Picture and Writing: Older Ages is a delightful e-book. Sporting a simple and clean format, it has given me an easy way to secretly draw out the creativity of my 10-year-old daughter. I think many homeschool parents will agree with this statement.

The mention of a writing assignment always seems to elicit moans and groans from my daughter. She always feels such pressure to create the perfect piece. Recently I printed out this e-book for her and placed it in a folder. When I told her that this was the new program she could use for creative writing, the groans immediately started. Once she opened the folder and began to look through the pages, however, she was pleasantly surprised.

The e-book contains 36 separate assignments. We will use them at a rate of one per week. The top of the page simply states an idea of a picture for the child to draw, with space for this provided on the page. An example from one of the pages is "Make a picture of a space alien." (My daughter gave quite a chuckle at this.) On the bottom half of the page is a space provided for the child to write a short story about the picture he or she has created. The pages seem to have eleven lines per page.

I have been quite impressed with the creativity this e-book has encouraged in my daughter. To her, the addition of her artwork seems to add to her ability to create original pieces of written work. While the space provided could have been a little longer for this age group, these quick and creative writing assignments need very little teacher involvement.

Product review by Tara Howell, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, March 2011