Take a look at Pattern Based Writing. It's written to the student and easy to teach. The download includes some teacher helps, but the bulk of the curriuclum is one ebook that you print and put in your student's binder. You print another copy for your teacher notebook and that's it. PBW will take your daughter from topic sentences to developing subtopics to various paragraph patterns that can be used with descriptive, narrative, expository, and persuasive paragraphs to basic essays. It includes writing titles, writing to a prompt, various invention (brainstorm) stategies and more

Thank you. That helps me understand the framework of CC.

Any level.

All the Uncle Eric books by Richard Maybury are good for the logic stage. The books are excellent as read alouds, and there are study guides for most of the books, which would be good for your 7th grade student. "Ancient Rome and How it Affects You Today" would be the best for your purposes. You might want to look at the "Drive Thru History" videos as well. In addition, many government texbooks will have chapters on the connection between Greece, Rome and American government.

For those of you using CC, how much do you teach after your CC day? Also, do you prepare the lessons for the courses and read the books or do you rely on the tutor to do all of that? I am posting this at this level, but interested for elementary and high school as well.

Faith, Does you son have a recommendation for an at-home music theory course? Dd will be taking piano next year and those lessons will include theory, but until then we want to do theory at home. We need something with text and answer keys. Thank you.

Bravewriter covers all aspects of language arts in a variety of ways. Her approach follows a process that begins with reading and talking about the topic, writing about the topic via freewriting, narrowing and expanding the topic, and then polishing the piece. Of course, there is more to it than that, but that is the core. It is a process that works for many students. One of our sons took several of Julie's classes, and they helped him tremendously. Julie's approach is especially good for children who write well on an academic level but have not found their voice. Julie encourages a lifestyle that is rich with language; i.e. reading aloud, tea time with poetry, Shakesperare, etc. We taken several of Julie's courses, and they are excellent. At the high school level, Julie's materials teach the type of essays and documentation required for college. If you want to fill in, I would suggest buying one Arrow or Boomerange download packet which will last a month. The packet will give you ideas for dication, grammar, literature and writing. If you want to take a class, start with Kidswrite Basic or Just so Stories.

Dh has returned to school after 30 years. I bought him What Smart Students Know for Christmas. It is excellent. However, I would not just hand it to a 7th grader. It would be good to use as a read aloud and then to assign the exercises if you thought they would benefit your student.

:iagree:Dh can do almost anything with a car unless it needs to go up on a rack. His knowledge has saved us thousands of dollars throughout the years. Our sons are grown and gone, but he is teaching dd. He also does the majority of our remodel work and that has been a blessing beyond measure. Dd is his helper and runner. If your husband can't do these things, consider AmeriCorp which teaches young people to build a house from the ground up. AmeriCorp often has local programs. You can also get that experience by working with your children at Habitat. For the auto work, you might find a man in your church.

Maybe it would work to start with American history. Follow that with government because there will be a foundation for understanding government. Follow that with World History and then economics. Add your four English classes, four math, four science, and a few electives, and you've got it. We've using many ideas from WTM, but we're not covering history in a four-year cycle. We will be using lots of literature along the way. Whenever we cover a history topic out of order, we will anchor the work with a timeline entry. Geography will be covered as we go.

If your 10th grader is a strong writer, then I would look at MCT or IEW's "The Elegant Essay" and "Windows to the World." We also love The Lost Tools of Writing. However, I would suggest the Memoria Press class for LTW, and the writing will be easy for a strong writer. The invention work will be interesting, and the elocution work profitable. If your student needs work on the basics; i.e. paragraph writing and basic essays, take a look at Pattern Based Writing.

It would be fun to have and work on as change of pace. This month comes to mind. As does the December weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the first few weeks of spring. Oh yes, the first weeks of school.:001_rolleyes:

We're stepping outside of the box and starting with government and economics, and I expect government to be a full credit. Both of these subjects always get shortchanged in our homeschool because the senior year is so busy. World and American history can be whipped together with reading and essays, and dd is finishing a two-year American history course for 8th grade, so she has a good foundation for that. We are going to delve into certain aspects of world history as it pertains to American government; i.e. the influence of Greece and Rome, etc.

