Comparing 5 Homeschool Writing Programs II Lightning Literature, Writing with Ease, Sonlight, etc!

In this video I'm chatting about my thoughts on Brave Writer Jot It Down, Lightning Literature, Writing with Ease, Sonlight Language Arts, and Essentials in Writing. I detail my journey through all the programs, highlighting both the pros and the cons ... in my opinion :)

#sonlight
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Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:31 Jot It Down
3:58 Lightning Literature
7:01 Writing with Ease
9:57 Sonlight Language Arts
12:58 Essentials in Writing

Links:
Equipment used:
Editing Software: Adobe Premiere Pro
Music: YouTube Free Library

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Hi! I’m Angie. I’m a homeschooling mom to 4 amazing kiddos (7, 6, 3, and 3 years old). On this channel I enjoy sharing our homeschooling journey as well as my serious love for all the books! You can expect videos on homeschooling curriculum, schedules, and tips/tricks as well as book reviews, wrap-ups, and book hauls. Excited to have you following along!!

NOTE: Some of the links above may be affiliate links. If you purchase through the link that I have provided, I may receive a small commission. There will not be an additional charge to you, I appreciate your support!

Where to find me!

[wtv]

Teaching Grammar and writing IS my strong area as a homeschool mom. I have a bachelors degree in Journalism and I am a devotional writer. I loved your review of all of the curriculums....and I am here to tell you...follow your gut for your kid! believe SOME children will just naturally WANT to write stories, but for many they absolutely DO NOT and the creativity necessary for this is a skill that we cannot FORCE to flow out of them! I like using Copy-work, narration, transcription and dictation for all of elementary school. Beginning in middle school I add in some composition instruction. I am looking to use EIW for that this year! For elementary school...begining in 4th grade, I like to use Simply Charlotte Mason: Using Language Well/ Spelling Wisdom. Great Review!

[elizabethglowacz]

Wow! I LOVED this video!!! I have recently taken upon the task of homeschooling a 6th grader as my job. When I started about two months back, they were using spectrum as a core curriculum, which is supposed to be supplemental. So, I have completely over hauled his curriculum. But I feel exactly the same way about ELA as you do, I love reading and write creatively on my own but feel clueless on how to teach it. I also never really have had a passion for literature analysis. Math and science have always been my comfort subjects. So in doing research about curriculum I feel like so many homeschool moms love literature and grammar and English is their comfort subject so I feel underprepared. We've been doing Grammar Galaxy these past couple of months and while its been going pretty well I feel like it focuses way too much on grammar and lit analysis and there's hardly any writing involved even though it is advertised as a complete English curriculum. In my opinion I don't find a grammar curriculum really important, I was homeschooled as well and never took grammar, but was able to start college at 15 and get mostly A's. I read another comment that said, "I feel all this comes from lots of reading. Paragraphing, grammar, spelling etc., all can be learnt in a natural process through just absorption of reading good material." and I couldn't agree more! My, dad who homeschooled me, really just pushed writing, writing, writing, and reading, reading, reading and it worked! (We did Institute of Excellence in Writing [it obviously worked but I hated that curriculum so I don't want to put another kid through it haha])

We've been moving through the Grammar Galaxy book rather speedily and are about half way through so I've been looking into what we are going to do next and was pretty much settled on Essentials in writing but in doing history curriculum research I stumbled upon the well trained mind website and so found Writing with skill (the middle school of writing with ease) and now can't decide which to do! I love the video aspect of EIW and the scoring tool for after 7th grade which we would be using next year. But I love how much WWS breaks down the lessons into really bite sized pieces and has a good amount of repetition.

anyways sorry for the long comment, great video!

[melodychan]

I always love your videos! I’d love a more detailed flip through of Jot it Down and Sonlight. These two are really jumping out at me!

[LauMarLi]

I started out homeschooling my children with only secular curriculum and have since almost abandoned all of them and moved on to more classical approaches to education, like Susan Wise Bauer. The classical method works so much better with my children. I love the focus on dictation, copy work and repetition.

[tessacoleman]

This was so helpful and confirmed my choice to try Writing with Ease for my struggling writer.

[ProjectHappyHome]

Thanks so much for your video! We’ve had great success with lightning lit, but I think their composition section is the weakest portion of that curriculum. Much stronger for reading comprehension, literary analysis, and grammar. Our casual writing practice is based largely on Julie Bogart’s Writer’s Jungle - I haven’t used her curriculum, but I like how her philosophy encourages kids to find their own voice. With the K/1 level, we do a lot of story starters with magazine pictures or stickers, and we keep the writing expectations low in terms of volume (just a few sentences). My eldest has had remarkable progress in expository writing this year with IEW, and I have to make that video soon. We’re going to try WTM’s Writing With Skill next year for 6th to add some variety. I’ve been curious about Essentials in Writing, so this was helpful. 😊 Thanks!

[brittanyedwards]

I don’t know the ages of your children, but public schooled children really begin writing paragraphs in 1st grade, stories/summaries in 2nd-3rd grades, and then formal essays in 4th grade (at least in my state).

