Forget-Me-Not Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 English this year with my 9th grader has been a nightmare. I'm with a home-based charter that allows us to use curriculum of our choice. We've been using a few different things, most recently Writing with Skill because I felt like she needed some help with technical writing. However it was SO. . . SLOWLY. . . PACED. It drove both of us crazy. How many times do you need to practice making an outline? Anyway, the charter has tried repeatedly to push IEW on us. But it looks SO involved, especially with the short time we have left. I can't even figure out where to start. Every time I try I'm directed to videos about how wonderful the program is without any actual practical information on how to use it or videos on homeschooling philosophy or yet another product or book they want me to buy. I don't need a philosophy shoved at me, i just need a BASIC NUTS and BOLTS WRITING PROGRAM that will help my kid over the course of 7-8 weeks. Can anyone direct me to something solid and basic for a 9th grader who is a fantastic creative writer but needs help with technical writing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 (edited) Too late for the 4th quarter (which is in progress), but you could do the summer session of Lantern English writing, and slowly work your way through the essay-writing series of classes (Essay Basics; Essay Basics Practice; Growing the Essay; Growing the Essay Practice). Classes are 8 weeks long and each class is $60. Summer session sign up starts May 25, payment is due June 10, summer session runs June 15-Aug. 10. Much more expensive, but you could get possibly get what you need with individualized instruction with a tutor... if nothing local, possibly a Scholé Academy (Classical Academic Press) tutor? Edited March 25, 2020 by Lori D. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristin0713 Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 We have had so much success with Lantern English. Essay Basics was just what my DD needed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 Which level of Writing with Skill are you using. For the time you have left, you could possibly look at doing the longer sample of the next level, as well, since you are already set up for it. You might just be placed too low. If your charter likes IEW, maybe look at Elegant Essay instead of the core stuff. I've never done that, but we liked Windows to the World by the same author. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 I might have to buy Jenson's to have as a reference along side our regular program. Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 8 hours ago, OKBud said: Can you get Jenson's Format Writing and just learn the forms so that she can use them when called upon to do so? My thinking is...she's already a writer, I wouldn't use a time-eating big, formal program. 2 hours ago, ChrisB said: I might have to buy Jenson's to have as a reference along side our regular program. Thanks!! Just a heads-up -- Jensen's is dry.as.dust. And pretty brief in instruction. We did use parts of it, but mostly the business writing aspects. I have since seen more detailed info about those types of writing just by doing online searches and looking at various web articles. Just a thought! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted April 1, 2020 Share Posted April 1, 2020 On 3/24/2020 at 6:59 PM, Forget-Me-Not said: English this year with my 9th grader has been a nightmare. I'm with a home-based charter that allows us to use curriculum of our choice. We've been using a few different things, most recently Writing with Skill because I felt like she needed some help with technical writing. However it was SO. . . SLOWLY. . . PACED. It drove both of us crazy. How many times do you need to practice making an outline? Anyway, the charter has tried repeatedly to push IEW on us. But it looks SO involved, especially with the short time we have left. I can't even figure out where to start. Every time I try I'm directed to videos about how wonderful the program is without any actual practical information on how to use it or videos on homeschooling philosophy or yet another product or book they want me to buy. I don't need a philosophy shoved at me, i just need a BASIC NUTS and BOLTS WRITING PROGRAM that will help my kid over the course of 7-8 weeks. Can anyone direct me to something solid and basic for a 9th grader who is a fantastic creative writer but needs help with technical writing? This was the reason we didn't use the program. It may be wonderful, but it was too complicated to even figure out how to use. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 I see that Lori D. has already listed Lantern English. I just wanted to chime in to say that my daughter has taken two courses with Lantern and I've been pleased with the content and feedback. I love how easy it is to fit an 8 week class into our year and plan on enrolling my daughter in more classes in the future. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Lori and Julie, is Lantern secular? 8 week courses are a nice thing to find this time of year for some families. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 26 minutes ago, Farrar said: Lori and Julie, is Lantern secular? 8 week courses are a nice thing to find this time of year for some families. My ds is doing the Persuasive Essay class right now, and he did the Advanced Writing Skills class. Both seemed secular. I didn't really realized the Advanced Writing Skills class wouldn't have any actual writing (mostly editing sentences), so I wished I'd had him do this current class then. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristin0713 Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 45 minutes ago, Farrar said: Lori and Julie, is Lantern secular? 8 week courses are a nice thing to find this time of year for some families. My 8th grader has done Essay Basics, Learning Through Poetry, Intro to Creative Writing, and is now taking Learning Through Literature: Fiction. There has been no religious content in any of these. I am definitely going to enroll her in more Lantern classes next year. Just a heads up—they sent out a survey that included questions about the course length and if moving to 16-week courses with extra time built in for feedback and revisions would be preferable to the 8-week courses. The 8-week courses have worked out well for us, but I can also see the benefit of making some of them 16 weeks. I don’t know what they decided, but I think their course catalog for 2020-2021 will be posted next week. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 4 hours ago, Farrar said: Lori and Julie, is Lantern secular? 8 week courses are a nice thing to find this time of year for some families. I'm guessing Christian, but perhaps not overly religious...? From the instructor bios, it looks like the instructors are all Christian. But I don't see anything in the course descriptions that seems to suggest overwhelmingly religious -- I'd suggest contacting them and asking how strong the Christian element is in the writing classes, as it may not really play much of a role in the short writing classes, and be more present in the teaching worldview of the longer Lit. courses. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 I agree with Lori in guessing that the instructors are Christian. The two classes that we've had experience with did not have any Christian content. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.