Your mom instincts are better than my opinion, but as an outsider, here is what I see.
If she wrote opinion papers on Shakespeare a few years ago, then her writing is better than you think. Many here don’t start a formal writing curriculum until junior high.
Whether you did formal language arts or not, she learned a lot by being around good speech, telling you about stories she liked, etc.
Having a more informal start is not terrible. Many students by high school are burned out and it is difficult to get them to do anything.
She should do well, because her desire to learn is intact.