One Year Adventure Novel

[desertflower]

Hello,

Anyone tried One Year Adventure Novel?  Any pros and cons? Thanks for any input.

[Alicia64]

With violins playing sadly in the background: the One Year Adventure Novel was a curriculum -- I don't know what else to call it -- that I heavily researched just as my two were moving on from homeschooling (they did Dual Enrollment w/ a local college).

So we never got to do it.

He (I forget his name) even teaches a program for adults and I seriously thought about taking it, but ended up going in a different direction w/ my writing. (I'm a non-fiction writer, but really wanted to attempt fiction with this guy).

I emailed him about it and he emailed me back.

Super nice. I've recommended his program to a friend. I don't know if they went forward or not. I'll ask and see what I hear back.

I give two thumbs up! 🙂

 

 

[desertflower]

Thanks Alicia.  Would appreciate it.  It's nice to know that he responds. 

[skctgbrlis]

I’ve had four of my children use OYAN so far.  One also attended summer workshop several times and two were very active in the online community.  Mr. S does a fabulous job of teaching the concept of “story” so that students understand how to both recognize and construct a compelling plot. 
I wouldn’t call the curriculum rigorous or  classical. It feels fun. I still consider it one of the best curriculum choices I’ve made. 🙂

[desertflower]

3 minutes ago, skctgbrlis said:

I’ve had four of my children use OYAN so far.  One also attended summer workshop several times and two were very active in the online community.  Mr. S does a fabulous job of teaching the concept of “story” so that students understand how to both recognize and construct a compelling plot. 
I wouldn’t call the curriculum rigorous or  classical. It feels fun. I still consider it one of the best curriculum choices I’ve made. 🙂

Great!  Thanks for the info! 

[Alicia64]

53 minutes ago, desertflower said:

Thanks Alicia.  Would appreciate it.  It's nice to know that he responds. 

I emailed her. I have a feeling she didn't use it, but I'll let you know what she says.

[EKS]

We never made it through the program, but I was impressed with what we did get through.  My son and I each had a workbook and we did it together.  The problem we had with it was that it is Christian, which I knew going in.

[desertflower]

43 minutes ago, Alicia64 said:

I emailed her. I have a feeling she didn't use it, but I'll let you know what she says.

No worries if you forget.  I know life can get busy.  Thanks for trying!  I appreciate your feedback.

[desertflower]

1 minute ago, EKS said:

We never made it through the program, but I was impressed with what we did get through.  My son and I each had a workbook and we did it together.  The problem we had with it was that it is Christian, which I knew going in.

Thanks for your input EKS!

[BakersDozen]

My students and I really wanted to like this program and I feel that once we dropped the novel part, it got better for everyone.

Things started well - kids were enjoying the literature and workbook. But we all felt that the workbook went so............slowly. And concepts were repeated over and over and over. It became drudgery and one by one the students stopped using the workbooks. I had just one student who wanted to actually finish her novel yet she did so on her own and not following the workbook.

I did not want to read some of the literature (Blood Ship, Black Rock), yet we did read both of Anthony Hope's novels as well as Huckleberry Finn, Captain's Courageous (which was hit or miss with the kids), A Christmas Carol, King Solomon's Mines, and That Printer of Udell's. Overall the literature was satisfactory, however I would not include KSM should we go through the program again.

I can't say this was my most favorite literature/writing course, but it wasn't the worst, either.

[desertflower]

Thanks Bakersdozen! Sorry that it was a bad experience.  I didn't realize that it was that many books to read as well, so thanks for the info. 

[Serenade]

31 minutes ago, desertflower said:

Thanks Bakersdozen! Sorry that it was a bad experience.  I didn't realize that it was that many books to read as well, so thanks for the info. 

Hah!  I didn't even realize it had reading requirements other than the Prisoner of Zenda.  My son mostly did the program on his own, and I reviewed it with him from time to time, and I never saw these other book requirements.  I bought the program about 5 years ago, so maybe it changed?  Or maybe my son didn't tell me about them?  At any rate I didn't see the books as a requirement in the grading portion.  So maybe they are just suggestions?

Back to the program. We were trying to do the Four Year Adventure Novel 😀, and dividing it over many years was a mistake.  We did this to try to fit it into a very busy schedule, but instead, it dragged too much this way, and by the 4th year, when my son would have finished his novel, he lost interest. I blame myself for this because of the way we scheduled it, and then I didn't check often enough that he was following through.  I was going to require him to finish to graduate homeschool, but as he told me, "Creative writing is not something that can be forced."  So I let it go, although I was not happy about it.

He loved it at first as a 9th grader, but as time went on it had to compete time-wise with other things, so that is why I don't recommend dividing it up over years like we did.  Still, I think my son learned a lot.  He analyzes literature based on the things he learned in this program, and his standards for quality are way higher than mine! 

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Serenade

[desertflower]

Thanks Serenade!

[BakersDozen]

6 hours ago, desertflower said:

I didn't realize that it was that many books to read as well, so thanks for the info. 

The reading was optional; I just picked through the suggestions and chose what I thought was best. The literature was the highlight of the course, not the novel writing, imo.

[Paige]

On 6/25/2021 at 4:15 PM, EKS said:

We never made it through the program, but I was impressed with what we did get through.  My son and I each had a workbook and we did it together.  The problem we had with it was that it is Christian, which I knew going in.

How heavy handed is it? I don’t mind some Christian references, but I really don’t want theology in it or anything that’s too pushy. For example I’ve happily used CLE in several subjects and Pathway Readers were a favorite but I couldn’t endure Mystery of History. 
 

We’d probably skip the literature choices because we have a heavy literature load already planned for other subjects and I prefer my booklist but DD really wants a creative writing elective. I keep adding it and then crossing it off my list for her next year. 

[EKS]

I don't remember explicit Christian references.  It was the heavyhanded worldview stuff that did us in.

[Loowit]

My boys went through it this last school year.  I thought it was good.  Neither boy completely finished their novel, but I feel like they learned a lot.  It did a lot to help my boys to understand plot development, story structure, creating believable characters, etc.

We didn't read any full novels, except The Prisoner of Zenda, but we read the excerpts from other novels that were in the guide.  My youngest will be doing By-line this coming year.

I didn't find it to be Christian curriculum, although he has a definite worldview.  I wouldn't have pegged it as Christian per se, but it could be that it was because I agreed with a lot of what the guy was teaching about heroes and such but I can see how it could be off putting if you didn't agree.  It was not in your face Christian like Apologia science or something.