Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Teaching Grammar


I sat in the lobby of the music school the other week and heard one man saying , "Me and Bob's studio is almost finished."

I admit I cringed. The ESL teacher in me was quiet.

I am sure we have all laughed at the photos we can easily find online with misspellings and thus changing the whole context. We have seen the missing commas which change the meaning or the modifier in the wrong place changing the meaning.

So for those reasons and a number of others grammar is important in our schooling.



Here are some things that are important to us:

Diagramming - honestly I don't think I did diagramming until I was in graduate school and taking a syntax class. My husband said that he was learning how to diagram while learning Greek when he was in seminary. He wished he had learned diagramming earlier. Given that background we felt that a curriculum that taught diagramming was important.

I wanted something that taught the basics and would make it easy for me to stress memory work.

A year ago I purchased Analytical Grammar. I like the concept of 12 weeks of teaching and then some time reviewing. Admittedly it took us longer than 12 weeks to teach through it and then we did the review. We had finished the First Season before we came west and so I bought the Reinforcement and Review.  Well, the Second and Third season are in the lime green notebooks in a box and we could not get them for the beginning of the year. That is part of the waiting for the visa.

I found Our Mother Tongue in the local homeschool store and bought that to use for review. I really like the simpleness of the book. We usually sit down and read a chapter twice a week.

I have Analytical Grammar Junior Mechanics and we are going through that this year. Someone gave me an Easy Grammar book which I have not yet used. I might pull some pages from there to use as review.

As I mentioned, I wanted something that stressed or fit with a memory work program. I did purchase Memoria Press's English Grammar Recitation. That works with our other programs as I quiz him. I am mainly looking for an answer that is close. I do not require the exact words but want to make sure he knows the meaning.

At this point the most grammar that Miss K is getting is building sentences with her DK Silly Sentences.


I heard her asking for a noun and wanting a period. She is also learning that a sentence, sentence must have five little things -- a noun, a verb, a capital letter, an end mark, and make sentence. (We used Shurley Grammar for a year.)

I think Bob was also getting into this. He made some sentences.


That wraps up some of our thoughts about grammar. I am writing this because it helps me to think through some of the reasons we have chosen what we are using. This is one of the posts that I checked and checked again hoping that I didn't have a spelling error or grammar mistake.

What have you used for grammar?


Beth



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12 comments:

  1. I dread to write this as I'm sure there will be some errors!
    I use a UK programme called Jolly Grammar with my 7 year old. It is fairly basic but teaches the parts of speech and ways of ending a sentence. For my 13 year old, we are using Bridgeway English. Rather to my surprise, he enjoys using these books.

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    1. Don't worry I am not grading the comments. I am behind in grading my son's work so I will focus on that. I saw your review of Bridgeway. I am glad you son is enjoying it.

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  2. We have Our Mother's Tongue tucked away for High School. I think it's a beautiful English program. Right now we use Grammar Recitation by Memoria Press and we are really enjoying it. My Older Grammar Child will be starting on Winston Grammar in the Spring. It teaches grammar through diagramming and uses manipulatives. Could you please pinch Ms. K's cute cheeks for me! ;)

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    1. Our Mother Tongue is a great book to have on your shelf.

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  3. What age do you think children should begin to study grammar?

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    1. Some of the reading that I have done is that rules should be taught in the early grammar years and then moving beyond from there? I would wait until a child is reading and then begin.

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  4. We started with very simple grammar concepts, and I made my own lessons when they were younger. (What is a sentence, and what is a fragment? What is a noun, a verb, and an adjective?) They still enjoy the old Schoolhouse Rock grammar songs that first came out in my childhood. Now we use Winston Grammar and Major Grammar/General Grammar books because we inherited them. The kids and I like them. I really haven't thought of grammar with Carissa. She is nine but working on a preschool/kindergarten level. This would be a good challenge for me!

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    1. I am thinking of using Shurley Grammar with Miss K. That works at a slow pace. We might be ready to start next year. I will begin when I think her reading has improved to do it.

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  5. I heard a home-schooled child say (in conversation with their family) gooder or something to that affect. The father did not correct him! It drives me crazy! This was not a super young child either. I'm a grammar "nazi" and proud of it.

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    1. That is like fingernails on a chalkboard. I do correct grammar as well and my kids can't even use poor grammar in jokes.

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  6. Right now we are gently introducing grammar with Primary Language Lessons, which I really like. I pull grammar memory work from there, but I know at some point I might need something more formal for diagramming and memorizing rules and such. My son will be getting the Shurley Grammar rules (I think) in co-op next semester. If I like that, maybe I'll get the whole curriculum. What are your thoughts about Shurley Grammar?

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    1. I love Primary Language Lessons and have that to use with Miss K. We used Shurley Grammar with Bob and I liked it. It was slow but you know that can be a good thing. I think the reason I switched was because we did CC Essentials one year.

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