I was preparing to order Analytical Grammar for my son but I am not sure if I should order the DVDs or not. Did it add much to the program or is it just as easy to do an explanation from mom and the teacher's manual?
One more thing, is it fairly easy to move quicker (skip some sheets or something similar ) and get through the first section of the book. My son does know his parts of speech fairly well but doesn't know how to put everything together and punctuate properly, etc. So I would like to move through the first section fairly quickly.
I don't think you are going to want to move quicker, it teaches in a way that other programs don't. For the price of the DVDs I would definately buy them, especially if you need to be freed up to work with other kids.
Honestly, the more time went by, the less time I spent with my children on grammar lessons. Instead, we focused on having them read classic literature and learn from that. Maybe this was one of those times when I projected my own frustrations onto their learning program: As a student myself, I hated the technical aspects of grammar and yearned for the creative content itself. Diagramming and endless lessons about grammatical concepts were stifling and boring, so I didn't insist on our children doing them. As it turns out, as adults, they are all good writers. Nowadays, I'm a real grammar nazi, which is rather ironic. I'm not aware of the Analytical Grammar program. The only thing I would suggest is to make sure that grammar is taught as a means to an end, not as an end in itself. It's a tool to release the wonderful world of words and poetry and ideas, not a straightjacket consisting of endless rules. For my children, at least, the excitement of reading gave them a reason to understand grammar.
