I was happy to have the chance to review Applied Grammar High School Level with my 9^th grader these last few months. Finding a program that works for him and one that is simple for me to understand has always been a tough one, but with Applied Grammar I was happy with what I found.

Applied Grammar High School Level is a 4-year program that aims to perfect your child’s ability to write essays, term papers, research papers and even creative writing. There is even a section on poetry and a very strong literature component. You get the complete 4-year program in one teacher book (the student is writing completely in a binder at this point) along with writing folder inserts for your child for $25.

There is no required literature for Applied Grammar. You get to choose the books that work for you! This to me was one of the highlights of this program. There is a list of authors that are recommended for different time periods, but no required books to search for, in fact, we used books from our book shelf and from the local library with great success!

Applied Grammar is set up to have you work on one lesson a week for the duration of four years’ time. Each lesson is of different length, and requires a different amount of time, but all can be done within the week. Along with working on the lesson during the week, your child will be reading for 45 minutes’ worth of time with the book of choice for the time. After reading their book for the day, the child will spend some time writing in their literature journal. This journal is where you will be able to see what your child is reading, and also see them put into practice what they are learning.

In a typical day in our house, we would work on a part of the lesson. After the lesson is done for the day, we would split off and my son would work on his reading for 45 minutes and follow that up with around 30 minutes in his journal. We would sit down together 2-3 times each week to make sure that he was understanding the topics he was learning.

Each week brought new topics to the essays we were working on. And each week, we would write a new essay. While I loved the practice being given to my son, he was a little resentful towards it at first. I was able to notice this, and work with him. This meant that I would personally grade what we had worked on in the past and what we were currently working on. Once he noticed this, we were set and having fun again.

Applied Grammar High School Level is a wonderful way to work on your child’s writing skills over the next four years while choosing the books you want your child to read. This is my favorite part of the program. I love being able to find a book that works for literature and one other subject we are working on. That is one of the best things in the homeschooling world!

While the essays start right away, they are easy to work with and adapt to make them work for you and your child. Year 1 is meant for 9^th grade, year 2 for 10^th grade and so on assuming your child has a brief knowledge of writing, what a paragraph is and how to make a basic paper. You will build upon future knowledge, so this is great to start in 9^th grade in my opinion.

Applied Grammar High School Level is a great addition to our homeschool day. I love how much we can add to this or change to make it work. This program makes it easy to use as is, or adapt, either higher or lower depending on your child. I look forward to continuing this program and using it in the upcoming years as we need it!

-Product review by Amanda Hopkins, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, April, 2016