Get Smart Grammar question

AG is three seasons of 10 or so weeks spread over three years. The last season is more mechanics.  Get Smart is a 36 week program that can be done in one year or you could similarly spread out.  Seasons 1/2 of AG and all of Get Smart Cover grammar fully. Get Smart doesn’t address mechanics. Remember that whatever program you use, grammar is a finite body of info and need not be hammered yearly.

I know this question wasn’t directed specifically to me, but I thought my experience this year might be of some help. My DD (10 and 12) have had some experience with grammar (just gentle introduction to some parsing), and we began Get Smart this year. I’ve never used the videos as the student book covers the lesson just fine, but my girls learn well from reading a lesson from their student book. So the videos might be useful for different learners.

Here’s how we structured it: I began by having them read the lesson; I taught them the lesson; and they finished a sentence a day (there’s usually no more than 5). So in a week, they were done. They were quite bored with the pace (not the program, just the pace), suggesting that they could complete the lesson work independent of an actual lesson. After they begged me to listen to them narrate or teach back the lesson for a few weeks, I allowed them to work independently.
The oldest completes an entire lesson in one day independently, and the younger completes a lesson independently in one week. In case you worry that they’re not retaining the information, just like math, grammar concepts build upon each other. So consecutive lessons reinforce the past. I also have make-shift bulletin boards, and one category is a “Die-or-Gram” where I give them a challenging sentence to diagram. It’s my way of ensuring that they really do know it as so many grammar programs can seem a bit methodical and some students simply memorize the pattern of the method instead of understanding the actual concept (think Shurley Grammar). So giving them something out of the ordinary in terms of the book helps me see that they really do understand the concepts.

I have Stay Smart and will simply give them a Stay Smart sentence once a week. They already know that if they make a mistake on the Stay Smart sentence, they have to go back and redo the appropriate grammar lesson before continuing in Stay Smart. So it seems to reinforce the idea of learning it once, and is motivating them to truly learn it once to make the next years of school quite simple in terms of grammar. They see this method as quite rewarding, especially the fact that they will simply maintain their skills each week rather than constantly review learned concepts.

It’s a great program that offers options in terms of learning styles. It won’t take you long to see which mix of methods works best for your child, and then you’ll love that they aren’t cringing at the word “grammar” every day!

I think it just depends on the child. My 4th grader started Get Smart Grammar this year with the plan to split it between this year and next. She’s done fairly intensive grammar every year until now (was using A.C.E. paces and she’d finished their 5th grade English) but she never fully understood it. GSG definitely clicked more with her, but by lesson 14 she was getting bogged down and diagramming was taking longer and longer. We’ve stopped it for this year and I plan to wait until 6th grade to start it again. In the meantime we’re doing Easy Grammar 4 (and possibly 5 next year)…I guess she really needs simple and endless repetions to get it.

So anyway, if your child already “gets” grammar then she might do fine with it. You can always put it on hold for a while if she starts struggling partway through.