Creative Writing with Cover Story – Clear Water Press Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew. I was not paid to write this review but asked to give an honest critique.  I pray it is helpful and beneficial to all who read it!

If you’re looking for a creative homeschool writing program for middle schoolers, then this is going to be a great option for you!  We have been using Cover Story by Clear Water Press over the past 6 weeks and it has been a refreshing change to my 7^th grader’s writing curriculum!  Let me tell you about it…

When I was in 7th grade, my language arts class did a group writing project where we got to design and write articles for our very own made-up magazine.  It was called Encounters, and I wrote about how aliens might be trying to tell us something by the shapes we see in the clouds.  Yep.  It was totally funny and random, but so much fun to be creative and unique in my writing! 

When I learned how Cover Story teaches writing through a very similar process of creating a magazine over the course of a year, I couldn’t wait to have my middle schooler try it out!

Here’s what you get:

When you purchase the course, your physical products will arrive in the mail and the online videos will be available immediately via a 12-month subscription.  The workbook and journal are paperback and consumable, so you’ll want to buy a set for each student using the course.

The Cover Story course is a combination of online instructional videos (taught by creator, Daniel Schwabauer) and physical workbook, teacher guide and journal called, The Remarkable Journal of Professor Gunther Von Steuben.  The course also includes optional grammar lessons, which are a great option to round out your Language Arts curriculum for the year! 

The basis for Cover Story is that your student will learn creative writing through the process of creating their very own magazine!  From articles to poetry and more, each week allows for a fresh look on how to develop stories in new ways!  So great!

I have to say, the videos are awesome!  Daniel Schwabauer is animated and fun, making the lessons enjoyable and engaging for students.  Because of the charming and well taught online videos, my daughter was excited to complete the workbook activity that accompanies each lesson.  It really is a win-win 😊

Here’s a look into the student workbook:

The journal entries are due 5 days a week, but they are easy and fairly quick.  For our family that does school 4 days a week, my daughter didn’t mind completing the last journal entry each week. 

Here’s a look into the journal:

The workbook and video lessons can be done 3 days a week, which was a great fit for us! What I like about the workbook is how it works as an idea book, along with the journal. It is thorough and my daughter completed the lessons in about 20 minutes a day (plus the video).

Most homeschool families of middle schoolers look for curriculum that can done more independently.  And the online videos do just that!  Parents, you are required to grade work at the end of each unit…that’s pretty much it!  Lessons are thoroughly taught via the videos, and workbooks correspond directly to the video just watched.  The journal entries are explained each week within the journal, so there is ultimately very little that needs to be taught by you!  I found this incredibly helpful as it was less on my shoulders to teach and let my 7^th grader take ownership of her writing processes 😊

Here’s a look into the Teacher Guide:

I also appreciate how the teacher manual is laid out. Lessons are grouped together by 3’s, so it makes looking at a week’s worth of work very easy. Everything is clearly laid out, so you don’t find yourself searching for more explanation.  The point of this program is to make writing fun and engaging for middles schoolers.  Cover Story does a great job keeping students away from being bored and uninterested in writing, and instead takes them on a fun and new perspective each week, keeping interest piqued! 

If you’re kids are entering middle school, or in middle school and are tired of their language arts program, I highly recommend giving Clear Water Press’ Cover Story a try!  Personally, as a homeschool mom to 4, this helped my workload as teacher because it can be done almost entirely independently, allowing me more time to work with my 2^nd and 4^th graders.  It’s highly engaging and I heard my daughter laughing more at the videos than complaining about them!  I also found that my daughter is more encouraged to write knowing she is creating something fun like a magazine, written entirely by her!  I plan to take her completed works at the end of the year and have them bound nicely as a keepsake.  You can also just keep everything in a binder and let your kids decorate a cover as well! 

If you end up using Cover Story by Clear Water Press too, I hope and pray it blesses your homeschool year and family time! Happy writing!!