Adventure Novel Update

I've blogged a few times about it, but E13 has been using the One Year Adventure Novel as his writing program this year. He's on the downhill side of 8th grade at this point and we plan to revisit OYAN in another couple of years to experience it again and see how his writing has matured. I cannot say enough about this program! We have learned so much about story and what makes a good book. I highly recommend it to all homeschooling families. Actually, I would recommend this program to any family regardless of their schooling choices. I challenge any of you to look at any story the same way after going through this curriculum. It has been a great talking point for E13 and I to discuss all stories old and modern and how they fit the model Mr. S shares in his lessons.

The program consists of 78 lessons each with a video lesson segment, a text reading, a workbook page/or novel writing portion, and read alouds from various adventure novels. Sometimes they are novel excerpts in the text but we have also been reading Prisoner of Zenda regularly.

E13 loves this program and R11 can hardly wait until it's her turn. We've recently added the forums to E's routine and he's had fun reading what other kids are writing and it's been fun for him to see other kids his age enjoying some of the same tastes in stories! On the forums, you can also read the work of other students which is pretty cool as well.

Not so long ago, he finished the summary of his novel. Would you like to see it?

Things are grim in Andwarda. Gestronza Vordyke, a former military leader, threatens peace and security. A collection of agents are trying to stop him, but things aren’t going well. Enter Colter Hargrove, a young, thirteen year old boy. After his parents are kidnapped by Gestronza, he joins the agents, bringing new hope to them. But will Colter be strong enough to beat Gestronza? Or will Vordyke get his revenge? Find out in E’s compelling adventure novel.

I've been doing this along with E13 and had started a novel, but I did not enjoy the turn it was taking so I took some time off. My job as mentor is to talk with him about his work and to evaluate it. For example, his premise for why his villain was vile was sort of weak. Through discussion we were able to come up with a premise much more compelling for why his villain has it in for the "agents". That's what I'm here for...to coach this process. I can't emphasize enough how valuable this has been for our homeschool.

At the end of the course, when he's finished his book, we plan to publish it with an online publishing service. This will be a fun way to have it in print and have others read it. 

Stay tuned for more updates. He's finished the writing and creating ideas within the boundaries Mr. S created. Now he's working on individual scenes through disasters and dilemmas that will take him through his novel. Pretty exciting stuff and such a well thought out process we have thoroughly enjoyed.