I agree with the other posters. If you daughter can research, write persuasive essays, etc., then she is prepared for college, and I would focus on improving the essay format. However, if you think your daughter has the potential for creative writing, you might look at the underlying issue for the reluctance. Perhaps she doesn't have the basic tools for the assignments or she doesn't have mental models and a frame of reference. Reading good literature doesn't do this for some students. They can't make the jump from the style of a classic author to application in their own writing. They need to see examples of how students their own age write. One of the things that makes writing so difficult in the homeschool setting is the lack of peer models. Teens, especially, don't want to make mistakes or look dumb on paper, so examples provide a benchmark. I have been on forums and participated in yahoo groups for years, and there is a big vacuum in the writing discussion -- lack of student samples. I would not require the creative writing as part of school, but there is nothing wrong with getting materials to read for understanding and possible application. Get library books on story writing. There are some good ones by children's authors like Gail Carson Levine. Look at "The Gift of Family Writing" for ideas on writing personal narrative. Oh yes, check out Nancie Atwell's book In the Middle for inspiration. Read portions of it with your daughter. The literature response journals are wonderful. Nancie is a joyful teacher. Jule Bogart's high school classes at Bravewriter can help bring out the creativity in academic writing. Julie helped one of our sons, a linear math guy, to write some stunning pieces. P.S. Also, your daughter might enjoy Steve Peha's book, Be a Writer, which you can download from Currclick. Steve is a gifted educator and a professional writer, and his wife is a professional writer. Steve's book is written to the high school student and offers a window into the way professional writer's work. We are using Pattern Based writing this year for paragraph writing and basic essays, but these are all resources I look forward to using when dd is writing at the level of your daughter.

Check out Pattern Based Writing and my posts about it. It's written to the student, elementary and above, with a positive and encouraging tone. It provides structure, but it is not formulaic like IEW. Excellent for creative writers.

"Prepare and Pray" at www.prepareandpray.com. It is a Christian curriculum prepared by a homeschool family who has built their own log cabin, etc. It's all about survival skills - hands on, boy stuff.

RC also includes two grammar books and upper level textbooks for science -- chemistry and physics. Here is the writing in a nutshell: The student learns to print and write cursive (there are worksheets for this on the discs). Then, he does copywork (the McGuffy readers on the discs have lots of copywork options) until he can do a good job copying 1/2 page. After that, he writes 1/2 page per day, and he can write on anything he wants, any format, any theme -- it's his choice. Then, he puts his "essay" in the parent's inbox. The parent writes suggestions on the "essay." The student corrects the "essay" and puts it back in the inbox. The student's "essay" may not be returned the next day, but he keeps writing and putting his "essays" in the inbox. Eventually, he writes a one page "essay" per day, and the parent provides input. That's it until the student begins studying for AP courses. Dr. Robinson did not use a curriculum for writing. The children wrote, and he provided input. It's simple. They learned to write by working on it every day and by correcting per Dr. R's input. I know this is correct because I talked with one of the girls about writing. At least one of the boys did not enjoy writing, but after doing so much of it, he improved. After completing Saxon calculus and the included science textbooks, the children used AP guides to pass dozens of AP tests, including the English and literature. If you take a look at AP study materials, you will see the English and literature guides include lots of information on writing.

Sent pm.

Also, take a look at the Boomerang level of Bravewriter. It has dictation, but it also includes a set of questions about the book, which are excellent for creative writers. Not a prescribed set of questions about character, plot, setting - ho, hum.

Sent you a pm.

We have not used WTM model for high school science. However, we did use the Wiley Chemistry book for one of our sons. The answers below the text weren't a problem, but we only used the Wiley book because we needed a quick chem credit. You would need to supplement Wiley to make it a full credit - labs, extra reading, and possibly extra problems. Ds found it very easy.

