Honors classes in grade 9 - summer writing prep?

Hello there! Thank you all who have advised me on course selection for my only son, grade 8! He has been recommended for honors math and science, which he will do. He was not recommended for honors history, and thus will probably do honors English. (The English teacher has implied that she thought he could do one, but not both.) My son is a bit overloaded with extracurriculars so we are going to have him do Khan academy over the summer for both geometry and physics. Writing is a black hole to me, however. Is there any program that might help him get ready for more writing in honors English? I’m not sure he’ll find even regular history a cake walk. Summer is our best time to do anything.

Have you checked with his high school to see what summer classes are offered? It might be on your high school’s web site. Hands down, this will be the least expensive option, while familiarizing your son to his new school. Scheduling could be an issue, unless your son’s ECs go on hiatus for a few weeks.

Ours has a handful choices that meet your requirement from “Project Excel” classes (for various general subjects) to “Preparing for Advanced Placement in…” classes (by department than by specific subject). If you want to break it down to a specific subject, there are also “Freshman Academy” and “Preparation for…” classes.

Whoa to ruining his summer. He should be able to handle your district’s math and science based on what is taught at his middle school. The objective should not be to get extras to make the class easier- it could instead lead to boredom in the classes. Since you state he is overloaded with extracurriculars it sounds like he lacks time to just be a kid. The best thing you can do is to talk with his current English teacher to find out his strengths and weakness in the field and what s/he recommends. The best for doing well in language arts is a lot of reading- there’s so much good fiction out there in so many genres. Be sure he does NOT read what will be covered in the class. Goog grammar usage (not silly sentence diagramming- never did that)

Relax about your son’s future. Love the kid on the couch- be sure he has time to lounge on it. He needs to enjoy his life now, with a reasonable balance of activities and academics. In HS he should only participate in EC’s because he enjoys them and they do not interfere with his schoolwork. Do NOT prep his resume for college.

btw- I was in Honors English for HS and college required lit (before AP days). I hated to write. The worst thing you can do is to make your child do this this summer. My grammar skills came from extensive reading of books with good grammar. I happened to like sci fi and fantasy, still do.

Repeat- do not ruin your son’s summer trying to get him ahead. Eventually he will need to do the learning in the time allotted without a preview. Instead consider summer programs in his interests- those EC’s. Doing extras will not make him more competitive for colleges than those with more natural ability. He should enjoy every stage of life- not just prepare for some future that may not exist.

I agree with checking with the high school first. My dd’s high school had assigned summer work for almost all the honors and AP courses. Frankly it was more than enough preparation and a good amount of work. I wouldn’t tack on extras.

Thank you for the advice on writing. @wis75 You’re making a lot of assumptions. My son’s extracurriculars have come late and fierce. He has been loading them up through no prompting on our part. It’s too much, but they are so good for him in every way, we are trying to accommodate him. In fact, several of them are not going to help him with college at all. Given all that, his academics haven’t been uniformly solid this year, and he will be taking 4 out of 5 honors classes. The language honors class is also known to be harder than others. What I’m looking for is a computer program that would constitute a FEW HOURS A WEEK. If that’s “ruining summer,” perhaps I’m old enough to be nostalgic for the days of increasing responsibility and corresponding privileges. I had a summer job at his age and was a sophomore in high school. He will be enjoying his life-long camp, unrelated to any extracurricular other than fun.

For writing prep, especially at the honors level, online programs we tried were not too helpful. Maybe more helpful to work with a recommended local English tutor a few hours a week . That’s what I plan to do for my kid. In our district, all kids take the same level English in 9th grade and then have a choice in 10th grade for honors. The jump is huge, and so some writing prep in the summer can be helpful. At the very least, it can help to adjust to the level of expectations in an English honors course .

Check with the high school: he’ll likely have a reading list from which he’ll select two or three with essays to turn in on the first day of class. Most of the books are well written and thought provoking.
You could get him used to keeping a Summer log to bury somewhere and open when he leaves for college - a story of himself for his future self. Writing everyday about what he wants to write about, with no grammar checks, will teach him a lot - from the quiet of writing and thinking to the repeated habit. When you write a lot, like for anything, you get better at it.
A good novel is 79 squares: 8th grade proto delinquent spends time with old, recently released convict who assigns him one hour each day in a 1square foot area of his garden, looking.

Have him read over the summer. Read read read.

@bopper - You beat me to the punch. Read and Read and Read.