Thanks for all the tips! I do still wonder why it is important. I'm not saying one way or the other, just trying to figure it out. I'm thinking about my use of handwriting in my adult life: I think I only hand write when I'm making notes to myself as reminders/To Do's. And at the DMV, I guess. Still, when I see my child's handwriting, I worry. Even though I know handwriting won't affect his scores even on written exams like AP.

Hello! My young teenager is at grade level for everything but handwriting. The handwriting looks like a young child's; but if I tell my teenager this, there is little desire to improve. How can I get the importance of good handwriting across to my child (or is it important?)? Also, what methods do you suggest for improving handwriting at an older age?

I have used two curricula with my child, and also done no curriculum. The no curriculum can be more work, but it can also be a lot more fun. Math was probably the hardest to do with no curriculum, and I confess my child is now behind in math. I relied too much on Khan Academy. For history, we used Story of the World, which is great! For English, I like Read Works (https://www.readworks.org/). There are a variety of readings and they come with comprehension and analysis questions. I also like using American Literature (https://americanliterature.com/). Some stories have Study Guides, which include discussion questions (and summaries, character details, etc.). In the evenings, we love using audio books, especially ones with great actors or readers.

Though a little older, your child sounds like mine--can do work mostly on his own. I have been able to 'feed' English-related tasks to my child and the tasks mostly get done well. My child is a bit younger, so I get most of the reading for free from Read Works (https://www.readworks.org/). You might find some grade-level readings on Read Works, and they'd come with comprehension and analysis questions. The answers are provided for the parent, so that seems like it might be a good fit for your. If you'd like for your son to stay more at grade-level, I think sticking to American Literature would be a good idea. American Literature (https://americanliterature.com/) is a fantastic site. You can choose a story at his level. Then, some stories have Study Guides, which include discussion questions (and summaries, character details, etc.). Those discussion questions could spark writing assignments for him. On that site, there is also a category of historical readings, so he's not just reading fiction. I've also used Lux Writing Center (https://luxwritingcenter.com/), though it's not free like the other two...it's paid monthly and correspondence is daily. But it has been good because Mr. Lux is flexible and works with whatever my child is doing or whatever I want done at the time. So, for example, Mr. Lux could read my child's written response to a short story and give feedback. He also gives tasks to complete when I don't want to come up with anything. Good luck! It sounds like you're in a good position with your son, so I'm sure all will go well!

For my 5th grader, I used three main things to teach English. I used No Red Ink for grammar (the free version, because premium isn't available for homeschool). No Red Ink has its negatives, for sure. But for 5th grade, I found that it worked well when supplemented with the other stuff we did. For example, sometimes I'd pull some grammar exercises and explanations from Purdue OWL. By the second year of using No Red Ink, we had pretty much maxed out the free content, so we don't use it anymore. I used Read Works for reading comprehension. Read Works has articles and stories that come with comprehension and analysis questions. It also has tasks that require long answer responses, which helped get more writing and analysis from my child. And I like that Read Works gives me the answers! My child liked Read Works because some of the articles have human voice audio with the text. Also, there are readings from different areas of interests, and the search filters sort them out. I continue using Read Works now that my child is older. For essay writing, we used Lux Writing Center. Mr. Lux (the instructor) helped my child write stronger essays. I like Lux Writing Center because I get a huge say in what my child works on. My child started with essays, but when that became exhausting, we sometimes took a break and Mr. Lux did creative writing with my child. The teaching also included grammar, quoting texts, using some outside sources, different essay types, and some other things. I hope that helps!