I may be booted off the board for saying this, but I don't think you kids will suffer if they do not do logic. We have homeschool friends with children who are National Merit winners, Phd earners, etc., and they did not do logic. I am not the brightest bulb in the box, but I did not do logic during high school. I did, however, take formal logic in college -- loved it and made A's. I have logic on our list, but we're going to get in all the basics first; i.e. 4 math, 4 science, 4 English, etc. In addition, I've learned that I can plan it all out and then things change; i.e. one student needs to take more time or backtrack on math, another jets through foreign language in half the time, writing is slow and painful for all, which negates my grand plans for writing competitions, an extracurricular activity takes on more importance because it become a passion, etc. My advice is to put the logic on the list at the bottom, and if the core schedule gets done, order the logic. It usually only takes a week to get in curriculum.

Adding logic sounds good, but I would look at the hours before you add anything. You have about 6 hours of work per day so far, and that's if everything is clicking. Can you add another 45 minutes or so for logic? Also, does your student need daily study time for anything? For example, dd needs about 30 minutes per day to study Latin. That's in addition to her daily Latin work. Also, if the vocubulary and/or spelling has quizzes, does your study need study time for that?

Yes, PBW has a refund policy, but if you have doubts, email the author. Ask him questions about the curriculum and the refund policy. He has replied to all of my emails. Btw, if you buy PBW, you will need to work through at least the first five lessons to see it's full effect. Also, there is so much material in PBW that trying to absorb everything in the beginning can be overwhelming. You might want to preview it, but I would just start with Lesson 1 and do it. Then, go on to Lesson 2. You won't need to do any planning because PBW is written to the student - encouraging and fun. There are plenty of examples to help you and your student understand what is expected. Send me a pm if you have further questions.

I don't know of any reviews. I bought the curriculum from the author's website, which was the only one up at the time. I looked recently and saw there were several garbage websites that didn't make any sense. PBW is not a scam. I do understand your question because I bought a weak curriculum from a p.s. teacher at the beginning of the year and wasted $35. However, PBW is a solid curriculum. It teaches 19 Patterns, a system of patterns, that take the student from basic topic sentences to basic essays. Here is something the author, Paul Barger, wrote me: "I will say the program does stop at a certain place. The program stops at a place where you can now “teach writing.” There is a lot more to teach about writing after the program finishes. Revising, writing with a purpose, sentences, storytelling, and a variety of tools that students can have in the writing tool belt. I think both you and your child will feel quite confident moving forward once you finish the PBW program. There will be a point where you wonder, “Okay, we are about done, where do we go from here?” Hopefully, when you reach this point your daughter will be thrilled with her writing. At that point, you will move forward with excitement, and without confusion or misunderstandings. “I get it” should be how your child feels about writing. The program is mainly designed so both teacher and student can have a framework to move forward easily with essays, reports, and daily school work. Rubrics, grammar books, writing curriculum, writing supplements… I use a lot of these after the program. I also make it really authentic “reverse engineering” their textbooks, showing how they are organized, as well as creating outlines, previewing chapters… always showing how what they have learned so far is really how most everything they read has been organized", Btw, we've used Bravewriter (Julie helped understand the writing process more than anyone else during our early homeschooling years.), IEW (still using lots of concepts from IEW) and some MCT Paragraph Town (hit the wall at Lesson 8) and have learned from all of them. However, none of them brought dd to independent writing. In fact, she now has a stew of methodologies swirling in her head. We used LTW last year, and it is excellent, but I wanted to find something to work on paragraph construction -- a pre-LTW, if you will -- and PBW was the best that I found for the price. Even though I am sure there are other good resources. We are not through with PBW, so I cannot write a personal review except to say that I spent the entire first semester looking through resources on my shelf, recommendations from this list, and whatever I could find in the internet world, and PBW was easy and logical. The curriculum starts with a timed writing sample and suggests other timed writing at various points for comparison. I don't think dd will be willing to post to her work, but I will certainly share the overall outcome. If you are hesitant, just wait a few months to see how families using PBW are faring. Btw, I have emailed the author with questions, and he responds right away. He is good guy. Willing to help with his product and beyond. I recently wrote him about "One Year Adventure Novel," and he shared the underlying methodology of OYAN and a related website. He's an active teacher/learner.