I LOVE books. Good Books. And so do my kids. BUT, I will admit that we haven’t had a set literature program that we have used, for many reasons….
When the crew was offered the chance to review a literature program from Hewitt, I was a bit skeptical, and wasn’t sure that I wanted in on this review. I looked through the different levels, and decided to try it because I liked the books that the kids would be analyzing and learning composition from, and I felt that the programs would be ones that we would use repeatedly with different kids.
I chose Hewitt’s 8th Grade Literature course, and received the teacher’s guide, the student guide, and the consumable student workbook. I actually assigned parts of the lit course to 2 of the kids. While it is designed for 8th grade, I did ask Beth, who is 16, if she would do the parts of the curriculum that covered reading and analyzing The Hobbit (because she is really into Tolkien right now) . Since Beth is older, I really asked her to do it as a favor, and not part of her schoolwork. I did figure that I would have to cajole her into finishing it for me, but I didn’t have to a bit. She really enjoyed it (course, she really enjoyed how easy it was too since it’s for 8th graders! ;), and she even asked me if I was going to order her one of Hewitt’s high school lit courses!!! If you know Bethy, she NEVER ASKS for schoolwork! LOL!!!
I also had Thomas, who is 13, and will be in 8th grade this fall (or would be if we did grades, or started our school year in the fall! hehehe!!!), to work through the Treasure Island section of the curricula. Ideally, I think it would be best to work through the books chronologically, as they are in the student guides, but since we only had a little over a month, and this is a yearlong subject, we just picked and chose as we wanted. Thomas is a fantastic reader, and he enjoys literature, so he didn’t have any trouble with his Treasure Island assignments. They both loved that the course could be so student directed as they are independent learners; I loved that I could pretty much choose my level of involvement as a teacher, and that it was very easy to figure out what the kids were learning and check on their progress.
Both kids discovered thoughts, ideas, and suggestive thinking that they ‘felt’ in the reading of the book, but didn’t really analyze the authors intent or reasoning until they worked through the student guide and workbook. I appreciated how enjoyable the workbook was for the kids with crossword puzzles and word finds and other varied activities.
I will admit that our teacher’s guide didn’t get cracked open much – while it does provide all the answers to the questions the students are asked, as the teacher, if you are familiar with the story, it is easy to read through and double check that your student’s comprehension is thorough. We did, however, use the teacher’s guide when it came to making sure that the writing assignments were well done. I would definitely consider it an integral part of the curriculum to get the most out of it. And I did LOVE that the teacher’s guide included a weekly planning schedule/overview (complete with check-off box), so you can tell at a glance what is expected for that week’s studies. It made it very easy to tell at a glance if we would be able to complete the work for the week without having to wade through a bunch of details.
In asking both kids to review this for me, I was looking for, among other things; how teacher dependant it was, how enjoyable for the student, and difficulty level. Much of this depends on the student’s age of course, but I found that even for Thomas, it was student directed, and my main role was to check over his answers and explanations to ensure that he understood the assignment. While we did discuss the assignments and what he learned, he was able to do most of the work without help. The kids enjoyed the literature title choices, and I anjoyed that Hewitt is a company that is concerned not only with academic knowledge, but also with character building, because I’m a firm believer that the kind of person my child grows up to be is much more important than the facts they memorize. I do think that we will get more out of it when we restart the curriculum as a group (3 of the boys together), and work through the entire curriculum chronologically.
Hewitt Homeshooling Resource‘s Lightning Lit and Comp course consists of 3 parts: the teacher’s guide ($20), the student’s guide ($25), and the student’s consumable workbook ($25). You can also purchase the complete curriculum, including all 7 (paperback) books utilized in the study, for $125.95. Because so much of it is non-consumable, it is very affordable for families with multiple kids. Hewitt Homeschol Resources has school curriculum/books available for almost any subject and grade.
My overall opinion of Hewitt’s Lit and Comp course? I LOVE it! I will be looking into getting the other upper grade curriculum for my other kiddos! And since the TOS crew got to review all the different lit courses that Hewitt offers, I’ll be heading over to the TOS Crew linky to check out the reviews on their other levels also!
*disclaimer: I received a free 8th grade literature curriculum set (teachers guide, student guide, and student workbook) for free in exchange for my honest opinion of the product.
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