Well, that settles it then!;)

We will be using SL for lit and Easy Grammar so I think this might just be a great fit for writing. I HATE to keep switching (from IEW to EIW, now this) but I really do think it would be a good fit. I love that it pulls samples from good lit., covers outlining, and I was trying to find something with literary analysis. Seems to cover what I need for him. Thank you both for your posts. It is encouraging to see how it has worked and can work for us. I am thinking of using it for my 7th grader too.

Good idea. May have to go visit the one that has a Starbucks in it. :D

I was thinking if I did pick it up I could use it for my 7th grader too. Might be good to have them "compete" a little. She likes to write. :) I hate not being able to sit down with it first, to decide.

At least I am not alone! I may just stick with Essentials. When we used 7th grade last year I also used Easy Grammar. It was a good combination if your ds is lacking in grammar. We will use Easy Grammar again this year too. It doubles up a bit with Essentials but I feel like he needs it. He did mention that 8th really was similar to 7th but with a couple extra writing assignments. I may just go on to 9th in Essentials like I originally planned.

Other ideas?

Not that anyone is actually reading all of these... I have my first high school student. Scared to death and feel like no mater how many years of homeschooling I have under my belt, I am not ready to be organized enough for high school.:glare:

I have an upcoming 9th grader ds that just really struggles with writing. We used IEW a couple years but he balked at most of it and I struggled to teach it. Last year we used Essentials in Writing. He did not have 8th grade finished yet and so we used 7th grade. He did much better but I feel like he just isn't ready for 9th grade work yet. I keep getting drawn back to the WWE but feel like I am starting too late. I saw the Writing with Skill and wonder if it is too young. I was wondering if anyone had tried this with an older student and did you feel like it was enough for your reluctant writer. Were they able to do a lot of it on their own? Did you beef it up with extra assignments? Extra practice? I will be using SL core 100 (US History) and he does like writing about history. I have not seen the LA that comes with that but think that maybe I could pull some writing assignments from that to use.

They repeat.

I have been using it this year with three of mine. I am using it with my 4th, 6th, and 8th graders(using 7th because 8th was not ready and he is a reluctant writer anyway). It is going well. I am using it along with Easy Grammar. My kids were lacking a bit in grammar and this is working great for us. The EG and Essentials actually go together great. We are almost on the same thing all the way through, so far. I only require one page of EG a day and it lines up great. Because it is so new and because he seems to have made a lot of levels very quickly, I am seeing some mistakes along the way. A lot of them the kids catch too and it is kind of fun to correct the teacher. It is not overwhelming but there are some. If you have had a lot of grammar I would not see a need for additional grammar but it really depends on what you have already covered and what they have retained. There is review the first few lessons. My oldest is just now getting into more of the actual writing (narration last week and persuasive writing this week) and we are on lesson 22 (I think). My 4th grader will be getting out of the grammar lessons around lesson 30. Everything up to that point was all about parts of speech, punctuation, etc. I am liking it and plan to use it again next year.

Are you doing it for high school credit? I did see that thread but was wondering how to put together a class for credit.

I am wanting to do a computer programming and maybe a basic computer class that leads into creating games for my ds. He is very interested in creating computer games. Have you used a resource you like? Something worthy of high school credit? I am finding a lot of homeschool options for windows but not for the Mac. The other thing I am considering is buying a program for my Mac that he can use a windows program with. Here are a couple books that we are interested in but I don't know if they would be enough. Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python Computer Programming for Teens I am also thinking that he needs a semester of basic computer skills first. Any ideas? I was looking at this one.

I was just at the website earlier tonight and at the very bottom there was on offer for all the books together in one binder. Here is the quote from that page. "If you'd like to customize your curriculum by mixing and matching units, you can get the entire 5-volume curriculum in a binder so that you can custom select units for each year." Guessing that means that you could use them out of order. I have not used them so don't take my word for it. Just happened to remember that when I saw your question. :)

Never mind. Found one. :)

I am looking for a schedule for this textbook. I thought I would see if anyone knew of one before I try to reinvent the wheel. KWIM?