Charter School Options

While we are already an approved vendor with many charter schools in Northern California, we would love to become a vendor with YOUR charter school. Or perhaps you live in a state with voucher funds available for educational services. We need your help to get connected with the right people, so we can fill out the applications to partner with your local educational entities that provide financial assistance to families who are educating their children.

In Northern California, we are an approved vendor with several charter schools (see the list below). If we are not yet approved vendors with your charter school, here’s what you can do to get that process started:

1. Contact your charter teacher to let them know we would like to become vendors.

2. Your charter teacher will let you know what process your charter school follows for vendors. They may simply ask you for our website (www.thewritejourney.net), or they may need other information such as a phone number (916-696-1759) and a contact person. Tom Cordell is our bookkeeper/accountant, and he manages all vendor relations correspondence. He can be reached through our home office email: info@thewritejourney.net. As soon as we hear from your charter teacher, we will follow up as they instruct.

3. If you live in a state that offers voucher funds, contact our home office with information about your state’s guidelines for vendors.

We will move forward as quickly as possible, but it may take a few weeks to get approval from your charter school for services. As soon as we get approval, your charter school should cover all our fees.

If you have any questions, please contact our home office for more information about how you can help us, help you, by becoming an approved vendor in your community. We’re excited to be able to partner with educational communities to bring our services to your children.

*Currently, we are partnering as an “Approved Vendor” with the following organizations and charter schools:

Visions in Education

South Sutter Charter School

The Cottonwood School

Horizon Charter School

Forest Charter School

Pacific Charter Institute:

Heritage Peak Charter School

Sutter Peak Charter Academy

Rio Valley Charter School

Valley View Charter Prep

Sequoia Grove Charter Alliance:

Clarksville Charter School

Feather River Charter School

Lake View Charter School

Planning for the Next Year and Beyond

Are you looking for ways to simplify your language arts this next year?

At The Write Journey, we love to keep it simple. We have a tried-and-true method to cover most, if not all, of the English standards at each grade level, including reading, writing, grammar and spelling. The best part: our teachers do not need new curriculum every year! We practice the same writing methods at every grade level, even though the length of the composition grows with the age and abilities of the student. We study classic novels and award-winning stories, perfect for developing the skills of “studying” literature. And last but not least, we deeply discuss the stories in our class discussions. With strong critical thinking questions and the sharing of ideas to explore the content, students learn a comprehensive approach to the various aspects of English.

The best part - we teach parents to teach the way we teach in our Adult Training Program. This summer, we will have a Writing Handbook Intensive course, and in the fall, our Writing Foundations and Literature course will not only teach the writing methods we use, but also how to couple the writing skills with excellent literature study. This course offers something that a book or video series cannot provide - relationship. Spend time with our founder, Kris Cordell, in a live, online class where you may ask questions, try the methods with your children, and bring your successes and challenges back to the table. We, as homeschool parents, need community, and we invite you to be a part of ours. If you’d like to learn more, check out our Adult Training Program. Of course, if the class is not an option for you, we do have our guides available. There is a ton of great information to help you in your journey raising this generation of students!

Upcoming ATP Class Schedule:

Summer - July 12, 19, 26

Fall - 12 weeks; Wednesdays, Aug 30 - Nov 15

Choose Your (No-Pressure) Adventure!

Congratulations…you made it to summer! Your student can rest from the vigorous pace of learning and engaging with challenging texts. During the school year, the primary focus in English is building literacy, expanding vocabulary, and reading grade-level literature. Summer allows a break from the work of reading, though students still benefit from keeping their literacy gears oiled during the vacation months. Yet, who says reading can’t be fun?

To encourage your child to keep poking their noses into pages, think outside the box! Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Embrace lower grade-level books

• Explore different types of texts, like age-appropriate magazines or how-to guides

• Jump into comic books or graphic novels

• Experiment with different environments - books in hammocks, anyone?

• Read a book together (I still remember book club picnics with my mom and brother)

• Accompany an audiobook adventure

• Discover digital books - often available for rent through public libraries

• Participate in your library’s summer reading program or create your own

• Go back to the movies - read a book, then watch the film adaptation

If you want strategies to guide your student’s thinking deeper about their summer read or to prepare for next school year, check out our Blending Literature with Writing Guide. This outlines our effective approach and experience-based insights on how to discuss a text. Combine this with a no-pressure reading choice, and your child has a fun summer adventure ahead of them!

A Season to Relax

It’s time to breathe. Time to relax. Time to soak in the sunshine. It’s summer (even if unofficially). Summertime means many things to many people, but I hope it means relaxing for all of us. I wonder: what does it mean to “relax”? After doing a quick Google search of the definition, I found this: to “make or become less tense or anxious”. Well that sounds amazing! But is that even possible as a busy mom with many children and teens in your care? Let’s consider the possibility:

• Make a list of what triggers tense and anxious thoughts and feelings?

• What on that list is optional?

• What begins and ends with your thoughts?

• What stems from “expectations”?

While tension and anxiety are like dust – annoying and always with us – perhaps with a little intentional work, we can limit the build up. Perhaps relaxing will mean a little less (or even a little more) order. Perhaps it will include choosing a posture of gratitude for many blessings, big and small. Perhaps relaxing will come when we let others off-the-hook, recognizing that they need some relaxation too.

Of course relaxation ebbs and flows with the seasons of our lives, but whatever age and stage of life, we have choices. I pray that this summer you enjoy a season of becoming less tense or anxious as you choose to relax and soak in the sunshine.

Speaking life, Kris

Feeling the Need for a Break in Your Routine?

Often, life is filled with routines and responsibilities, and we can find joy and pleasure even in the familiar. We may not call these routines and responsibilities “fun”, but we can learn to accomplish them with confidence and ease, and we can enjoy the results of a job well done. But now and then – even for the most “routine” of us – we do something different . . . something fun . . . something creative. For our students, this is their “Enrichment Project”.

After several weeks learning to write academic response writing paragraphs and essays, students get to practice a different type of writing – often a creative writing project:

• Write an epilogue to the story

• Write a letter to one of the characters

• Create your own fantasy and decide the characters, setting, plot, climax, etc.

• Write a newspaper article telling about one of the main events in the story

• Create a brochure to promote a vacation destination to a place in the story

• And so many more!!

What does a creative break in your routine look like? It could be anything. Create. Relax. Explore. Enjoy. Like our students who share their enrichment project with their classmates, share your “creative break” with someone: your co-op friends, your family, your community. No matter how simple, and seemingly silly, do it . . . and share it. We would love for you to share it with us too. The Write Journey Community loves to celebrate and share ideas and experiences together. Click here to join our Facebook group.

Speaking life, Kris