Hi mamas, My sons are going to grade 8. I am getting their next year's schedule together. Here is what I have so far. 1. AOPS Geometry and Intermediate Algebra 2. Prentice Hall Biology ( is there a better biology program ?) 3. World History ( Early to mid) ( still haven't decided on the books) 4. They are also taking Spanish lessons here locally. One thing I cannot figure out is LA and writing. They have done NHD this year. So, they wrote process paper. I read a few times on this board about one essay a week programs. I am looking at essay writing, writing scientific papers, book reports - any and every kind of writing. I really want to drill that in this year. So, they can be ready for high school ( and college) Can you please direct me toward the one essay a week programs ?What is a good one ? Thanks Zilya

Hello. I am investigating composition/writing programs for next year for my upcoming 9th and 7th graders. I have been using WordSmith, and I am not satisfied with it. I am only just beginning to be aware of other programs and was wondering if people would be willing to just LIST the programs they use for middle school and high school. If you want to comment on what you think of your choice(s) feel free, but I am mainly looking for a list of programs to research. Once I get a grasp of what is out there, I will likely come back with more targeted questions. FYI -- I have 4 girls (currently 8th, 6th, 4th, and 1st) and writing instruction has been hit or miss. The older two have spent a few years in public school and are currently dual enrolled, so anything I chose has to be easy to implement and not take TONS of time because history is our time-consuming priority. Also, I am really looking for JUST writing curriculum. . . I, at this point, am planning to use Biblioplan's lit recommendations for my literature. Thanks!

Hello, I'm trying to get some information about how to use graph theory in order to reduce the time spent on a route. It could only pass once through each vertex and, at the end, return to the initial one. I will be really glad If you could send me information, samples or essays talking about this topic, etc. Thank you very much.

My daughter is nearly done with SWB's Writing With Skill. I know, it is supposed to be for 5th graders, but we just didn't manage to switch to another curricula while waiting for the new book books in this series to be published. My general feeling is that WWS is pretty advanced, and it isn't that far off that a 7th grader has only just finished this book. Am I wrong, btw, in this thought? Over the years my dd has done a lot of outlining, narrations, summaries, and I'm finding that her writing is quite good. She has courses outside the home that have required reports--most commonly on a specific topic that she researches. I'm very happy with her work along these lines. But, where she is lacking is just being able to write a regular old 5 paragraph type essay about non-researched topics. Like what she did last summer or compare two books that she just read. We live in NYC and she is applying to high schools next school year. That process is going to require a lot of essays during application interviews and testing. Does anyone have a suggestion about a book that would teach her how to decide what to write, organize it in a cohesive way and give me plenty of essay topics to assign to her over the next 6 months? Thanks for your ideas! Kristin (Maya-13, Jonah-10, Simon-4)

We are finishing Essay Voyage. While I really like the grammar and CE, I'm not so thrilled with the writing portion of Voyage-I actually liked the Town level of writing better. So, I'm looking ahead to MCT level 4. From other posts, I'm gathering that the Vocab part of the program is pretty intense and I would need to go slower with that. I love their grammar, so I want to stick with that. I'm not interested in their upper level poetry, and I can't quite figure out if the writing portion for level 4 is that good. If you use any of these levels, could you tell me how the writing is. Also, do some of you just use portions of the levels? For example, I'm thinking the grammar/vocab portions of MCT are what I'd like to focus on. Anyone else do this? It seems that the use of MCT goes down once the student hits the secondary levels-do you as parents just not like it as much?

My senior recently read The Ransom of Red Chief. My goal for the next weeks is to use some short stories and have him write papers with the kind of thesis a college prof would accept. My oldest son had a lot of trouble in the college freshman writing course, and this is what they did all semester. He could write the papers, just couldn’t come up with the theses. My senior made an interesting observation about Ransom. He noted that there is a contrast in the dialog between the use of words like ain’t and otherwise high vocabulary. How can he take that and turn it into an arguable thesis that isn’t just an observation? Any general comments on how to come up with arguable theses is welcome as well. Thanks in advance, Kendall

I need a quick answer. I found several threads on this topic. One is a very long thread. ;) which I subbed and will read later. I have to go to work in about an hour. Background first: My son is a 7th grader. Right now he is taking a class at the co-op called the Human Body class using Jeannie Fulbright's human body book. All year he had to write an essay every other week. I am shocked that she is requiring essays and it is destroying my son's love of learning about the human body. This kid wants to be a dr so he really loves learning about human body. When it comes to write an essay I have to help him by pulling him out and talking him through this. WTM has a much delayed approach with writing than others do. (that is one of the things that I LOVE about WTM) We do use TOG but they are alot faster in the writing dept for younger kids which I do not like very well. I use the WTM writing and the TOG for history. I do not remember ever writing an essay when I was in middle school and that was back in the 1980s. (Yes I am old!! :D) My question: Is this the norm to start essay writing this young??What is a normal essay length for a 7th grader? I am concerned that my son is not enjoying the class due to essays. I haven't even approached the teacher yet because I am using this as an opportunity to teach him about essays however it is pulling his grade down due to him not getting a good grade on it. (I guess I am also a bad essay writer:confused:) (this kid is more of a science/math kid not a humanities kid like my older son is) I will read the other threads for more information. Thanks! Holly

I was reading some political commentary this morning and thinking that there were interesting examples of style that I wanted to point out to my kids, since they'd just spent two weeks writing an essay for a contest. It occured to me that while my kids read a lot, they probably don't get a lot of persuassive essay reading. Even the big chunks of non-fiction they get is probably mostly narrative. So I'm wondering if I need to start directing them to more essays to read so they better understand the style. Do your kids read much in the styles that you're teaching them to write? What are some good sources for well written essays?

Saw a bunch of posts on this topic a while ago but cannot retrace them. Sorry if it's a duplicate. What are some great online writing classes for homeschoolers? Something that teaches students how to write well and has some relevance to the SAT essay (doesn't have to have that though). Thanks.