My son is 9 years old and finishing up 4th grade Essentials In Writing (EIW). He is a reluctant writer and is not independent in any way. I've used EIW for the past several years and thinking about switching to a different curriculum. So far IEW and BraveWriter seem to be recommended by many and the ones I'm thinking about. I keep going back and forth between the 2. I prefer to find something and stick with it for a long time, rather than changing year after year. So if I change I want to make sure I'm making it for all the right reasons and it is the right curriculum.
While I'd love for my son to be independent eventually, I don't mind spending time with him if he will get it. He gets bored easily and loses focus a lot. I also like the idea of reading a book and then using that for the writing. My son has never enjoyed copy work, so writing pages would not be a top choice. What I don't like about EIW is it's very repetitive and kind of dry or boring. I'd like to have something my son would enjoy and look forward to. He is a good reader and reads above his grade level. He prefers shorter books, but I think exposing him to some different authors and styles of writing would be good.
I probably would do the IEW SSS this year and possible switch to theme based next year or BraveWriter with an arrow subscription. So tell me about IEW or BraveWriter. What do you like and not like about either of these programs? We also school year round with typically 4 days of school work in a week. Would either of these programs be easy to use on that type of schedule?