My son used both last year for ninth grade. I was amazed at how much his writing improved and how much more he understood with the literature component. What he really liked was how things were explained. He also liked how the reading load wasn’t too heavy because the concepts are taught through a majority of short stories and articles instead of novels. When they do read the novel most of the concepts have already been introduced so they go more in-depth. It really helped my son to understand the motivations of some of the characters. Considering his autism this was an enormous breakthrough for him. I think if your girls do the same subjects at the same time you might want two books but if they don’t they could share a book.

Sharon

We began using Essentials in Writing when my oldest daughter was in sixth grade. Before this we had used several other writing programs, but Essentials in Writing was so straight forward and easy to understand that she finally quit complaining about writing and even learned to enjoy it. She continued to use it all the way through her tenth grade year, and then in eleventh grade she started an online PSEO College Research and Writing class. She was very nervous until she saw the syllabus and realized that it was exactly what she had been doing all along in Essentials in Writing. In fact, she found the college class to be easier than high school! All the years of practicing writing different types of essays, learning how to organize her thoughts and outline her papers, and the step-by-step guidance of the revision process, really gave her the confidence to not only do well in her college class, but to earn an overall score of 99%.

This is a complete testament to the effectiveness of Essentials in Writing since this is what she has used from the beginning, and we will absolutely continue to use it with our other children.

Dawn

Hi! I am currently using EIW with my two 8th graders and they love it!! We just decided to pull our 3rd grader out of public to homeschool him and he will start level 3 on Monday. I absolutely LOVE this program! My 15 year old daughter struggles with ADHD and anxiety and this program was made for her!! Small chunks, concepts explained well, not overwhelming…it’s perfect! We have used other writing curriculum in the past that was so overwhelming. This program is much more manageable and since the concepts are taught in small chunks, my kids (especially my daughter) feel such a sense of accomplishment when finishing an assignment. We live near Charlotte, NC and we have 4 kids…22,15,14, and 8. Happy to be in this group!

Becky