Pathways to Success
Helping families navigate their homeschool journey.
Class Options
Choosing the best Pathway for your child's Success!
Full day - one day a week - junior high class.
This two-year cycle is geared toward students in grades 7 - 8 - 9.
(Students must be twelve years of age by the time we start class in August/September.)
Throughout the course of the year, we will explore our world through Grammar, Writing, Literature, Biblical Greek, and depending on the cycle: US History, Public Speaking, and writing their own Short Story OR World History, Critical Thinking, Current Events, and Science Fair.
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This class is designed for students to learn how to take ownership of their studies/schedule and become independent learners. It is the perfect precursor to help prepare the student for High School and beyond.
The Structure and Style® writing method found within the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) program gives us the ability to fill the student's toolbox with confidence-building tools, laying the groundwork for a lifetime of excellent writing.
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Adding in Fix It! Grammar™ encourages students to apply new grammar knowledge in every lesson while continuing to practice what they already know.
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I am excited to share that I am partnering with YES Writing, which is based in Ventura, CA, enabling me to accept Charter School funds for some of my IEW classes. Through this partnership, my IEW1 and IEW2 writing classes will be using the exclusive YES Writing curriculum. (This curriculum follows the Structure and Style of IEW but does not use IEW textbooks.)
Is your child struggling
to read and spell at grade level?
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This class is intended to support students who have not yet mastered the foundational skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, word study, and spelling typically learned in grades K-3.
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This class will help to build the skills necessary to access and master grade-level reading content.
About the Instuctor
Inspiring Change
Mrs. Nolte earned a degree in Elementary Education from Concordia University Chicago in 2001. She has a passion for writing and grammar as well as teaching students, especially those at the junior high level. In addition to homeschooling her own five children (ages 11-20); she has taught for Group Solutions in Ventura, Better Together in Ventura, various campuses of Classical Conversations, Trinity Pacific Christian School in Thousand Oaks, on her own, and this year she has formed a partnership with the YES Writing team will be able to provide classes for the Thousand Oaks community.
She is a Certified Wilson-Just Words Instructor as well as a Certified Instructor with the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW); she has taught over two dozen IEW writing classes (and attended even more with her own children).
This past year she taught two in-person classes for IEW (elementary/middle school and high school) as well as a full-day, one-day-a-week Junior High Journey class, which included IEW.
In her free time, she enjoys relaxing at the beach and going to the zoo with her kiddos, as well as watching theatre and volunteering at The Civic Arts Plaza.
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Mrs. Nolte is excited to partner with YES Writing this year, enabling her the ability to accept charter school funds for some of her IEW classes.
Testimonials
I am a homeschool mom to 6 children. I was first introduced to IEW when my 3 older daughters began middle school in a local Christian School. They all grew up to become such effective writers! Recently, when I began homeschooling my younger 3, I signed the middle schoolers up for the Narnia IEW class with Nikki Nolte. It was such a wonderful year watching them learn the structure for writing and eventually turning in several very creative papers.
Nikki met with the parents several times throughout the school year and shared the IEW videos and discussed how we could help extend the reaching techniques in our homes. I have personally struggled with my own writing but felt I too learned quite a bit from Nikki’s instructions and am grateful for her teaching.
The Narnia course books were wonderful as were the many examples she prepared for the students. Her communication and instructions regarding the children’s assignments were consistently clear and concise. It was a pleasure and a blessing having Nikki Nolte as a teacher and are confident that we are much better writers for having her guidance.
Diane M.
IEW parent
Mrs. Nolte's writing class is not only an amazing learning experience but an adventure in exploring the world of writing short stories, paragraphs, and creative writing. Before I began the class, my writing included no dress-ups, and it was often a dull and boring. As I left the class, often just little notes of mine included dress-ups and exciting sentences! Not only did my academic skills grow but so did my character. I began to develop time management due to the way Mrs. Nolte kept her class schedule and charts. Over the two years that I attended her JHJ class and one year of high school IEW and Literature, my writing has improved immensely, and I look forward to watching it improve even more!
Elle F.
JHJ & IEW Student
My daughter has had the pleasure of being taught by Mrs. Nolte for a few years now.
IEW was new to my daughter and me, and Nikki's thoughtful and instructive teaching has helped us understand this wonderful way of writing. I wish I had this known this style of writing when going thru school myself.
My daughter has also had Mrs. Nolte for a range of other subjects, Junior High Journey, and each is presented in a thoughtful and engaging way. She makes the lessons fun and interesting.
I have appreciated the push to have my 8th grader become an independent worker. She gives clear checklists of what is expected of the student each week and work that needs to be finished. This has helped my daughter learn to work on her own and be accountable for her work. She has enjoyed her class time with Mrs. Nolte and the environment she has created in her classes all while keeping our homeschooling lifestyle.
Rachel D.
JHJ & IEW parent
