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teachingmyown
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| Posted: April 10 2013 at 9:32pm | IP Logged
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I am looking for input on this program. My totally non-writing 15 year old son watched the demo DVD and is interested in doing the course. It is a bit pricey for us, so I would love to hear others' experiences with it.
Thanks!
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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SallyT
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| Posted: April 11 2013 at 6:50am | IP Logged
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My now-15-year-old 9th grader did this program last year and loved it. It taught him a lot about structuring writing, planning, and pre-writing, in addition to actual writing (you spend about half the year setting up the novel and thinking about aspects of plot and character). It also taught him quite a lot about literary analysis. At one point in the year, he was reading Dickens' Great Expectations while working on his novel, and I asked him to think about it as an "adventure novel" and Pip as an "adventure hero." We had some interesting conversations on that theme -- how the novel and Pip both did and didn't fit into that "adventure" paradigm.
It is pricey, but I got it at a discount from the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op, and I hope to use it with the next two children in line, so that justified the cost in my mind as I was buying it! I really do think it's a very good course. For us, it worked brilliantly as "8th grade language arts," for all the reasons detailed above. The disciplines he learned through OYAN were a good bridge to more formal writing for high school. It could work as a high-school composition course as well, or as a "creative writing" elective.
Anyway, as you can see, we liked it. Thumbs up.
Sally
PS: I think a non-writing child would really benefit from this, *if* the interest is his. I would definitely concentrate on the process rather than the product, and consider that he had learned a lot from the setting-up part of the course and *whatever* writing he does as a result, even if he doesn't produce a whole novel. It's also a very good course for boys, particularly, because of the adventure aspect -- it concentrates on action, not emotiveness! Not that girls wouldn't like it, too, but I think it's harder to find writing courses that appeal to boys . . .
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: April 15 2013 at 3:54pm | IP Logged
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Thanks, Sally! Just what I wanted to hear! 
My son actually requested it so I'm hopeful.
It's on sale at HSBC now.
__________________
In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: One Year Adventure Novel
