Hoping to get your usual fantastic insights on this one! Our 4th grader did well in the very basic grammar in his school through 2nd grade. Last year we chose Growing with Grammar and it just did not stick with him. This year we are using LLATL as the core of our LA program and we have worked on ideas such as possessive nouns/pronouns and subject/compound subject and predicate/compound predicate for the past several weeks. He is still not retaining the information. I am thinking about adding a separate grammar program that will give more practice, but I need something without too much writing (a non-Catholic friend suggested Seton's English since it works for her more verbal, less writing son very well). I just rec'd an email from Cathy Duffy about Analytical Grammar, and am wondering it if might do the trick... Any ideas for me? I got the Basher Book for grammar to use as a fun supplement but obviously need a core grammar program. Oh, any suggestions for a spelling program while we are at it? I am having to craft too much for both of the kids to worry about coming up with my own list every week, exercises, etc. and would like something fairly simple (for me) to implement for him. He is average when it comes to spelling, and practice is usually the best means for him to learn with his super memory. Thank you!
I really like Easy Grammar. This is our second year using it and it is working wonderfully. If you do not want an entire program you could also do Daily Grams which reinforces the ideas but does not "teach" them. As for spelling we have just started using Spelling Power. I got a few recommendations for it and I can see why. I spend 5 minutes with dd and then she spends a max of 10 minutes doing the 10 steps (which included saying the word, spelling it out loud, writing it in the air or some folks use sand...) It seems to work great. The nice thing is that the book is not based on grades so I can use this all the way through 8th grade or whenever she finishes the book. Since it is non consumable you can use it for multiple kids.
If you're looking for just informational supplements, you might look at Grammaropolis [www.grammaropolis.com] as a fun way to help get the grammar info retained. We use LLATL as an 'extra' to our language arts stuff rather than as a core. My son uses Easy Grammar for this core grammar along with LLATL and Grammaropolis. We use Sequential Spelling for our spelling program. It teaches spelling around word families and throws in sight words and homophones/heteronyms as well.
Thanks, everyone! I will check out these programs next recess (as this one is about to end so we can learn about Hammurabi!). Shelley, I am glad I am not the only one who does not use LLATL at the sole LA program (many friends do, and I thought perhaps I was missing something). We do read-alouds on the side, he reads his own books I get from a master list on the side, we are going to start a writing program since I want something a bit more (if you have any suggestions, let me know - thinking about Writing Strands), and we do a a couple of little grammar supplements. Okay, off to teach Hammurabi, then on to looking at the programs more in-depth that you all suggested. THANKS!
You might look at Winston Grammar. It uses cards of different colors for the parts of speech. Could be good for a visual, hands-on kind of kid. There are two levels. I have used some of Easy Grammar (only the Plus level), and several levels of Daily Grams. IMO, doing Daily Grams together daily did more to further the kids' understanding of grammar/usage/mechanics than doing a lot of curriculum daily. I used it a lot when I had several kids that I put in the same level of DG (for one kid, use one workbook). I put the sentences/items on the board, and they did them in a notebook, then we went over each one together and I had them tell me the rule or the "why" that was was the right answer. These (depending on level) have 5 or 6 items to do a day. The first one is capitalization, second is punctuation, third and fourth are miscellaneous concepts (spelling, usage, adjectives, adverbs, etc.). The last item is sentence combining, where they give you two to five short sentences, and you combine them into one good sentence using all the information given. In levels that have a 6th item, sentence combining is the 6th but the 5th is often analogies (x is to y as z is to ___). As I said, they don't do "lessons", just a daily exercise, but you can *teach* all you want orally if you know your stuff! Of complete curricula, I really like CLE. The incremental spiral presents a little new concept, followed by practice of a few of several previous concepts, distributed over many lessons that follow. Penmanship and spelling are included in every lesson. For the students I've used this with, this way of doing it has really cemented those concepts! Composition is included -- or what I call "practical writing" (sentences, paragraphs, essays, reports, personal narrative, letters, and so on) as opposed to "creative writing" (stories, poems, etc.), which you'll need to add in yourself. (I haven't seen much need.)
bju english is the last thing i used we did 5-6th writing strands is great too one year we did writing strands and daily grams
My 3 kids are doing Easy Grammar together and really enjoying it. I love the way it teaches how to find find the prepositions and prepositional phrases in the beginning. They look forward to this subject each day.
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions! I have spent hours looking through and studying these curricula and really appreciate your help! I think we have decided to try Winston Grammar (Lindina, you had me at color coded, hee hee!) - hoping that visual may help my son and later my daughter, who is in 2nd. I am going to order All About Spelling for my daughter b/c it looks as though it may be a natural way to connect her dyslexia tutoring, which is also Orton-Gillingham-based. I may just try it out with my son as well, in the hopes he does well with it and I can reuse it with my daughter! I am between trying out IEW and Writing Strands for writing. In the meanwhile, i picked up a super book entitled The Power of Pictures: Creating Pathways to Literacy through Art by Beth Olshansky. She writes this for classroom teachers through grade 6, and so far it is emphasizing the high value of including student-produced art as a springboard in their writing, rather than either excluding art as they grow older or using art/illustrations in their work as an aside or accessory to their writing. It loos promising, and since it especially seems to have been successful with those children who are not the typical verbal learners that schools were built for, I am hopeful it may reach both of my kids! Thanks again, everyone!
I don't think I've ever heard of the Olshansky one before. That sounds interesting! I've used Writing Strands level 3 before -- with some high schoolers who had never had to write much before. We all enjoyed it, and they all improved tremendously in putting words together on paper for others! Since I only had one book, and I had a group, I *taught* it from the book and did some board work along the way, then gave them assignments from the book. It was fun!
Thanks for sharing your experience with Writing Strands! Perhaps I will add it in for the 2nd semester to have a more structured writing program, after having hopefully ignited my son's writing, his love of it, and his creativity with Olshanksy's book. I am about 1/3 of the way through it and recognize several of the research studies she cites in the book from my time as a speech-language pathologist, as well as a parent of a kiddo with dyslexia. I recommend checking out this book if you get the opportunity - there is even a DVD included with it that really helped me cement my understanding of the concepts presented so far. I am very excited by it so far!
