Since you grade the practice sections yourself, you can get a good idea of if you understand the work and should move on or not. I did all the grading for my son, but he had to wait for mom's 48 hour turn-around time frequently. He knew if he understood the material and would just move along. Try it out and I think you'll get a good feel for what you need to wait on and when you can move along. As far as a scanner, most scanners have settings that you can change the resolution and therefore the file size. Also, you can download a pdf scanner app for the ipad.

What do I expect from a ninth grader - well mostly to start where they are at and work at progressing. For one, that was getting words onto paper at all. A paragraph was a struggle. His writing sounded like a 3rd grader, his younger siblings could write much better. He's very smart with learning dysabilities, so it was all about teaching him to get around his disabilities and write at all. Through many Brave Writer classes, he's now able to write a very good college paper (though it remains very difficult). Kidwriter Intermediate IS a high school class and sounds like a fine place to start. It will focus more on what is said and how it is said rather than structure. I'd recommend Expository Essay after Kidwriter Int.

I might even change it to Computer Science with AP exam for the course title for anyone who only scans the titles and doesn't read the course descriptions.

Agreeing that labels CAN be helpful. Of course if you just say I'm so sorry you have x disorder, then that won't make them feel better. I've told my kids that their brains are just wired differently. It makes certain tasks harder, but it gives them other strengths. They feel much more comfortable when they know why they are different and they say they wouldn't give up their disabilities if it also meant giving up their strengths. Also, meds can be very helpful when used for the correct diagnosis. It should make the kids more functional, not less.

Three things that I'd consider somewhat independently: Lying - dig for underlying reasons and deal with them. It doesn't sound as simple as just simply not doing the work and then lying about it. This is what I'd focus my energy on. Consequences - talk about lying and that you need to tell the truth. Push for truth in every circumstance no matter how hard it is to tell the truth. Then there is the issue that she destroyed a book - maybe you should just ignore this if you have your hands full dealing with underlying issues; maybe she needs to be responsible for replacing or paying for the book. I think this is more an individual decision. Academics - I try to make it a policy to win the daily battle - you must do this page today because I assigned it. However, I try to step back and reassess any area that my kids are butting heads with me on. Is it necessary? Is there a better way to teach it to this child? Should I scrap it and come back to this subject in a new way later? Do I need to sit and do every step with them? Usually I find it's a battle in that it is difficult for some reason - often not the surface level work, but some other reason that makes it hard. Consider whether you need to battle her to redo the work or just scrap it altogether and work on relationship.

As other have said. Get more testing and treat as necessary. Then I'd go with your instinct on what is best for your child - put her back in school with accommodations/meds as necessary or bring her home. I would consider her wishes, but I wouldn't let her make the ultimate decision.

I own, and have used, the entire NEM series 1-4. I definitely prefer AoPS.

Not integrated, but I'd still look at Art of Problem solving. It is definitely deeper and geared toward a child like yours sounds. We did it in an integrated fashion by simply doing one chapter out of one book and then another chapter out of another book. In some ways, it continues to review everything else as it continues to use the concepts already taught.

In addition to asking here, I'd email the teacher directly. Many are quite willing to work with your situation.

I so completely agree. Every child is different all with their own strengths. As teachers we all have different teaching styles. And what works for one family might just be because the time was right for that child and not at all due to the curriculum. BW matches my style as a teacher and has produced results. We've also had some fun with it. Therefore I'm not going to fix what's not broken. Lots of kids are wonderful writers with no formal program - just mom. I do believe that reading, copywork, narration, and free-writing are all helpful in the process of teaching writing. OhE - I always learn a lot from you and others as well. Our journeys are all different - some with different goals, but we can all support each other and learn from each other.

I guess I was editing as you were asking the question. See my edit for the answer to your question.

My severely dysgraphic 9th grader (very gifted, but writing at mid-elementary level) started Brave Writer in 9th grade with Kidswriter Basic and also did Just So Stories. He did LOTS of freewrites as a family with everyone writing about a prompt for 5 minutes and then the option of sharing. (lots of fun) In 10th grade, he did Kidswrite Intermediate and Expository Essay. Every week of class, his writing improved. He also did one personal essay with a BW private tutor that year and one month of Boomerang. This year he did MLA research essay through BW. This spring the research paper that he turned in for an outside class to a college professor got a 100%! and this teacher is not known as an easy grader. I wanted to do a literary class this year, but chose not to. Every dysgraphic student is different. This boy has severe problems both with the physical act of handwriting as well as formulating ideas into words. It doesn't help much for him to dictate to me now since it is still such a struggle to come up with words. Testing a few years ago put all his writing skills at a 1st grade level (the same year he won a 4 year college scholarship for math). Recent testing places his writing on a college level, but at a 5th grade speed. Brave Writer has helped so much with funneling his ideas into words and asking the questions to bring more substance into his writing. BW in no way is formulaic or "tells" you what to write. His writing is unmistakably HIS. The online teachers have been fantastic resources for helping him along the way. I used IEW for many years. It was a great place for me to start as "I" had no idea how to teach writing to this boy. It was very formulaic - use this outline, this many sentences, use these dress-ups in each paragraph, etc. It was like asking a set of questions, coming up with the answers and writing it down according to the IEW formula. He could do it as he was very analytical in nature, but if asked to do something outside of IEW like write 3 sentences about yourself - he had NO idea where to start. (Our years of IEW were all by dictation as he still couldn't physically write). I've had another child start with Kidswrite Intermediate as an 8th grader, and my daughter who is severely dyslexic and has writing issues has done several high school fiction writing classes this year as a 7th grader though with me as the scribe. She is full of words, but has trouble actually getting them on paper - very different from my oldest. My little guy just did Story Switcheroo which was fantastic as we haven't worked much on the writing side of things as he still can't read. I think placement in BW classes depends very much on the child, but don't be afraid to put a struggling writer in an easier class if needed. My oldest says he still doesn't like to write, but if he has to he'd rather do it the Brave Writer way. I also think there are many ways to teach writing to any student, but this is what has worked at my home. I originally thought I might be able to teach from some of the BW pdfs (which are very well written), but I can't give good feedback to my kids and I find the feedback from the BW teachers to be priceless (and expensive) - worth every penny to me. Edited to say - I tried to start with the Writer's Jungle (pdf) - it is great, but without the teacher feedback. I ended up in Kidswriter Basic which is the online class of the Writer's Jungle and the feedback was great. I tried again to teach from Help for High School, which is the pdf of Kidswriter Int. and Expository Essay. Again I abandoned it and chose the online class. These pdfs are well-written with clear instructions and good examples. The Help for High School is almost exactly the high school classes. What is missing is the teacher feedback which is what helped my students so much.

