What do you use and why? What have you tried and tossed? Do you separate grammar, writing, "English," literature, etc?

Suzanne

Hi! I am a student, and usually get great grades in English (Language Arts), without ever studying for tests. I have not started high school yet, but will be soon. We already have the books! I am so excited, especially about the Literature!
I have been doing Christian Light since first grade (actually I basically skipped 1st grade). I thrive in it, and enjoy the spelling, and the penmanship has helped my handwriting, although I haven't really needed it. Though I do well in Language Arts, I don't especially enjoy it. But I LOVE to write! To write stories, essays, etc. It is so much fun!
In Christian Light 9th grade materials for English is 5 light units of English 1, and 5 light units of Literature 1. Sounds like fun! Especially the literature!
I really enjoy Christian Light materials.
I don't know if this was any help to you, just my ideas about English! Thank you!
God bless!
Agape

Two things I am especially curious about:

Commas Are Our Friends
Winston Word Works

I think I have literature, writing, and vocabulary covered, but I'm looking to fill in the "English" gap- not quite ready to drop grammar and usage. We tried ACE English for the first time this year- not going to stick with it.

Other suggestions are welcome!

This post was edited on Nov 06, 2009 08:04 AM

Easy Grammar w/ or w/out Daily Grams

BJU is another option that I am considering.
Also, R+S for just the Grammar - use the books for gr 5-8 or 7-10 for HS.

We are going to go with BJu and see how it goes. I like the layout of the course. We use HO and will do a study on a couple of the books we have to read for that. The fact that the BJU course is a semester but can be spread out over an entire school year is very appealling to me.

BTW, this is being taught in a co-op and I am not the one teaching. It is a small co-op, so even though the final decision in the teacher's, I get input on course selection.

We used a variety of materials through the years, and I did community college instead of high school, but it is common, at the high school level, for *English* to include grammar, composition, and literature each year.

Grammar, composition, spelling, vocabulary, reading/literature, even handwriting, are all components of "English."

With my 14yo ds and 16yo dd, we are using:

Winston Grammar (this year, it is review for 16yo. Next year, we'll use Word Works.)

The Write Stuff Adventure

Perfection Learning's Portals to Reading (14yo) and Portals to Literature (16yo) - We'll do about 4 guides/year.

This year dd is using Beautiful Feet for history, but it also includes a credit for Literature. She is also using Easy Grammar Plus, Spelling Wisdom, and Vocabulary Vine and will be adding in IEW as well.