That's a great idea, and I will definitely consider it in light of the rest of her schedule. Thanks for the tip.

Thinks for sharing! I'm looking forward to listening to it.

I've been refining my booklist with a friend of mine, and I've decided to add more 20th century literature. I've decided to group Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Tempest, and Till We Have Faces into a supernatural-themed unit. My friend suggested pairing Emma with a P. G. Wodehouse. I've never read Wodehouse, despite wanting to. It's as good a time as any to try one, so I am open to suggestions for a first Wodehouse. 🙂 Frankenstein and Jekyll & Hyde make another thematic pair. I may not get to Dickens after all, since I still want to do poetry and leave room for my daughter to read Persuasion if she wants. I started a Google classroom for freshman English and started putting up her assignments, so now it feels official!

I'm afraid not. When I did the curriculum with my older son, though, we invited a friend of his into the class. I found that having another student helped me stay on top of the prep work and grading and helped my son take it more seriously. Plus, discussion is livelier with three people! Perhaps you can look into getting a group together?

My daughter completed Rod & Staff 8 this year with no trouble. She doesn't need an ongoing grammar program, but I'd like her to review what she's learned every now and again. It sounds like Analytical Grammar is a bit much for that purpose. I'll have to keep looking for something else, then. I need to hear all of the above over and over and over again. My daughter is a good writer, and it's so tempting to just keep giving her papers and essays because she can handle it. I think slowing down her production would benefit her, so we can focus on thinking deeply and polishing her style. I need to watch out for over-analyzing with this child. She can do it, but she doesn't like it all that much (whereas I love it). Any ideas for how to handle the literary analysis with a lighter touch? When we did Windows to the World, she annotated and did all the exercises, but I know she didn't enjoy how detailed it got. I don't want literature to feel like drudgery for her.

Are you planning ninth grade English? I would love to hear what you're doing and to get your input on my plans as well. I always struggle to keep English to one course. In the school system I grew up in, English Composition was always separated from English Literature. It's hard for me to integrate the two, and I always end up planning way more than one subject's worth of work. Fortunately, my kids have always kept up, but I do want to be sensitive to my incoming high schooler's time. That said, here's what I have planned: Vocabulary: Vocabulary from Classical Roots C & D Grammar: Either Analytical Grammar OR Stewart English Program. If you have any experience with either of these, I'm all ears! I'm looking for something low-key that doesn't take a lot of time. She's already had a very thorough grammar education with First Language Lessons and Rod & Staff. Literature: Here's the booklist I have so far: Short Stories: "The Ransom of Red Chief," "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," + 1 more. She did Windows to the World in 8th grade, so a short story unit at the start of the year will be a good refresher. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight--Marie Borroff transaltion Shakespeare play (The Tempest or The Merchant of Venice) Persuasion or Emma by Jane Austen Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Jekyll & Hyde by R.L. Stevenson OR Dracula by Bram Stoker Oliver Twist OR Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Poetry (I'm using an anthology called "Touched With Fire," which the book *I* used in school decades ago!) I've collected a number of free guides from the Glencoe and Penguin Classics sites. I'm also going to browse the Great Courses Plus website for pertinent lectures. Writing: Response papers, literary analysis essays, at least one big research paper, maybe a character sketch or a biographical sketch. Probably a creative writing assignment or two once in a while. Things I'm not sure about (besides grammar!): Argumentative essays and the study of rhetoric in general. I've got my eye on They Say/I Say and Rhetoric Alive, but not sure if it's workable to fit those into English, or if I should just have her do this as a separate elective. I've also got a bunch of essay samplers/writing handbooks like Bedford Reader, Norton, etc. I think doing those would be overkill, but I really, really like the look of them. What's your homegrown English 9 course looking like?

I've done Windows to the World with two eighth graders (I added 3 novels and a Shakespeare play to expand it into a full year's curriculum). I found it to be an excellent introduction to literary analysis and definitely worth doing.

