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Growing with Grammar?
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I am looking for something of a workbook for my soon to be 7th grader for Grammar -ideally something that he can write in that has a easy to follow answer key. He needs to be able to do it independently in the mornings while I am working, and his Dad can check if possible. We have been very sporadic with Grammar over the years, not having done any real diagraming (and that’s not really important to me), so I am wondering if a strong reader can pretty much jump in a grade level with something like Growing with Grammar (or at least close to it). I do own Our Mother Tongue, which I like, but is not the right fit for him.
Yes a strong reader should be able to jump in at grade level (though personally I tend to lean towards going a grade level below when it’s something new that my boys haven’t had a lot of exposure to – but that’s just me). GWG will fit the bill in terms of your need to have him work independently, and yes the answer key is simple and could certainly be handled by Dad in the evening. We loved our years with GWG. The student manuals are fantastic, lessons are short, concepts are taught in bite size pieces and then reviewed regularly and then put forth on each unit test. I whole-heartedly give the program two thumbs up.
Thanks, I was considering perhaps starting with the 6th grade one rather than 7th for that very reason. How often during the week do you use it?
I’ve been very happy with GWG. I started mine 2 years behind.
Check the scope and sequence to make a judgement.
If he’s had little grammar, and he’s entering 7th, I would consider doing tge 5th level.
Mine do 4 pages a day, 4 to 5 days a wk
In terms of the question of which level to start in – you know best what his exposure to “grammar lingo” has been thus far. There is certainly a “ramp up period” of getting familiar with terms and definitions: subject, predicate, parts of speech and their definitions, predicate nominatives, pronouns functioning as nominative, objective or possessive… All the scary grammar words take some getting used to! LOL. But based on my experience with my almost 13 year-old avid reader, diligent-worker-kid who went through grade 5 and grade 6 at ages 11-12, I think a 7th grader who is a strong reader could definitely start in 6th grade. For most grammar programs it might be tempting to go further back if he’s had little grammar, but my experience with GWG is that they build in a great deal of review – and they re-teach or remind students of main concepts and definitions at EACH grade level — in the student manual. GWG is meant to be entered into “at grade level” (says their website), so IMO going one grade back should sufficient.
My boys do grammar 4x per week, one full lesson each time, completely independent. 15-20 minutes and they are usually done. It is important that the parent do the marking each day so that, before the student moves on to the next lesson, he sees and corrects any errors from the current lesson. Fortunately we don’t usually have corrections sessions – GWG makes it so simple that my boys tend to “get it” most days. On the odd occasion that we need to do corrections, I definitely sit down with my son and, together, we look up – in the student manual – the material they got wrong. I like the idea of reinforcing use of the student manual with this program. I want my boys to lean on the SM and to know that the SM does have ALL the answers – as long as they read carefully and are willing to go back and look again if they are stuck.
Just one last note on frequency – the reason to do 4-5x a week (at least in the beginning) — first, you can feel okay about it because lessons are pretty short. More importantly, I find the retention is better when they are seeing all this new “grammar lingo” on a regular basis and are having to apply what they’re learning every day or almost every day. I find (at least for my boys) whenever we do something just 2-3x per week, we have much less success in what they remember, and a definite challenge in understanding of concepts.
HTH!
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