For spelling you might try How to Teach Spelling From the product description: "This is an excellent program for remedial spelling. It is one of the few programs that teaches and reviews all phonograms and spelling rules at upper grades."

Hi dereksurfs, RootAnn, and fastforward, For what it is worth DS is a slow-and-steady-perfectionist kind of guy, so I can easily imagine that others could complete the work in less time, but just how much less is a good question! You will recall from my first post we are from Australia. The school years in my state are from K-12, with high school encompassing 7-12. We do not use a 4 year high school transcript for university entrance, rather the students within the school system complete a Higher School Certificate (HSC) in 11-12 to obtain an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) which determines their eligibility for university places. Homeschool students often return to the school system for 11-12 or pursue other pathways to enter university. Therefore, I don't really feel comfortable commenting on how the course fits into US high school and middle school expectations. DS 15 was in AU Year 9 in 2014 (moving AU Year 10 in 2015) and the level of work (according to the description "designed for 9-11") seemed like it would fit. And fortunately for us so far it has. The syllabus along with the TOC for each level of WWS gives a pretty clear idea of the workload required. If I had to hazard a guess, I think I would agree with Derek when he says "...this is not a light class. Rather it's a serious, college prep, high school writing course." I also happen to agree that "writing for 2+ hours per day in this class" and then "having to write some more for other subjects... all in a days work" may have proven a bit much and have adjusted my output expectations for other subjects accordingly. And for me that is a perfect demonstration of the beauty of homeschooling.

DS estimates that he spends somewhere between 8-12 hours per week in addition to the 2 hours of class time. (However, I really am not sure if how quickly he works in comparison to others! It sure would be interesting to know the average.) The initial writing projects in this class were not graded, but the students were made aware that grading would begin after Thanksgiving. However, after consultation with the instructor, I chose not to have my son's writing graded in lieu of a 'final writeup that speaks to his growth as an individual'. (I wanted the focus to be on obtaining writing skills rather than obtaining an 'A'. Also, Australia's high school structure differs from the US, and the need to have a grade either for reporting or college entry is not an issue at this stage.) Hope that helps, Angela

Hello, Below is a copy of a post I wrote on an Australian homeschooling forum. I don't often post here as I find I rarely have any overly relevant information or particularly useful insight to add to wealth of incredible knowledge that is readily available here. However in this case I see that I may actually be able to help. I also wrote this post in response to a question regarding the cost and level of work. Hope that helps, Angela

I don't have any advice, I don't even have a teange boy quite yet. But I am reading this book at the moment, and, well, when I read your post I thought you might like to read it too. Best wishes, Angela

I am a Mac user from way back (1989) and it is with great joy that I see a new generation of software programmers taking an interest all things Mac. I currently use Mac OS 10.5.8 on my laptop, but plan to update soon. The family iMac runs Mac OS 10.7. I would be very keen to trial your software. We live in Australia and school from Jan to Dec. For this past year I have been using Planbook to create schedules and keep records. Whilst I find it OK, it is not perfect and lacks many of the features on your list specific for homeschoolers. What I do like about Planbook is its ability to tag lessons with multiple tags. This feature allows me to track skills (such as writing) taught across the curriculum. It even allows me to break these skills down further (such as copywork, dictation, narration, etc) to track the progess made in each of these very specific areas. At the same time I can tag lessons with the appropriate 'Key Learning Area'. I can then group lessons from different courses together and print out a tag report for presentation to our Board of Studies to show how we are meeting their requirements in each of these 'Key Learning Areas'. I also enjoy the ability to bump lessons, when things don't go exactly as they had been planned. Best wishes, Angela :)

You could also try Skedtrack http://www.homeschoolskedtrack.com/HomeSchool/displayLogin.do It is online, so is another useful option if you do have a mac.

New Zealand is a small, beautiful, and very friendly country. You can jump in the car and drive for a hour or two to a landscape quite different to the one that you have left. And you are never far from the beach, the country is just not that big! My husband is a Kiwi (we live in Australia) and we very seriously consider the move each time we visit. THe main thing that holds us back is his work commitments here!

I love rules too. DS 10 loves rules even more than me, and so I thought that exceptions were bound to be a problem here! In fact, the questions raised by the exceptions have only lead to some interesting (but very basic) inquiries into the origins of words. I found the book Eyes Before Ease: The Unsolved Mysteries and Secret Histories of Spelling by Larry Beason to be very helpful in allowing me to relax about words not fitting into the mold, as I now understand that the mold has changed over time. :)