I'll have my first homeschooled high schooler in the fall (eek!). So far what I've planned: Online classes: Math: Geometry (TPS) Foreign Language: French (TPS) Science: Chemistry (Clover Valley) At Home: English: I need to spend time this summer thinking this through. This year, she did IEW's Windows to the World, Lively Art of Writing, and definition essays from WWS 2. I also added in 3 novels and a Shakespeare play to the mix. She finished Rod & Staff Grammar 8 and Vocab. from Classical Roots A & B. I'll have her continue with Vocabulary from Classical Roots. R&S gets very composition-heavy, so I'm looking to change to a grammar program that she doesn't have to do consistently throughout the year (Analytical Grammar? Stewart English?). For the literature component, I've got a preliminary booklist that she'll go through using the WTM method. I'm still thinking about writing, but we will definitely do response papers, literary analysis essays, and one long research paper. Social Science: She didn't want to do history, so I picked AP Human Geography. Electives/PE & Health: Her extracurriculars are riding, creative writing, art, flute. I'm hoping to cobble together her electives & PE from these, if possible. Rhetoric and Bible/Apologetics/Church History are other possibilities. I'm trying not to overschedule her, because she does have her own interests she wants to pursue (and I don't necessarily want to turn them into school, either). It's a fine balance.

Hi, everyone! A few months into the school year, and writing is working out really well for us. I started with Lively Art of Writing, and dd has already gone through to the essay-writing portion of the book. We'll take a break from it the rest of October and November and do creative writing to coincide with NaNoWriMo. DD is eager to work on fiction and I'm hoping she can write a complete novella-length work during this time. We'll see how it goes. DD has already done some literary essay writing--an essay on "The Bells" from WWS 1 and a suspense essay using Windows to the World. I'll give her some response papers as she's reading through Pride and Prejudice. The study guide she's using for history also has good writing assignments, like compare/contrast and character sketches. All in all, I'm glad I didn't spend money on yet another writing program. Grabbing assignments and lessons from what I already own is much more freeing than forcing us to work through a new curriculum. Thanks, everyone, for your help and encouragement.

I'm glad it writing without a curriculum worked for you in MS. It gives me more of a confidence boost. I've got Engaging Ideas in my wishlist and plan to read it at some point. Thanks so much for sharing.

I'm finally done digging through the linked threads and the resources. My Amazon wishlist has greatly expanded! Modeling and mentoring is what I think will work best for my dd. Once she sees how a style or technique is used in a piece of writing, it's not hard for her to go practice it in a composition of her own. She gets impatient with anything that tries to hold her hand too much. And because of her experience writing and revising fiction, she's open to listening to and incorporating feedback. One of my proudest moments as a writer-mama recently was when she ruthlessly gutted and rewrote the last half of a short story. She can kill her darlings, if necessary. I just bought a bunch of books with different types of writing samples: a Norton sampler, the brief Bedford Reader, and the Webster's New World Student Resource Handbook. I got them all used and cheap, and I think they'll give me a good variety to start with. I already own Lively Art of Writing (for argumentative essays) and Windows to the World (for literary essays). For sentence-level craft, I have all three middle school Killgallon books and the final chapters of Lively Art. My older son is working through those chapters of Lively Art, and I'm so far impressed with the quality of the assignments. That's my plan for writing next year! I'll check back in once the school year starts and tell you how it's going. 🙂

Ooh, thank you! I'll dig into it this weekend!

Hello, everyone! I need some help thinking through writing plans for my rising eighth grader. She's a strong natural writer who easily picks up instruction. In the past, I've used bits and pieces from Lost Tools, WWS 1, IEW, and other resources with her. Neither of us is good about sticking to a program; she usually finds the pace too slow, and I can't help but tweak every single writing curriculum I've used. So, I'm considering doing without one for eighth grade. Instead, I thought about getting a writing resource (such as Webster's Student Writing Handbook) and using that to assign different types of writing. My only fear is not preparing her adequately for high school. I'm pretty comfortable teaching writing in general, but my area of expertise is fiction not academic writing. I don't want her to have any major gaps. I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions about writing without a curriculum. Thanks! ETA: Wow, my signature is outdated! The girl is question is now 12, going on 13. Going to have to figure out how to update this!

