We used the Rainbow in 7th & 8th grade and dd does not want to take Biology over again, so I asked Dr. Dobbins and he sent me a pdf (I couldn't attach it) of which I've excerpted FYI a portion below: The second year of The Rainbow is a survey of the concepts of biology and applied sciences. The Biology course is targeted at eighth or ninth grade students. Its content is equivalent in most ways to a 9th or 10th grade “Introductory Biology†course. Because of its focus on first principles, however, a few commonly included exercises in traditional early-high-school courses are omitted. An example is the memorization of the Krebs cycle and glycolysis. These exercises were reserved for our advanced biology (“Biology IIâ€) course that will be released as part of our advanced high school curricula collectively called The Spectrum. Undoubtedly, a helpful administrator will point out any specific requirements where this course is thought to be lacking as an introductory high school course so that it can be appropriately supplemented with other readings. In our viewpoint, this curriculum is entirely adequate and fulfills all necessary requirements for high school credit as a 9th or 10th grade Introduction to Biology. It is designed to be completed as such in the 9th grade.

We're just finishing my daughter's 9th grade year too. Learning that some classical schools consider the logic stage 7th through 9th grade helped me relax about pushing her into Rhetoric level studying. Although she has learned her 5 paragaph essay, she's not an arguer! So we continued studying Rennaisance/Reformation/Reason in the last MOH book and while I hoped her reading up to par via exposure. She read the whole LOTR trilogy, plus a Scott O'dell book, Twain's The Prince & The Pauper, The Faerie Queen (the workbook The Grammar of Poetry helped prepare her for this) and we'll finish out the year with Much Ado About Nothing and Part I of Pilgrim's Progress. I'm planning on doing PP the WTM method, and if that goes well we'll head into 10th grade U.S. History ready to design our own literature program. If not, we'll use Lightning Lit, possibly. So, aside from getting the credits issue decided, I think assessing your child's readiness for classical high school is very important for 9th grade and to ease into the subject areas where you may think he may not be ready. DD did Geometry, Latin II, Classical Astronomy, Theology without much problem while she came up to speed in the literature/writing readiness. I feel very comfortable with proceeding with the WTM Rhetoric suggestions at this point, and dd is ready to write her persuasive & research papers. Another issue is deciding whether you will to "teach to the tests" or take a more "love of learning" approach...

Here's a link to a homeschool mom's blog who has used TOG for her High School boys. http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com/2008/08/adjusting-tapestry-of-grace-to-be-more.html She's very good about answering questions :001_smile:

This is a good question as my dd did Writeshop in 7 & 8th leaving us nowhere to go for 9th (we started homeschooling in 7th grade out of private school, and I was shocked by her lack of writing skills - I now see this as an area where she is not naturally gifted which neither I nor the school picked up on in earlier grades). I picked up AG literary essay unit which was somewhat helpful in writing literary analysis this year, and I have the Research Paper unit to do in 10th grade. My daughter didn't love WS but I felt it gave her useful tools that can mature as time goes on. This year aside from dragging 4 or 5 literary essays out of her we got very sidetracked with poetry, and I'm happy she enjoyed that, but I've been looking for a place to jump back on with expository writing for next year. I took a good look at IEW and was thinking of possibly using the U.S. History unit as a writing adjunct as we're doing Am Hist / Am Lit next year, but really it just looks like more of the same we got from WS. I've pretty much decided to move forward with the WTM Hist & Lit program for 10th grade, requiring 2 one page compositions a week and history/science research papers in spring, and along the way checking grammar and style with sources such as Elements of Style, and moving forward with Rhetoric to use in both writing and speech. DD is not a happy writer or speaker, but is good with grammar technicals, and so I think less curriculum but more focus in writing across the curriculum is the way to go for us. This will be somewhat of a challenge for me, but I can always pay for a month here and there from WriteGuide or use our private school (psp) English teachers for feedback. I think as Robin says that with consistent effort students can establish their own style, as they should at some point. All this cogitating over my own situation to say that, in the end students need to develop the capability to write satisfactorily apart from any particular curriculum - just something to keep in mind as you compare IEW to your other options.

Congratz on the new baby coming :001_smile: We're completing our freshman year and as I'm reviewing LA, there's just not a great way to make it less piecy. You can move to a grammar review such as Analytical Grammar's High School reinforcement, or even a book such as Our Mother Tongue, and just keep a log of spelling words he runs across in the curriculum. But, if a baby is coming it's probably good to stick with what's working as far as the writing and lit goes... changes require effort.

Thank you for this review. I'm new to this board, homeschooling my 9th grade dtr and tyring to figure out where to take her in writing next year. She does not like expository writing! We did Writeshop in MS, and this year just used some of those skills while bringing in poetry. My thought was she would enjoy writing more and mature more, but whatever the actual result is we do have to move ahead. Am thinking of doing the CW catchup then Herodotus, and I like your suggestion of having the student write across the curriculum while reading the book as mostly a text. Am hoping I would see a natural progression. I was thinking of diving into the Rhetoric books in SWB plan, but after your review, and another one on DeAngelo, I think this may be better! My other thought for next year would be to do the IEW theme unit on U.S. history because we'll be using Paul Johnson's book as a text. But, I think with Herodotos program I'll get more of what I want, which is to focus on thinking before writing, and apply those skills to all areas of study.