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Feedback from Parents, Students, and Reviewers

Released in 2013, our unique middle school Language Arts curriculum has been used by more than 6,000 families, co-ops, and groups! Buy with confidence!

This is our fourth year to homeschool, but our first year to love writing!”

“My boys want to watch your videos repeatedly and look forward to what Mr. S will do next! We are all enjoying them! Thank you so much for creating a curriculum that makes writing fun.”
– Linda J.

“They could spend all day on it.”

“New rule in our house. Cover Story comes LAST. If it’s first, no one will move on to any other subject. They could (and have) spent all day on it.”
– Candy-Jane A.

“It sparked an interest in language arts.”

“Thank you for this curriculum! My daughter is dyslexic and has ADHD. Reading and writing are generally not something she has any interest in doing. But last year, when she was 12, I decided to try this program. It was exactly what she needed! It sparked an interest in language arts in a way nothing else ever has. She finished her magazine and is now working on a novel! She even started a blog. Your teaching style is great and she found the material really interesting and engaging. I was thrilled that you covered so many topics in great detail, including grammar. I am so happy I found Cover Story!”
– Sandra R.

“He was delighted he created something like that.”

“My son is very creative, funny, intelligent, but actually writing has always intimidated him. He could create funny scenes and stories orally but the minute it was time to start actually writing he would freeze. Well, I have to share: he has been working on the second short story. He finished it yesterday and he enjoyed working on it so much it ended up being 8 pages. Recommended-thumbs-upHe was SO proud of himself! He printed a copy to show to one of his friends, who read it and told him he could be a serious author. He was delighted that he created something like that.

“I asked him, “Would you have thought a year ago that you could write that much that well?” He thought for a minute and said,”I wouldn’t have thought last week that I could do that!” I recommend Cover Story for reluctant writers because mine has turned from a reluctant writer to a confident one in the course of 60 lessons!!”
– Maggie M.

“It’s his favorite subject!”

“I STRONGLY recommend Cover Story for middle schoolers. The Adventure Novel course is FANTASTIC, but geared for high schoolers, and I spoke with the author/teacher at a homeschooling conference, and he STRONGLY recommended starting younger students at the lower level because the course builds layers of content.

“It’s the best I’ve seen out there for serious writing students. It doesn’t feel uncomfortably “mathematical” with matrixes and checklists (that, once you apply them, can still turn out bad writing), but is a wonderful blend of mechanics and creativity that really makes the process of professional writers accessible to students. My 11-yo son is very bright (so I thought he should do the Adventure Novel version), but after hearing the teacher’s reasons, I started him this year on Cover Story, and he is LOVING it—it’s his favorite subject! There’s no shortage of rigor, but it’s presented in such an engaging way that it’s FUN, and it’s very self-explanatory, so my son does it completely on his own, and I look over it once a week. It’s the first thing he wants to work on each day. Highly recommend!”
– Karen M.

“Cover Story has been a life saver for me.”

“My boys (12 and 14) have been very reluctant writers, they just have never enjoyed it. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find something that would spark the creativity I knew they had and Cover Story has done just that.

“The DVD is fun, and makes sense. The approach to writing is step by step with an explanation of why you need to do certain things to make your writing engaging to the reader. There is humor and definitely keeps my kids paying attention. The journal is so cool! You will find there is already something written in your students journal, it’s up to your student whether or not to read it, but I would recommend they do as it is pretty entertaining. If your kids hate writing in a journal, they won’t with this program. They start off by writing just 5 questions that pop into their head each day, then go one to more in depth things.

“The one thing we all love about Cover Story is it emphasizes writing about something that interests the writer. That is the battle won right there!

“We’ve only had this for a few weeks and already I’ve seen a difference in the boys writing, I see their creativity successfully being transferred to paper and I see them looking forward to writing because it makes sense to them now.”
– Denise G.

“My children love it.”

“This program is everything I hoped for it to be. It is FUN. My children love it and willingly participate every day. The best part is I already see them starting to think and produce more like writers. They love the journal and don’t mind writing in it every day. This a huge change in how they used to approach writing.

“I’m using it with a 12 year old and a 9 year old. I help the 9 year old out a bit but he understands the lessons and that is the main thing that’s important to me. He’s my writer with novels galore inside of him, so I welcome the writing structure this is introducing into his imaginative brain. Just like training young fingers with instrument practice to create a future musician, I feel that we can do the same for a future writer by using a curriculum like this. The kids have the imagination and motivation and we just need to provide the structure that helps them learn how to get their message out into the world.

“I wanted a program that really captures a love of writing and that teaches the reason for writing. This is exactly that. If you are looking for a technical writing curriculum steeped in grammar rules then this isn’t what you are looking for. If you are looking to channel your child’s energy and imagination into a form of written expression, in a fun and engaging way, then this is the program for you.”
– C. Bryant

“Goes above and beyond.”

Cover Story is an OUTSTANDING curriculum that covers many aspects of Language Arts for your middle school student’s needs, and goes above and beyond any that I have ever seen. Mr. S. has done an amazing job keeping the student (and teacher) entertained throughout, with his witty video lessons which flow together smoothly yet also stand alone. The best part is how my 6th grade son is consistently challenged while his interest is piqued as he continues reaching for his Cover Story lessons throughout the school year!

“I am so grateful for all of the hard work that went into producing these DVDs and workbooks, and I will definitely be on the lookout for more by this company. It is such a relief to find something that we can always count on, and to have a curriculum so organized to help out with the heavy workload of a homeschool mom I could actually leave the room and the lessons would all be completed. Yet I often find myself sitting right alongside my son to see what the next fascinating lesson will be about, which is always priceless time together.

“I am also grateful to not find a bunch of errors in the material it is evident that this was edited thoroughly and lots of care was given to accuracy and keeping the student interested. So rare and much appreciated!!