I'm thinking about switching my son out of Spelling Workout for fourth grade. SWO is okay, but I'm not wild about it. Has anyone used the How to Spell workbooks (along with the How to Teach Spelling manual)? What'd you think of it? How teacher intensive is it? Does each workbook equate to one year's worth of work or more? TIA!

Thanks for your input!

Does anyone here use only the HIG and textbook (standards edition), along with Challenging Word Problems? My ds is also doing (and enjoying) Beast Academy this year, but it ends up being a lot of math! It's almost time for me to order the next SM set, but I'm strongly considering dropping the workbook. Thoughts? Thank you!

Thanks, everyone, for the tips! We've been off-schedule all summer (kids have had weekly camps here and there, or activities at odd times). I'm looking forward to school if only for the structure it imposes. Meals are my biggest headache. I try to plan ahead but I never seem to have a good stock of ready-to-go (homemade) meals in the freezer for one of *those* days. We're also clutter magnets and I really need to work with the children to make sure that they work on keeping their things picked up! Thanks, all. :)

Any more tips for keeping organized? That's not something I'm terribly good at.

No, it's good to get a realistic picture of working while homeschooling.

*nod* We do an afternoon Quiet Time during which I can get work done and my husband can watch them one evening a week. Getting up earlier has never worked because a) I'm not a morning person and b) if I get up earlier, so do they! I am expecting my productivity to be on the lower end for a while. Thanks!

No, fiction is what I love and what I'm good at. I blog, and that's about as much non-fiction as I can handle! I'm really doing this as a way to slowly build my fiction career (and get in some money for some extras) so that when my homeschooling stint is over I have something to do. If it got to the point where my writing could pay for a housecleaner, I'd be ecstatic. I would rather write than clean!

Hi, everyone, I need some real-life been-there-done-that tips on freelancing from home while homeschooling, keeping up with housework, getting enough sleep, and staying sane. If that is at all possible. :D Some background: I've been writing fiction since college. After almost four novels and lots of short stories, I took the plunge in the spring and self-published an ebook anthology. Followed that up with another one in the summer, then spent time over the summer writing and revising. I want to keep publishing over the year while we do school. I'm a little nervous about juggling them both. Any advice? Or even sharing war stories? Thanks!

Thanks for all your suggestions. After looking at all these resources (and making my long-suffering dh look at samples, too) and pacing the floor late at night, angsting, I finally picked... ... Core Skills: Writing, Level 3. Yeah, I know. No one recommended it. But the nice thing about this thread was it got me really thinking about what--realistically--I could fit into the schedule for a kid who's already on the young side for third grade and doesn't count writing among his favorite things to do. I wanted a quick and cheap resource that would introduce concepts like structuring paragraphs and varying sentences and using active verbs without flogging the issue. I think this will do it. :D It was a hard decision, though. Winning With Writing and Sentence Composing (next year for this one!) came close. I liked No More "I'm Done!" but I've been writing fiction for over ten years and have a lot of creative writing exercises I can adapt for my kids' levels. Thanks for your help! ~Rabia

I do like the looks of the Killagon book. Not sure if my son could handle it, though. I will look at Write 2 and No More "I'm Done!". Thanks. You ladies are great. :D

Hi, all. I'm planning language arts for my third grader this fall. For writing in the past, we've used the WWE principles of narration, copywork, and dictation. I'm going to continue that, but I'd also like to add in a little something about writing good sentences, structuring short paragraphs, and thinking more about his word choices. I'm not looking for a program, but more of a supplemental (inexpensive) resource. Any suggestions? TIA!