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Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) Core Writing Curriculum Review

IEW Core Writing Curriculum Review

(There are affiliate links in this post – click here to learn more. IEW® and Structure and Style® are registered trademarks of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. L.L.C.)

Writing is one of those subjects that puts fear in the hearts of homeschooling parents everywhere. After all, it’s been enshrined as one of the historic “3 R’s” so we’d better not mess it up, right?

Even if we aren’t aiming to raise the next Dickens or Tolkien, at the very least we want our kids to be able to write a professional cover letter or a college application essay.

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Our Homeschooling Family’s Experience with Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)

Our Homeschooling Family's Experience with Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)

(There are affiliate links in this post – click here to learn more. IEW® and Structure and Style® are registered trademarks of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. L.L.C. Fix It!™ is a trademark of the Institute for Excellence in Writing, L.L.C.)

We started using Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) products four years ago when my oldest son was in 4th grade. Since then, there hasn’t been a year we haven’t used at least one IEW product! 

Up until now, I haven’t had a chance to collect my thoughts and share about our IEW experiences. But that’s about to change! 

If you’re searching for a high quality language arts or writing curriculum, or if you’re wondering if IEW is the right choice for your family, you’re in the right place so read on!

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A Tour of Our Homeschool: Language Arts Shelves

A Tour of Our Homeschool - Language Arts Shelves

Early in my homeschool mom career, language arts caused a lot of confusion for me. There are so many subcategories within the subject – I just didn’t know where to begin.

Handwriting, reading (including phonics and sight words), spelling, grammar, composition, poetry, literature, public speaking…. What do I teach when? And how? Ahhh!

Over the years, I’ve been able to make better sense of it all. My curriculum shelves, however, still reveal the winding journey of trial and error I’ve gone through in the search for language arts resources for my kids.

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Our Curriculum Choices Year 6

Our Curriculum Choices Year 6 title on chalkboard background

I can’t believe it’s August again!

That means it’s time to share our homeschool plans for the year ahead. (If you’re curious about what we’ve used in the past, check out this post which has links to all the previous years.)

Year 6 Snapshot

We’re really in the thick of it now. I’ll be homeschooling my fifth and second grade boys and their three year old sister (whose unreliable, dwindling naps should make for a crazy-making an interesting year). 

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Year 5 Homeschool Progress Report: The Good, The Bad & The Unexpected – Part One

Year 5 Homeschool Progress Report The Good The Bad & The Unexpected Part 1 on striped colored background

A lot of homeschool bloggers like to post their yearly curriculum choices (like I’ve been doing in this series) for their readers. Over the years, I’ve found it incredibly helpful to see what other families are using.

But sometimes these “what we’re using this year” lists give the impression that choosing curriculum for the year is a once-and-done kind of thing. 

Totally not the case!   

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Our Curriculum Choices – Year 5

sensible homeschool our curriculum choices year five on chalkboard background

(There may be affiliate links on this page. For more information click here.)

If you haven’t done so yet, read the first post in this series here and check out Our Curriculum Choices – Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4.

Year 5 Snapshot

If you’ve been following this series of posts, we’ve now caught up to real time. I wrote about the first four years retroactively because I started this blog just before we began our fifth year of homeschooling. 

Since I can’t summarize a year that hasn’t happened yet, this snapshot will be a look at how our year has started so far. Later this school year I hope to post about lessons learned during Year 5… but I have to learn them first, so stay tuned. 

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