I just ordered IEW for my 6th grader—I’m excited about it! But I also enjoyed seeing all of these other programs you reviewed. Thanks for the video!

[upcountrycharlottemason]

I felt a similar struggle when I began homeschooling. A great writer's handbook gave me the confidence that I needed. I now have a large collection of writer's handbooks and that is how I teach composition. In the elementary years I just adore Michael Clay Thompson for teaching grammar, mechanics, usage, vocabulary, and the art of sound through poetry. After we graduate from MCT we use Excellence In Literature (which includes composition) with a heavy focus on the online resources to round it all out. MCT and Excellence in Literature are more geared toward gifted learners. Even though my learners are science/engineering focused, the approach of these two ELA programs challenged them to grow into great writers; which is so important even in those STEM fields.

[jessriffel]

We are using EIW Level 2 this year with my 7 year old and she can now write!! She can do it and is so proud of herself. EIW breaks it down so much that it is possible for them to be successful! Hope you like it as much as we do. Also, if she is tired I answer and write every other question/sentence - this gives her a break but also allows me to model for her.

[annettarkun]

Such a helpful review! Thank you! We used LL this year for my 5th grader but like you I felt it didn’t support me enough with writing. We’ll use EIW this year and I’m so excited. It looks like it checks all my boxes. For my 2nd grader we’ll do Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons. I agree, composition isn’t that much of a highlight at that age but I wanted to ease him into it.

[Tonlocaj]

We are using EIW Level 3 with the online videos this year and the short videos are perfect for my ADHD kiddo and for me to let someone else take the wheel lol. I have heard some kids don't love that it's grammar intensive for the first half of the year but it's working well for us. I do supplement with The Writing Revolution exercises and I think the combo is working well.

[jessicajones]

In my opinion, I feel all this comes from lots of reading. Paragraphing, grammar, spelling etc, all can be learnt in a natural process through just absorption of reading good material. X

[jennasosa]

I never did any formal writing or grammar through Kindergarten and 1st grade for my kids (heeding the wisdom of others). However last spring, with the CAT, I realized that this ended up being an area of weakness for my 1st grader (and it's not an area of strength for her). So we are going IEW and EIW and I think they have been good. Institute for Excellence in Writing is definitely more of a challenge. EIW provides basic grammar intro, which I like. We are happy with our choices this year. My kids have pen pals too and I don't edit their letters or help them write those...so it helps to see where they are at without any influence from me. 😬👍🏼

[EjKep]

This is really helpful! I am a planner and so am already planning for next school year (when my oldest will be in first grade). LOL...So, I am excited to see what the writing curriculum options are. I have LOVED using the "First Language Lessons" with him this year in kindergarten...so I've been curious about WTM's writing program and I keep hearing about IEW...so definitely going to look into it some more. Thanks for your video! You always do such a great job!! And, I would love to see more of a flip-through of IEW. :-)

[MW-]

I got the idea from another homeschool mom to alternate EIW with another ELA program (she uses Abeka) every other year so she teaches the strong grammar with Abeka then the next year she uses EIW for more focused writing instruction. I love this idea. We use TGATB for ELA which I don’t think has the greatest writing instruction either so I plan to try EIW next year (this is for my older kids but I think it could work for the younger grades as well.)

[dianacalle]

Last year (1st grade) we only did a workbook and it worked great. It was probably only once or twice a week (Scholastic Writing 1). They hated writing but they didn’t mind doing that particular workbook and it was the only thing we did writing wise really. So I got it again for 2nd grade and Evan Moor writing 2nd grade and it seems to be working fine! I hope you find your perfect curriculum!!!!

[karenu.]

This reminded me so much of my journey! I’ve tried all of these two minus the fathers world and had the same reasonings as you! I’m also looking into EIW for this year or next. Thanks for sharing!

[dariusmannino]

Great video! For 4th-6th grades, I think you would really like BJU Press English. The writing is step-by-step and shows a grade-level example so that you and your child know exactly what the expectation is. I don’t like it for the lower grades or for middle school, but 4th-6th is great. Something to put on a list for the future perhaps. Best wishes!

[caryndavis]

Sonlight introduces the writing process in LA3, using a system they call, “diamond notes.” It’s something we have found to work wonderfully. Just wanted to put that out there in case anyone assumed Sonlight lacks this structured teaching of the writing process from only having seen the lower levels.

[gbcflower]

I have used Easy Grammar in the upper elementary grades. That was the curriculum that helped me to finally understand grammar. I think I will use Easy Grammar for each of my kids that is past phonics this coming school year. That will be 8th grade, 5th grade and 2nd grade. I am considering her Easy Writing book for my 5th grader. I think my 8th grader will be doing IEW while my second grader will focus on copy work, dictation and oral narration (similar to writing with ease). I pull copy work from the Bible and the McGuffey Readers. What I have done in the past is to have my child copy the same selection three or four days in a row and then do a dictation on that selection at the end of the week. That was a very effective method and I think I'm going to return to it this coming school year. Easy Grammar then gives the direct instruction while the copy work provides the examples.