“If you are looking for a Writing/Language Arts Curriculum, I would not hesitate to choose this phenomenal program-you and your student(s) will certainly be delighted that you did!”
– Jules

“This is the best language arts curriculum!”

“This is the best language arts curriculum that we have ever used! Thank you so much !!! My 6th grade daughter asked what she was going to use for 7th & 8th grade until it was time for the One Year Adventure Novel. Then today she did the first grammar lesson and said “that was actually fun!” This is a big big difference! She loves to write but is not crazy about grammar. Thank you for making this from the bottom of my heart!!”
– Rachel G.

Review by Cathy Duffy (Cathy Duffy Reviews)

“Wonderfully creative!”

“Cover Story” is a wonderfully creative one-year writing curriculum for middle school students. Students beyond middle school (even up to adults) who need to develop their writing skills should also find the program inspiring and not at all too young. …

Writing prompts in the student book are themselves often very creative—ideas that are likely to motivate students to want to write. The course jumps around from one type of writing to another to keep things interesting, yet the skills learned within each type of writing all carry over into other writing projects.

… the delivery and learning methods are so different that even reluctant writers are likely to enjoy the process.”

Review by Carrie Fernandez (Home school Giveaways)

“In case you are wondering without having to read it all, we LOVE it!

“Since my daughter Isabella began 6th grade, I have been eagerly waiting for her to reach high school so we could use One Year Adventure Novel (and that is the ONLY reason!). Imagine my excitement last year when I learned that a middle school curriculum was going to be released called Cover Story by the same company who makes One Year Adventure Novel! I admit to being much more excited than my daughter, but, then again, I do have a thing about curriculum.

“When Cover Story arrived in our mailbox, I couldn’t wait to put everyone to bed so I could dig into it. … After watching lesson one, I wanted to watch lesson two, three, and four—all in a row. I thought they were fun, engaging, and entertaining. Honestly, they made me want to do Cover Story myself! (I wish that I could have done something like this when I was in middle school.)”

Review by Misty Leask (Year Round Homeschooling)

“The Best Middle School Homeschool Writing Curriculum”

“My daughter loves to write and since she will be entering middle school this fall, I knew it was time to start looking for a writing curriculum for her to use. I’ve seen quite a few and even tried one this last year with my son, but so far we weren’t happy with any of the homeschool writing curriculum that we’d seen and/or tried. One of the biggest struggles that I found while looking for a homeschool writing curriculum was finding one that didn’t include grammar as part of the curriculum. We already have an English curriculum that we love, so using a writing curriculum that included grammar was very frustrating for my kids because it was double the work for them.

“I’m fairly confident that writing is in my daughter’s future since she loves to write, so it isn’t a subject that we could just find a curriculum to make work. We had to keep looking and trying different writing curricula until we found one that she loved and that I approved for educational purposes. This turned out to be quite a feat, but thankfully this year the search ended when we discovered Cover Story!”

“This is the first year I have LOVED writing and language! It sparks my creativity like a match lights a candle. My writing has improved and I am actually enjoying it!!”
– Claire K . in Washington, student

“My 11 year old daughter loves this program!  She finds the videos and assignments to be entertaining and inspirational. The program is very well organized and easy to use. It’s been helping her to write more often and in different styles (short stories, reviews, poems, etc.).”
– Amy D.

Cover Story is a great combination of fun and learning.  I have my two middle school children doing the curriculum together and  I feel like they’re both learning a lot from it.”
– Jenny R.

“My 13 year old son has loved the interesting, engaging videos. I don’t have to stay on him to do his language arts anymore. Writing is still not his favorite subject, but he’s far more thoughtful about his work now since he gets to follow the instructions of one of his favorite authors!

“We will complete this curriculum this year and I will keep it to use with my other children as they get old enough. I plan to order The One Year Adventure Novel for my son next year since he is enjoying this curriculum so much.

“We’ve told others about it and have encouraged people who need to shake up their language arts somehow. This curriculum makes the student interested in completing language arts lessons by presenting it as a intriguing, personal-interest-led writing piece with grammar and writing skills snuck in!”
– Bonnie W.

“This was by far my 7th-grader’s favorite subject. Being able to write a whole year on the something that was relevant to him made all the difference.”
– Christina H.

“My 8th- and 10th-grade boys have not had a whole lot of ‘formal’ grammar or structured writing. They did AMAZING with Cover Story. They enjoyed it, and the step by step building on the writing assignments made it easy. I was so impressed with what they accomplished. Looking forward to using it again with their younger brothers in a few years.”
– Paula K. 

“I am so glad we ordered Cover Story as our Middle School Language Arts Curriculum for our 12 year old son, it seems as if it were made just for him, and now that I think about it, it probably was!

“Every part of this course is so thoughtfully and carefully planned to make it interesting and do-able for the student and enjoyable and easy to present for the teacher. We start with watching about a 15min. video that introduces the days lesson that usually has some funny blooper at the end which my son waits for, then we open up the student workbook that reinforces the video lesson and gives an assignment typically to be done right on the pages that is an appropriately, bite-sized challenge for my son. There is a multiple-choice test to take at the end of each unit and plenty of tips for grading in the teacher book. There is also a beautifully bound, hard-cover [now softcover] journal that is part of this course with simple instructions on how to use it so that it isn’t too abstract or overwhelming for a student who doesn’t love to write, but gives space and direction for those that do.

“I love to show this curriculum to my friends when asked what I’m using for Language Arts and everyone is impressed with its look and lay-out for the student and teacher, and it’s thorough covering of all important topics with related assignments that make your student look and feel successful!”
– Amy H.


If you have questions at any time about Cover Story reviews,
or want to send us your own review, please get in touch!
We are always happy to chat with you!

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