Hey gang I woud like input on any grammar /english curriculum that you have tried for 1st/2nd grade. I had started a thread awhile back about what subjects to teach in 2nd grade. I have been thinking about adding only 1 new subject next year and am leaning towards some sort of grammar/english - basic sentence structure , punctuation and some things like nouns & verbs. A few have peaked my interest and I would like feedback if anyone has used them. If any of you have used the following please let me know what your thoughts are First Language Lessons ( Classical approach ) Rod & Staff - Climbing to good English Shirley English ( this seems really rigorous academically & very thorough) Evan Moore's basic workbooks ( this almost seems like something you would use as a supplement not a stand alone curriculum, unless I am wrong ) And of course any others that you had success with. I am open to suggestions. THX !
FLL - I liked this. Admittedly, I only ever ended up using in first grade, and skipping the 2nd grade. I don't know...I think once it got further in, my kids didn't seem to respond to the repetition. I like the free Scott Foresman Grammar & Writing Workbooks that you can get online. I used that for my son when he was in 2nd grade. Then I switched him to Easy Grammar in 3rd. I think they do an Easy Grammar for lower levels, but can't remember how low. Also, I like the www.starfall.com Writing Journal Level II for introducing basic parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives). Also gets them writing a little bit. There's also one called Growing With Grammar - but I've never used it. I'm thinking it's set up a lot like Easy Grammar.
Regarding the ones you listed.....I tried FLL and really did not like it. I'm not exactly sure why. It just wasn't my style, maybe. And, my kid actually likes workbooks (shocker!). I had Climbing to Good English but sold it because it just seems soooooo overcrowded on the page. I'm sure there are plenty of people who love both of those programs though. I've done Shurley in 4th for my oldest. Yes, it is a bit rigorous....but boy did she learn how to analyze a sentence that year. The book is huge and a bit intimidating, but once you get the swing of it....it's pretty good. There was a lot of the book that we skipped though (if think it was mostly writing assignments). I've always kind of wanted to give Shurley a try with my youngest. But, we now found Growing with Grammar and it's just so easy and not as time consuming as Shurley. We actually really like GWG and Winning with Writing (not crazy about their spelling).....I'm thinking we should stick with it. I will also give you another suggestion for this age group though...The Sentence Family. It's a wonderful little program that really can be used with any grammar program, or as a nice way to start grammar. My dd loves it and can't wait to hear the next little story and see who is added to the Sentence family. You can download it for $12 at CurrClick.
You do not have this listed but you might want to check out Horizons Phonics program. They have all of the basics in there. It was a great foundation for dd and not too intense at that age. We moved on to Easy Grammar from there and she is doing well.
Thanks guys for your suggestions !! I had no idea what starfall was and we played around with that a bit this morning. I glanced at the free scott foresman grammar online. That may be an option. Easy Grammar beings at 3rd grade but appealing as well. I still have plenty of time to make a decision , as always I start to think about next school year's purchases around Christmas break. THX again
I printed out the first section of the first grade scott foresman and will be starting it soon with my 5.5 year old son. I like the approach. I also like the price
I am using Shurley English for the second year, so we have used grades 1-4 with my 2 boys. I like it a lot. There is a heavy emphasis on grammar, sentence structure, parts of speech, etc. My boys can find any part of speech in a sentence. My only concern is that I just haven't decided how important that is. I would love to look ahead in Shurley (and plan to soon) to see where all of this is taking us. For now, their writing has improved with the writing assignments in each chapter, and they definitely, definitely understand parts of speech
I like fll. I ended up not using it because I decided not to do grammar until later. But I like the layout. It's very flexible, easy to adapt.
We used Growing with Grammar for our first year of homeschooling last year. Ends up it was not a good fit for my multi-sensory 3rd grader, so this year we switched to Winston Grammar and so far, so good. My 1st grader did okay with GWG. I have mostly heard excellent reviews on GWG for the younger set though; mine are just a different breed, lol! Rod and Staff also seems to get a lot of nods in online discussions
Well, this is not what you asked, but what we are doing is working on reading skills through 2nd grade, and starting on SOS Language Arts in 3rd. We use Explode the Code which covered spelling, writing, vocabulary, and of course phonics. I have her read to me every day. I also have one of those "everything 2nd grade" books that has some grammar and language usage that we do some days. At this point I think it's more important for her to be a solid reader than to know the parts of speech and punctuation. That can come later.
We use the free scott foresman grammar that kbabe linked to. I started my oldest out with First Language Lessons but two months in it was still reviewing the definition of a noun and we were both bored witless so we tried something new and free never hurts.
Major plus one vote for Growing with Grammar. Very well done piece of work. http://www.growingwithgrammar.com/1gwgProduct_Page.html
