Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Finally Getting a Grip on GRAMMAR

First of all, I didn't get along well with the script of FLL, so I rarely pursued grammar lessons with my kids and we took FOREVER to get it done.  My solution was to jump ship after G#1 finished FLL3 and try R&S English grade 5 with him.  I still didn't do well to make the lessons happen UNTIL... I read about the Table of Contents clue.  Victory! Now that I know each lesson must be done with the teacher/student pair is in bold, I am scheduling and grading lessons on a regular basis.  The plain text titles in the TOC are done by the student individually (G#2 below left).  I do a quick run through oral exercises with each person three times a week. The Bold-faced lesson titles in the TOC are done with me and a G elbow to elbow. 




Yes, the terms are defined differently in Rod and Staff books, but we still recite the same definitions and qualifiers that Mrs. Wise and Mrs. Buffington used. We are simply practicing the grammar skills in a different way AND GETTING THEM DONE! So, needless to say, we are not using the new Logic Stage grammar materials from Peace Hill Press.  We don't use the writing materials either. Here is a picture of G#3 finishing writing with forest materials from Hands of a Child lapbook that I bought years ago and am finally using. They must answer comprehension questions about the reading in complete sentences and then report about the topics in the reading weekly.  We get other practice writing paragraphs that are placed on the history notebook pages about topics outlined in the Logic Stage history section of the Well Trained Mind.  Someday, we will study writing.  And from the research I've done so far, I'd use IEW materials, but I need to get past the cost of those first.

1 comment:

MO said...

Hi there,
Just wanted to let you know that we've been using IEW for 2 years and love it. There's other ways to get your writing in besides buying the whole Teaching DVD's. If you're confident, I suggest only buying the Teaching Writing: Structure & Style Seminar Workbook. I was NOT so confident (I'm REALLY visual, and don't do well with reading & figuring things out on my own, especially when I'm a poor writer), so I bought the book to use through higher grade levels and the Student DVD's level A, so my kids could just watch wonderful Mr. Andrew do his thing. This year I bought a theme based Writing book, well two. The Medieval History (we are currently on Vol 2 in SOTW) and All Things Fun & Fascinating. We don't watch the DVD's student lessons anymore and only use the theme based lessons. If I were to do it again, I would purchase it all again except buy level B students DVD's to start instead, only because I didn't think my son was up to it, being a struggling writer. He was in the middle of the suggested grade levels so I shot lower to be on the safe side.
Sorry about all that writing. I just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. I found you through Jimmie. We note/lapbook for most subjects as well, isn't it great. Happy Homeschooling!

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