Wildwood Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Hi, I'm hoping to hear from others who have used this. I'm thinking about getting it for my daughter. How is the writing portion? I'd be interested in any reviews, positive or negative. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 The grammar portion gets the job done and the massive amount of review makes it stick. The writing portion is uninspired. We used a few of the lessons and then dropped it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildwood Posted July 31, 2015 Author Share Posted July 31, 2015 Thank you, EKS. When you say the writing is uninspired, do you mean it is dry or ? Is it any good, I wonder? My daughter likes creative writing, but I'm feeling like I need to incorporate some formulaic writing, at least a little bit. So, maybe uninspiring would be okay in this case, lol. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 We used Hake 5. *I* thought it was excellent. DD then-10 (or 11, I forget) started off liking it but soon grew to really dislike it. She did not like the massive amount of repetition, and she has since decided that grammar that consists of marking other people's sentences doesn't appeal to her. She wanted grammar where she got to create, so we moved to Grammar for Middle School from Killgallon. I'm not convinced it's excellent, but it works for now. All the Hake levels are very similar, so even though we didn't use 6, 5 and 6 cover basically the same information. As far as the writing portion: I thought it was a fine, no-frills course of instruction. It's practical, straight-forward, and very doable even if you fear teaching writing (I don't, as I used to be a professional writer and editor, but even if I hadn't been, the instruction was non-threatening). I don't think there is enough of it, so I would recommend doing each exercise several times, changing topic each time. My dd is a very proficient writer and said she didn't learn anything from the writing portion; that's probably true, but it was still solid instruction and, for her, good practice for skills she already knew. Overall, I think Hake is an excellent, if somewhat dry, program. I do like that all the exercises incorporate themed sentences (such as American history), so you are actually learning content as you learn grammar. The sentences do NOT have a "written for a grammar exercise" feel to them. Another program we tried was Rules of the Game from EPS. Again, a solid program that dd rejected due to the format. There is no writing instruction, though. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmom10 Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 We have done Hake 5, 6 and 7. I think it is a good, solid grammar curriculum. I don't love the writing portion, other than the journal prompts. We use something different for writing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildwood Posted August 6, 2015 Author Share Posted August 6, 2015 Thanks so much, all. I am glad to hear the grammar is good. As far as the writing, would you say it leans more creative or formulaic? I'm really wanting instruction in basic forms of writing since my daughter takes off naturally with creative writing. I'm wanting to expose her to specific forms of writing so she can get a feel for them, even if they are dry assignments, lol.. Thanks you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 It's format writing, from what I recall. I don't remember there being creative writing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaceful Isle Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 My daughter used Hake in her 5th grade year. She still calls it "hate" grammar, instead of hake. I guess she did not like it too well. ;) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deerforest Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 My daughter used Hake in her 5th grade year. She still calls it "hate" grammar, instead of hake. I guess she did not like it too well. ;) I was debating whether to say anything or not, but this made me laugh because my DD felt the same way. We didn't get very far before she was begging me to stop. She just didn't need the repetition, and even when I crossed out all the repetitive stuff, she just felt it was pure drudgery. She absolutely loves sentence diagramming, though! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneGirlAcademy Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 We like Hake Grammar. We do not use the writing portion. But, I use a variety of grammar curriculum; it's not the only one we use. I only schedule half of the lesson for one day and do the rest the next. They can be a little long and we prefer short and sweet. I schedule lessons until I notice dd's eyes start to glaze over. Then I switch over to a more creative curriculum that has a different approach to grammar. Then after a short period, we go back to Hake. Shampo, rinse, and repeat. This way has worked very well for my dd. She seems have very good retention and consistently scores very high in the language arts section at the end of the year. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegularMom Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 We use Hake, and we do use the writing program. I think I might be the only one out there who does. Yes, it's dry. Yes, it's "formulaic", but as a thorough skill-builder, it's what I was looking for. Lots of practice writing a variety of different kinds of short essays. It also covers outlining, creative writing and responding to literature. For us, it worked far far better than Writing With Skill. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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