What Grammar/Writing do you recommend for my children?

For the 10th grader:

Is he/she a natural speller? That would help determine a direction for spelling.

Vocabulary: require he/she find a minimum number of words per chapter to annotate and keep a vocabulary journal. If more is needed/wanted, such as learning more words based on root words, Vocabulary from Classical Roots series  or Rummy Roots, which is a game.

Writing:
10th:

The Power in your Hands (no experience here)

Or

The Elegant Essay

11th:

Windows to the World  (I consider this indispensable for learning how to do various lit. analysis papers). Can be 1 semester or 1 year long. Jan Pikes has a syllabus you can use to make it a year-long program.

12th:

Writing Research Papers: The Essential Tools

In 11th and 12th, continue practicing the skills learned in 10th using the books your child is reading.

Grammar:

Our Mother Tongue  (Ambleside Online has a syllabus for using this over 2 years). Answer key is available.

Jensen’s Grammar; Jensen’s Punctuation 

Analytial Grammar– completed over a 3-year period.

For my 9th grader:

For writing we are going to finish Jump In for writing and then do The Power In Your Hands. I don’t expect to finish Power In Your Hands until sometime during 10th grade. I am not sure where we will go from there.  We started Jump In just before Christmas.  It has introduced writing in small, easy to do chunks. We didn’t have any previous writing experience.  I would think that your 10th grader could start with Power In Your Hands.  They are the same author.  My 7th grader will start Jump In this coming year. I might spread it over 2 years for her.

For grammar I plan on using Get Smart from Grammar Revolution and will use their Stay Smart and Sentence Diagramming Exercises workbooks for review.  We have dabbled in grammar but do not have a solid grasping of it. I’m not sure if we will use Get Smart over 1 year or 2.  There are 37 lessons.  There are videos to teach each lesson.  I plan to use this program for both my 9th and 7th grader.

Spelling is still a big issue for my DD because of dyslexia.  We have been having success with Spelling Power and will continue using it throughout high school.  I like Spelling Power because the kids test into whichever level they are at.  Each day there is a review of misspelled words until they have them correct and a test over new words.  They only study the words that they misspell.  My oldest will complete about 1.5 levels this year and my youngest will complete 2.  There is review built in.  My youngest will likely finish the program by the end of 8th and not need to do any formal spelling in H.S.

Literature at this point will come from a variety of sources.  I think I will use some of the study guides from 7sisters.  Some books I think I’ll just have her done a book report on.  Some we will read and discuss orally.

For vocabulary we plan to watch Word Up! from Compass Classroom.  We will probably pick out unknown words from our readings to learn, too.