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Can we talk grammar?
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At the risk of getting beat up 🙂 by the more intellectual types…I’m going to ask the following free spirit type question and hope that if someone thinks I need to be beat up, they’ll do it! Do I really need to teach grammar (separately as a subject) if my kids have excellent usage, know how to punctuate well, can write a properly cited paper, use beautiful sentence structures and write very interesting and easy to read narrations? My first daughter recently aced – aka perfect score – the English section of the ACT…and I’m asking myself if I should have my 12 yo use Analytical Grammar because this is something I “neglected” to do with my older two and should maybe correct with my younger set. I’m not sure if I’m crazy or sane! Daughter number one knows enough parts of speech to be able to answer the typical “what is the subject…” questions on the standardized tests – subject, verb, adjective adverb…I’m sure she couldn’t tell you any others. But she speaks and writes beautifully…Son number two will know this much by the time he graduates. Too late now to worry about them. But…there’s still hope for the younger ones!
Well, in my opinion—it sounds to me like you are doing a great job! I can’t answer about buying an expensive curriculum–I did teach one basic course and basic diagramming. The only trouble I can foresee is the terminology–depending on possible colleges, a kid might be thrown for a bit by not knowing, for example, what a simple predicate is or a dependent clause, but that doesn’t take very long to teach. I’d consider giving each soon-to-be high schooler a style guide for a gift 🙂 and encourage them to become familiar with it and the terminology in it, but if they are all doing as well as your first daughter, I’m not sure I’d personally push a curriculum on you.
Well take it for what its worth, but my (albeit strong) opinion is that NO, you do not especially in light of your child’s testing on the ACT.
And really, how many of us can tell another what a gerund is???
FWIW, I am a former editor at a large Christian publishing company. I edited materials written by Beth Moore and some others you all might have heard of, and I am amazed at the amount of usage work in my 8th grade son’s grammar text. I do allow him to skip over some of it, because he too writes well and speaks well. So, really, why take away the joy or reading (he is also a voracious reader), writing and speaking by inundating them with rules and usage instruction?
I really do think it just comes naturally for some people. I can read something and just know if it needs tweaking. I think the biggest skill you can teach a child for writing well is to critique their own work, to have someone else edit it (so very important), and to allow them the space to be creative!!!
And to me, editing is not changing someone’s writing style even if it differs from my own; rather, it is pointing out (or changing if you are editing as a job) obvious areas where the point being made is just not being communicated well and/or blatant errors in spelling or usage, the latter of which is rare with good writers. Different styles does not equal usage errors.
I guess all of that to say it sounds to me like you’re doing a great job and your children are well prepared for college and/or whatever else they plan to pursue after high school. As for your 12YO, I would say keep doing whatever you did with the older children. It obviously works! I know SCM recommends Analytical Grammar and I seriously considered it, but after watching the demos on-line and reviewing the sample, I knew it was not for our family. I’d rather have our DC reading well-written books and writing creatively. Then we can edit their work and learn from that how best to write and communcate effectively.
Just my 2 cents, which I warned you was strong in the area of grammar instruction.
And I see some typos in my post! Ha, ha! Like I said, every good writer will allow someone else to read their work for editing purposes. 🙂
BTW, I have my 8th grade son working in Rod & Staff Book 7 b/c he really did need some more foundation in grammar, but I do skip some of the lessons as I see fit. He also has worked through Word Roots by Critical Thinking, which has been a great move on my part.
I bought this little book on Amazon once on a whim to round out one of the 4 for 3 promotions once, and I do really like it if you are just looking for something to hit the major points and to use as a reference as well.
I found this same book somewhere for probably less than a $1 (I’m cheap) and plan to use it for myself and my kiddos.
Thanks for mentioning it, LDIMom…I feel better about buying it, LOL.
Julie Bogart, author of Writer’s Jungle recommends the Nitty Gritty Grammar book and I think she’s very CM in her approach, so I think you’re on the right track.
Would you ladies recommend getting the second book as well (More Nitty-Gritty Grammar, link below)? I was intending to use Nancy Wilson’s Our Mother Tongue this year as a quick refresher for my 15yo ds but now I’m reconsidering. Anyone familiar enough with both to offer an opinion?
http://www.amazon.com/More-Nitty-Gritty-Grammar-Hope-Edith/dp/1580082289/ref=lh_ni_t
Thank you again ladies!! I very much appreciate your input again and the sounding board here!! I think I’ll just go on with the program of teaching what i notice is needed in the context of writing and dicatation. That’s all I’ve ever done. Occasionally I’ll ask them to point out very basic parts of speech when we do dictation too. Other than reading To Root, To Toot…, and Hairy, Scary, Ordinary… at some point, that’s all we do! Easy, peasy! And so far, it seems to be working, I guess.
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