I've used several of those guides - they are pretty intense and advanced, IMHO. My oldest only could handle one or two per school year, but they are great! He did some really great projects out of those, and he still has them years later :) --- I basically just used them as lit guides, not an ELA program, per say.
I have used four of the guides and I generally liked them. I agree with what you said about the grammar and writing - the books lacked instruction. I loved reading the great books with my kids and the reading comprehension and projects were great. We only did one per year, so it didn’t take up our entire year and we could focus on writing or grammar for the other half.
Well darn, not the review I was hoping for. This is what I bought for my kids for this next year. I went all in with 3 main guides and 1 purple guide too as she recommends. My husband and I both thought it made so much sense and was very holistic and relevant learning. I did get the Well Trained Mind's grammar guide to go with it. I've spent the money already though so we will use it for this year. Who knows, maybe we will love it!