Brave Writer and IEW are complete opposites by the way.

Take a break when you need to - in the middle of the book or at the end. Breaks keep us sane. As others have said, Level 4 is a bear to get through. I'm in the process of repeating it as well and second time through is going much better - it seems to have gelled more, though neither my daughter nor my son have gotten all the spelling until later.

My oldest is dyslexic and severely dysgraphic. He started with IEW in elementary and it was good in that it gave him structure and he was totally lost without the structure, but his writing remained very weak and continues to be very difficult. We started using Bravewriter when he was a 9th grader and it was tremendous for his writing. They taught him to write with his voice and every class moved him tremendously along in writing ability. They took him wherever he was and moved him along. It was amazing. He still has great difficulty writing, but is able to write a college level paper. His dysgraphia is severe enough to warrant college board accommodations which will continue into college. My younger kids who are still doing Barton have started using Bravewriter techniques at home and have done a few online classes as well. Bravewriter is certainly not for everyone, but it has helped tremendously at my home with my smart kids with learning disabilities.

I love Beast and then AoPS for older kids. I like MEP starting at level 7. If kids need more drill, then there are lots of choices.

We found both levels 4 and 6 to be the hardest. I don't remember what was so hard, but I know others also say it takes longer to get through. I'm on level 8 with my daughter and finishing level 4 with my son.

Discovering Music by Professor Carol KET online has an arts appreciation course.

You can just discuss to round the year off. You don't have to write about everything and there are those of us who do much less writing than others. Over the course of high school, you should probably cover a good variety of things - literature, short stories, poietry, etc., but it does not have to be all done every year. I'd say get what you need to done, let him have a summer and move on to 10th grade. There are plenty of public schools around my area that only read one book per year so it sounds like you've already exceeded that. Have you put in enough hours to call it a credit yet?

He's already done most of a (minimal) English credit - full semeseter of composition plus some literature. I'd add a little to round it out but wouldn't go overboard. Just plan on doing more next year. Was the co-op English related homework or other. If it was English, even if more writing, then I'd count it and call it done.

Wanted to add, if you think you can teach it yourself and give good feedback, you can use Brave Writer's Help for High School.. It is essentially a pdf of all the instructions for both Kidswrite Intermediate and Expository Essay. The instructions are very good and written to the student. It has examples as well. I bought this thinking I could use it to teach, but found that my kids didn't respond to even my simplest of critiques. I then enrolled my oldest in Kidswrite Intermediate and EE and the feedback was priceless. Again, I thought I might be able to teach it myself with my second son, but again turned around and enrolled him in a class. I (and others) find the feedback of all the BW classes to be excellent. It is both encouraging as well as very constructive. You can also see the feedback given to all the students and I'm impressed with the level of feedback given no matter the level of writing. They take the writer from where they are and move them along toward better, while unmistakably keeping the student's writing voice as their own.

Kidswrite Intermediate does a lot of word play/word association exercises. It teaches you to examine a topic from all sorts of viewpoints. it teaches some research skills as well as how to paraphrase. It teaches how to keep digging to get to the truth of what you say. When you finish the class, you don't have any polished papers to show for your work, just a bunch of seemingly random assignments. However, the skills learned in this class were very good and really helped my kids (both my non-writer and my natural writer) improve their writing. I will have my daughter who loves to write take this class when she is a little older as it will push her in new ways as well. The Expository Essay class works on specifics such as thesis statements as well as the entire essay process.

Kidswrite Intermediate is a great course for exploring writing, making connections and developing your voice in a low key class. My boys found it very helpful. It could be skipped if you want to jump straight to Expository Essay. The Expository Essay class is a great class to build essay writing skills. There are students of any ability and the teachers are great at working with all of them. Each BW class is 1/4 English credit with a grade. Therefore if you wanted to do two Brave Writer classes and add some literature you could call it an English credit. I tend to do a couple of BW classes, some directed grammar teaching, a "full" literature load with literary analysis - mostly discussion, and call it English.

I don't think there is any harm in scrapping everything and starting fresh in the fall. IF there is work that can easily be done over the summer then that is an option, but sometimes it is best to set it all aside and start fresh later.

I'd consider Brave Writer for writing. It sounds like you have good enough internet for this. (You have to be able to access the internet daily, but nothing streaming or audio). There are lots of books/curriculums recommended for writing, but I'd consider outsourcing some of it. Literature - You can pick your own literature and simply discuss. Windows to the World is a good option. You could do Teaching the Classics and maybe 1-2 classes on dvd. Grammar - at this point, I like focused review on areas that need strengthening.