One Year Adventure Novel

by Joy
(Franklin, PA)

This year my daughter chose to use the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum. She has a desire to write novels and we have tried other approaches through the years, always finding the other curriculum left her hanging.

With OYAN she has entertaining lessons on DVD, a workbook, quizzes and reading assignments. The box contains everything necessary aside from writing utensils and the creativity of the student.

The first semester of the course is focused on the skeleton of the story. This is where my daughter was stretched to complete the exercises. She would come to me saying how hard the assignment was, but it was "so good!" as it stretched her while giving specific guidance.

Also during first semester they look at what makes a good adventure story. The students are assigned sections of various adventure novels as examples (Prisoner of Zenda is included in the box).

For the second semester the student is to write their novel from all of the exercises they worked on during the first semester.

My daughter will not have a complete novel in one school year, but is not disappointed with her progress. Mr. S. encouraged her telling her that sometimes you do need to take longer.

One other great thing about this curriculum is that they offer webinars on various topics and (at least this summer) they are offering a summer workshop at MidAmerica Wesleyan University. They also have very active student forums and Mr. S is available in the forums to answer questions.

We have been very pleased with this curriculum.