How We Homeschool: Grammar (Blogging Through the Alphabet)

Welcome back to Blogging Through the Alphabet! This week is the letter G. I've chosen to talk about grammar.

We used to use Growing With Grammar but that was all workbook style, and my kids didn't retain any of it. There was sentence diagramming that went right over their heads. That may have been due to their age, but I really felt that the style of the curriculum wasn't great for my family.

We switched to Fix It! Grammar and we're halfway through our third year using it. It's so much more fun than other methods. It's quite affordable too. We got to review Sentence Diagramming: Beginning late last year and what I found interesting is my kids CAN diagram sentences, quite easily in fact! I would suspect that is because of a few reasons: 1) They are older now. 2) Sentence Diagramming's method is easier to understand. 3) They have more experience because they've been using Fix It!.



Anyway, I began a post all about this, including videos, over a year ago. It talks about how we do Fix It! Grammar and shows how we do it the first day of the week.

How we do Fix It! Grammar (with videos)

I don't start a formal grammar program until the child is in at least 4th grade. Some kids might not be ready until 5th grade. Grammar is an abstract concept and the mind needs to develop before teaching it. Before that age I feel that the basics presented in Writing With Ease and natural conversations during Language Arts time as well as our Literature studies present enough information for a young child to get a great start in this area. I did recently discover the books called English for the Thoughtful Child and like using them in about 2nd and 3rd grade. They are a great addition to Writing With Ease and teach basic sentence structure among many other things.

Next week.. the letter H!