Write At Home or IEW...

[Magic Wand]

I was mostly set to try IEW this year, then found Write At Home. My niece's used Write At Home last year and they recently told me how much they loved it.

 

It is quite likely our life will be *more stressed*than it has been in the past and I want to be certain we've created an achievable schedule with accountability.

 

Do you have a preference for one program over the other; maybe there is something I haven't thought of?

 

My girls are rising 4th/5th and 6th graders - turning 10 and 12 in the fall. Neither one has a writing phobia. Both are fairly good writers, although my oldest needs help with mechanics and transitions.

 

Thank you,

 

Wanda

[Tina in WA]

For the last couple years we used Home2Teach and DD loves it. I am very pleased with it as well. They do all the correcting and instructing. She has improved GREATLY and I see what she learns in writing class flow over into her other writing. I highly recommend this one. :)

[teacalm]

Ds took the 6th grade composition when he was in 5th grade. It would be better if they added more writing assignment. Each assignment took about 3-4 wks. It's not as frequent as I want it to be. Ds also got unusually high marks and I know that he's not that good of a writer. Not that I'm trying to put him down but this boy wrote his assignment the night before. I didn't check it since he was able to type it on his own. ALthough, he wrote all of his pieces, on all the genres, about a historical event, government or politics. He's passionate about these topics so maybe it came across as something good and interesting.

 

This year, I'm putting him and my 9-yr-old girl on http://www.hometoteach.com and also trying out Cindy Marsch's http://www.writingassessment.com beginning progymnasmata level for ds. He is going to be very, very busy this coming year.

 

I also tried IEW, in fact I still have it, but a coming 7th grader, I opted for hometoteach.com to make sure that he has writing skills under his belt before he goes to high school. He liked IEW but somehow it didn't strike to me as something that will lead to develop his writing skill. I could be gravely mistaken, no flames please, since I didn't continue with the lesson to see the results.

[Sandra in FL]

6th grade. She found it very "light" with very few corrections - mostly "good job" and "nice work" type comments.

 

She's currently doing the Paragraph class from Home2Teach. She much prefers this but is having a hard time coming up with topics (and figuring out what the teacher wants). Once the topic and lesson is understood, the writing part comes much easier. I've signed her up for the Write About Books class for session 1 in the fall.

 

I've just ordered IEW (Student Intensive) for ds (almost 10 yr old Asperger's). He is a very reluctant writer (not natural as dd is) and finds it very difficult to write anything from scratch. So I'm hoping that IEW (with its models) will be a better fit for him. This is the beauty of homeschooling - that we can adjust to each individual child. He would be extremely frustrated if in public school and told to write something on his summer holidays.

 

HTH,

Sandra

[Zee]

Hi Wanda,

The one that I'm thinking of trying at some point is WriteGuide.com. It is individualized. I have no experience with it, but it may be another one you want to check into, or ask about.

Zee

[Magic Wand]

It looks like Home2teach is more along the lines of what I'm looking for. I like the progression, structure and six-week schedule.

 

Write Guide looks good too, Zee, but you create your own assignments and I'm not really up for that this year. It might be a great option for next year though, so I'm really glad you brought it to my attention.

 

I had no idea about the other programs available and I'm very grateful for the feedback you've given me with regard to Write At Home.

 

I've fired off a couple of questions to Home2Teach.

 

Thanks!

 

Wanda