I will have to take another look at Shurley English.

We love Teddy's Button, Sir Malcolm and the Missing Prince, Basket of Flowers is good. We also have about 20 or so. I signed up for their book of the month club - so we get new books every month. These are quality books and they are a joy to read.

Julie, Thanks for the information. I will definitely take a look at those materials. I appreciate the input. These two sons plan on going into the military (following in their dad's footsteps - so writing and oral communication will play a major role in their life.

Unfortunately Classical Conversations is not in our part of PA.

Well I guess I will be going out tomorrow and getting some Mad Libs books.

I just started doing violin lessons with my oldest son and my daughter - we are doing The Violin Book. I also plan on learning the piano. I bought a program a couple months ago to learn the piano with.

Take a look at Razzle Dazzle. I saw them at a convention in the spring. The approach is similar to IEW but does not have the dvds and such to go with it.

We have the Schoolhouse Rock dvds and they listen to them. We have tried Rod and Staff, Shurely English, Easy Grammar, and a variety of other things. They can give the definitions, but they don't seem to be able to be to apply it. I am a math and history person -English is not my strong suit. I did okay with English up through high school. Then when I went to college, I learned more. Then several years ago, I took a masters level education class that basically was all writing. It really taught me a lot. My sons' brains just don't seemed to be wired for this. Their wriitng is not great. We are starting to use IEW this year. We are starting slowly with it.

Boy can I relate, we moved to Greensburg, PA about two years ago (45 minutes east of Pitt) - my dh is in the military - I forgot to take some things with me - but fortunately our office took some things I did have with me.

I have a fourteen year old son in the 9th grade, I have spent the last 4 years trying to get him to understand the parts of speech. However, he does not seem to be able to grasp these concepts. I can ask for the definition of a noun for example and he can recite the definition to me - so I know he knows the definition. But if I ask him to do work which requires him to pick the different parts of speech out, he can't do that. I need suggetstions for this. Please do not suggest Easy Grammar as we have tried it and it has not helped.

This year I will have two children in 9th grade. Both are boys who have always struggled and still are struggling with language arts. It is difficult for them to determine parts of speech and so forth. Can anyone offer suggestions for a language arts program that would work in this situation. I am a math, science and history person myself. So this is uncharted territory for me.

What surrounding towns are you looking at? The reason I ask is my family moved to Greensburg several months ago (courtesy of military). I am not there right now, but will be back there on Sunday, maybe I could see what I can find for you. Praying for you and your family.