Creative Word Studio Review

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew. 


Are you, like me, guilty of not having your kids write enough? As a professional writer, I find it ridiculous that I can't seem to find the time to do more in this subject. That's why I was thrilled to get a chance to review the Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 1 from Creative Word Studio. See how I used it with my 14-year-old son to get some creativity back into our classroom and encourage writing! 


Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 1 Information

What is this resource? It's a single-use, spiral-bound consumable workbook that has everything kids need to start getting their creative writing juices flowing. It starts off right away with an exercise kids can do to think more critically about themselves and the world. My son was asked to create a name acrostic, and he did this without any issues or questions. 

From there, he did some stream of consciousness activities (where you just write whatever comes to mind), as well as some more guided exercises. In the third activity, for example, he was asked to come up with reasons to have a smartphone, as well as reasons why you shouldn't.



This guide is the first in a series of two, and it's designed for kids in grades 5-7.

What I like about this resource

At first, I thought the best part of this would be that it's pretty hands-off. There is no teacher's manual or lessons plans to create or follow. You can pretty much hand this to your child, say, "please work on this," and see what they come up with. For the parent with no additional time but who values writing, I can't think of an easier and less complicated way to start kids writing.



What I ended up treasuring most, however, is how well it works. My son, who really hadn't written much at all during his school years and who hated more formal writing programs, really enjoyed this book. It was kind of a journaling activity for him, but also taught him some writing concepts appropriate for his age. Concepts that he just learned without really having to try that hard include:

  • Modeling a poem
  • Writing descriptions of people
  • Alliteration (my favorite!)
  • How-to articles
  • Compliments and kindness
  • Onomatopoeia
  • Word association
Not only do the 75 lessons help encourage creativity and reinforce writing concepts, but they also presented an opportunity for him to grow as a person and with his faith. While not an overtly Christian resource, (fewer than a handful of lessons were explicitly related to the Bible), themes of our faith were sprinkled throughout. 

Kindness, generosity, and self-reflection/accountability were themes you could easily find in these lessons. They weren't however preachy or felt like a Bible study. This took less pressure off my son to write the "correct things" and gave him some creative license to explore. This was a huge perk of the resource.



How can you use it in your homeschool?


There are 75 lessons in all. They require very little of the parent, although you should check your child's work and reflect on what they wrote. Each lesson takes between 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how much your child puts into them and what their reading/writing level is at. You could do this easily 3 times a week as a way to inject some creative writing and prose into your kid's life!

Learn more:


Get the full details of this book, and the 2nd book in the series, at the official website for Creative Word Studio. 

Learn what other parent reviewers have to say here!

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