I know what you mean Melanie! One Year Adventure Novel is SO expensive. We bought it at convention so we didn’t have to pay shipping. It was one of those things I knew about several years ago and had considered. The things I love about it:
1. The lessons are on DVD. There are 78 dvd lessons! Makayla can work independent of me if she wants to. And often she does. There is also a lesson book to read in after watching the dvd, and a workbook you do exercises in that are working toward your novel in the first semester (in 2nd semester you flesh it out the rest of the way). She has found it to be extremely helpful overall, she really is learning tons and will have a workable draft of a novel by the end (far more workable than her own attempts at writing a novel without this guide).
2. Subsequent children can use it simply by purchasing a new workbook (gets them a membership on the student forum too, where you have access to others writing novels as well as the author of the curriculum). That costs $30. So for subsequent kids it’s a much more reasonable investment.
3. It’s part of Makayla’s passion. Supporting that is worth it, in the end, because it means she loves this part of school. She fully plans to move on to the second course, Other Worlds, to learn more about writing Sci-Fi and Fantasy when she completes this one.
