We’ve used a lot of writing programs. Like I said in a previous post, we’ve used a lot trying to find one that works well and that we can work with. In that post I originally started to go over all the programs we’ve used, but decided that needed to be it’s own separate post. So I’ve decided to do an overview of the programs we have used.

We started with Writing Strands in 2nd grade. Kaelee really didn’t like the program. She thought it was too babyish. Because she complained about it so much we never came back to it even though it’s highly recommended.

We used Writing Tales 1 for a year in 3rd grade, but then had to move on because there wasn’t another book out. There still is only 2 books for the series. I really like WT. It’s a solid writing program with incremental steps, but it’s easy to implement. It uses the classical approach to writing with lots of fables and rewriting.

We then used Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Ancient History Writing Program. It’s a good program. It just kind of drove both of us crazy with how thematic it was. The dress-ups were just too distracting. Kaelee would get hung up on them and not finish the rest of the writing very well. I got so hung up on them when I should have just ignored them for the most part and focused on the other stuff. Looking over some of their other programs has me interested in them again. And the pdf for Ancient History is only $20 so I think it probably would be a good try out for anyone who’s interested.

We then used Classical Writing’s Older Beginner set. It’s a great program. And I think if I understood it better and was able to implement it better we could have stayed with it more. It just takes a lot of parent planning, pre-reading, and involvement. A lot. Like hours and hours. And I just couldn’t.

So I’ve bought Writer’s Jungle and Help for High School. Even though they aren’t actual programs, I’m hoping they’ll help in my teaching Kaelee to write well. As well as helping my writing. I’ve also bought Susan Wise Bauer’s mp3 of Literary Analysis, Writing Without Fear, and Teaching Writing from Peace Hill Press.

I also bought Meaningful Composition 6+. I’m hoping we can get through that book pretty quickly and move on to some of the other books. I chose MC because it has books that go into high school. (Kind of . There are two high school books available with more planned.) A lot of books I looked at didn’t have enough books to do more writing in and I’m tired of switching. I’d like to find one good program that works for us and we can stay with it. The author bills it as a sort-of IEW program. She says she tried to combine thing that she liked from different programs and make it more cohesive and easier to do. I’m hoping that is what happens.

I had also looked at Apologia’s Jump-In writing program, but it’s only one book. I know once we have the basics down we shouldn’t need to continue with a separate program and we would just keep writing across the curriculum, but for now I want to plan on having what I’ll need for the duration.

Now that I’m starting over again, I’ll use Writing With Excellence. There’s 4 years out with more on the way. Hopefully it’ll get the boys through school.

The Homeschool Buyer’s Coop had a special a couple of months ago on Bravewriter’s The Writer’s Jungle. I bought it (and Help for High School) because writing is always something that we struggle with. Mainly because it’s something that I know is so necessary in life to do well. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard Robert come home complaining about how someone at work couldn’t write a basic report. I really wish Susan Wise Bauer had her Middle School writing program out. But for now we’re doing what we can.

The special HSBC had was on the ebooks. So I had to print them out myself. I looked into sending them someplace and having them printed and bounded, but it was more expensive than buying it already printed to start with. So after some thinking, I bought a laser b&w printer. I’ve thought about it for a few years, but finally decided to get one with this year’s tax return. I’m loving it. It’s so fast and nice. We use the toner saving mode to help with printing. I went ahead and printed out the entire ebook for The Writer’s Jungle. I just can’t read an ebook and take notes (mentally or on paper) well enough. So I printed it out.

The book is formatted so there’s spaces to take notes in the pages. It’s also formatted so that each chapter can be printed duplex (both sides) individually. You don’t have to worry about the first page of a chapter being on the back page of the previous chapter. One hint I have it to not print everything at once. Someone on the WTM message boards did that and her printer added one page to many so everything was off.

So once everything was printed I used my binder to put the book into 4 book. I had to use 4 because my machine doesn’t do 100 pages. I can do about 50. And the book is 200+ pages. So here’s how I did it.

You need a binder and coils. My binder is a Carl Tozicle. I’ve had it for quite a few years now. It’s not made any more. And it looks like the newer binding machines are cheaper and easier to use than mine. Enough, that I’ve thought about buying a new one, but can’t justify it because I don’t use it that often. You can also buy plastic covers to put on your binders, but I just used cardstock. You will also need 2 extra coils so that when your boys use the coils for sword fighting you can just throw away the bent ones instead of trying to straighten them out.

Punch the pages. Most of the home binders will only do a handful of pages at a time. Like 5-10.

Line up the coils.

Put the paper in the coil.

And bind.

I went ahead and added some Sharpie marker and nailpolish on the edge so that I can tell the set apart from other books I’ve made. I wasn’t sure what will last longer so I did both.

I didn’t do a fancy cover. Just wrote the book & number on the cover. I’ll have Kaelee decorate them later. And there you go. The Writer’s Jungle.