of TruthQuest History, says:

"When guiding and analyzing your children's ThinkWrite exercises, remember to think qualitatively, not quantitatively. This moves us away from the secular definition of education we absorbed as students, and toward what I believe to be something of God's definition: learning the truth and being able to communicate it! That is exactly the purpose of the occasional ThinkWrite exercises: they push the kids to think about what is true and to express these truths in their own words."

Lyn from Nebraska says:

"This is just my experience, but my 12-year-old son and 10-year-old-daughter are in no way able to write anything truly worthwhile about the upper-level ThinkWrite questions. They are, however, quite capable of having wonderful discussions about them! For our family, I've chosen to read the questions and have the kids keep them in mind while we study the topic involved. Then we stop and discuss the books we've read, what we've learned, and eventually the ThinkWrite question we started with. My 14-year-old daughter has been asked to write a couple of times. Once I had her do a paragraph, and once a five-paragraph essay. However, my point was to work on her writing skills not her knowledge of history."

Susan from Pennsylvania says:

"Honestly, you can do whatever you like. I know that isn't very helpful, but it's true. If you want to take several days to create a very polished draft, you can. If you want to tackle the ThinkWrites just by discussion, you can. If a paragraph would do it for you, no problem. Or if you want to make it a 'real essay,' that, too, is your choice."

"I have used ThinkWrite questions for essays for my son (who graduated last year), and other ThinkWrite questions I have utterly ignored. I don't think Michelle would mind that. TruthQuest History is FOR YOU to use as works best FOR YOU."

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