My son will be in 9th grade next year and I'm getting worried about his punctuation and spelling ability. He's a really bright kid and even though I've worked with him on both (especially spelling), he needs a lot of review work to make it second nature. Right now he doesn't automatically spell correctly or use commas, periods, or capitalization when he is suppose to because he rushes through his writing. When I was his age, I automatically used proper punctuation and spelling even if I was in a hurry. If he stops to think about it, he usually gets it right but he's the type that likes to get his ideas out without thought of the mechanics. I plan on making him do worksheets, or some sort of review work over the summer. Any suggestions about what curriculum I should use, or any other ideas that might help? Thanks in advance!
Let me see if I understand correctly. Does your son know how to do it correctly but gets it wrong because he rushes? Because if this is the case, a new curriculum might not be the answer but having him redo his work over until he slows down and takes the time to do it right might help. Now he might HATE his current curriculum and this is why he rushes through, just to finish. If this is the case, then perhaps a new curriculum will help him slow down.
My son is in a traditional school setting (I'll be homeschooling my daughter so that's why I'm on this board ). His teachers let him get away with punctuation and spelling murder, so to speak, so he hasn't had to deal with any consequences for his lazy English. I think that he has practiced his bad English habits for so long that he needs remedial work just to get him to a point of knowing any better. If he really thinks about it, he probably will tell you the right answer, but I believe he needs practice to help ground his knowledge so that it becomes second nature. My solution is to work with him over the summer with some kind of grammar book and then send him to a small private school where they have assured me that they will make him redo his work when it is sloppy.
Rod and Staff has fantastic English books for grammar and punctuation. But you might also find one called Writer's INC: A student handbook for writing and learning. My daughter used it for her high school writing class. The back has a guide, which is a wonderful resource. Also, instead of a textbook, you might want him doing proofreading exercises daily, especially if he KNOWS the stuff and is just too lazy to do it. (My dss, btw, didn't bother turning in his term paper his senior year, and they let him get away with it..and THAT was at a Christian school!!!)
I am using writing strands and daily grams.. two different programs that I trust will work on those areas.. for spelling proof reading is a plus! Jackie knows what shes talking about btw! hehe listen to her! er.. read her? EHE
HUH??? I do??? Try to convince my kids that, please!!! LOL! Nah, I just have an opinion of what works best for MY family! How many times have I suggested MOH, and the person HATED it, lol?
I had (and still have) the same problem as your son. I'm a writer and sometimes the ideas just flow too fast to think about spelling and grammar. Yes, spelling and grammar can become second nature...but if you're a fast thinker like me the ideas flow TOO FAST. It's like running down the balance beam. Yes you could easily walk it slowly but when you run, it's easy to misplace your feet. So that's why I had to learn about the thing called a Rough Draft. First he should get his ideas down on a separate piece of paper and not worry about spelling or grammar. Then he should copy it onto the final draft with correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. I've been doing it that way my whole life, even typing this post I type first, and then go back over it. Nothing wrong with doing it that way if that's the way his mind works. Maybe he just thinks like a writer!
Thank you for all your replies. I plan on researching some of the curriculum that you suggested. There's a used book sale coming up through our local homeschool support group so I'll definitely be on the look out! I think it is a combination of rushing through something due to creativity and unfamiliarity. Because he's not made to go back and correct his work, he has learned things the wrong way. Maybe I'll allow him to continue with his method but he will be going back and correcting his work from here on out. Grrr. Thanks again!
I just wanted to quote FreeSpirit, since I was going to write down essentially what she said. Also a writer, and I have ALWAYS had terrible penmanship and spelling. Which is why I love having second and third drafts. I'm not as good as FS though; I don't proofread my posts most of the time, LOL.
On the site you find Daily Grams, you will also find Easy Grammar. We just got it and I really like it, we haven't used it yet, but will next year on top of Writing Strands.
Ditto! That was an important post. Your son may need some work on spelling and punctuation but what's more essential is to learn to edit his work. Rough drafts are essential to the writing process. They let you get ideas down and work through ideas without having to worry about spelling and such. The fine work of editing comes after in the second or third rewrite. I'd sit down with him every time he writes something and go through it with a pen to show him where he's made mistakes and what he has to correct. That's actually what I do for my daughter's writing right now. She's writing a book and every time she's finished a chunk of it we sit down and go through it and discuss all the errors (and all the good stuff as well). Then she corrects it and changes it as she sees fit. Another thing we do (though not lately) is take a nice passage from a book we might be reading and discuss the punctuation and spelling in it. How a colon is used for instance. Maybe play with the sentence and have her change out some parts of speech and rewrite it so she gets more familiarity with it's structure. A sort of imitation so she begins to notice more in the books she's reading. But I think your concern should be with editing and rewriting. The first draft should never be the last draft.
Great minds think alike TMom. Acutally the Easy Grammar was offered on our local free for free in the newspaper. It's the older one that is huge (purple) book, I also got the Easy Grammar Plus and Easy Writing. I'm hoping to get a writer yet out of this kid!
my goal too! This one is creative in his stories to such a tee that I really want to put forth the effort. The gene passes on here! My grama was a writter, i got it from her she sent me all her old writing stuffs, I have articles from ancient Ladies home journals, that she wrote!
I used to love to write when I was younger. I don't know why I gave it up, but things don't flow like they used to.
Hey...TMom and Crazymama (although you won't see this for a few days having that baby as you are! EEEK!)...we should have an online support group!!! We're all using Easy Grammar and Writing Strands next year LOL!!!! I've heard some GREAT stuff about Easy Grammar - i was worried about starting midstream with it - not starting it earlier - and I've heard that each year covers everything, just in more detail so you're really just missing the broader brush strokes from the younger books. I'm going to buy JUST the teacher book b/c it has all the workbook pages and they say that it's copy-able. I just thought I'd have my kids keep a notebook and just answer in the notebook. I trust my kids pretty heartily not to cheat. So...unless I get a GREAT deal on a used Student book....I'm just getting the teach book! LOL
Yes, you can copy the workbook, but for me personally, by the time you copy it all, you've more than paid for the cost of a student book. So if I should do it in the future with Phillip, I would go ahead and buy the workbook, too. But that's just my thought on it!
amazon and cbd both had great sales and deals on my books! I am so excited I was just running my hands over my MOH jackie! I wish it was next year already! HA!
Yup. Great idea and will definitely be doing this over the summer. He can write a page of something, a story or just a journal, and I'll be sitting there with him editing it. I think I'll also pick up a Daily Grams as well. Thanks ya'll!
