Back to the basics of grammar-what would be a good choice???

marycas,
This website on grammar looks worthwhile:
http://www.ateg.org/

If you look at the tips for teaching grammar, there is one for distinguishing sentences from fragments. The site also has links you might want to check out.

I don’t too much else about teaching grammar, but the homeschooling boards mention Shurley and Easy Grammar a lot (the latter reportedly best for kids that pick up this kind of thing quickly). I know you don’t want to go with a program, but you might want to take a look at Shurley.

I’d also encourage you to post your question on the vegsource.com homeschooling boards—on either the reading and math forum or the special needs forum (or both!). Also maybe Victoria’s done a writeup on grammar she’d send you.

BTW—how is your ds doing on the sentence scrambles in SRS? I’m just about to get there with my ds and am eager to see how he does on them.

I liked some of the suggestions in the FAQ on the grammat site. He needs concrete ways to differentiate the parts of speech. I just “get it” and its very hard to understand his mind just doesnt work the same. I will use the suggested frameworks and we may even diagram(which I HATED so maybe it will be right up his learning style)

And I will try to just work it in our daily routine-analyze something we are already reading perhaps or have him write a few sentences and proofread with him. If I feel we are not making progress, I may order Easy Grammar. It sounds like a systematic approach he hasnt been exposed to yet

We are not working through SR as quickly as Id like. I seem to be spending more time researching homeschooling than teaching him these days.

So we havent hit the scramblers yet, but I looked ahead and had him run through a few so I could answer you. He did great except for ‘He hand his he’ on page 28 ;)

I am impressed with his progress on nonsense words-I had originally complained there werent enough but, boy, that picked up quickly and has worked well for him. He doesnt even try to guess on them anymore-yahoo.

I also find we are taking at least the 30 minutes now

Well I’ve only seen this used for deaf kids and maybe some autistic kids but there is something called the Fitzgerald Key. You might look this up. It color codes the parts of speech, which makes it very concrete.

There’s something called the Magnetic Sentence Building Kit for about $20, see National School products. It has colored coded sections: pronouns are blue; nouns red; etc.

It looks real basic but is probably easy enough to make.

—des

I would recommend Shurley Grammar rather than Easy Grammar. EG is a worksheet approach that is easy for the child to do independently, but the learning doesn’t “stick” with rather a high percentage of children.

Shurley Grammar requires you to do the lesson with the child, so it’s more work for you. However, the question-answer flow (and the jingles, especially if you can get him to create hammed-up versions) seem to make Shurley “stick” really well with almost all children.

Shurley Grammar level 3 or 4, or even 5 would probably work just fine. If you leave out all the writing assignments and vocabulary (and I do recommend leaving those out), you can get through a level by working about 20 minutes three times a week.

A good follow-up to Shurley would be Rod & Staff grade 5 (assuming you don’t mind the religious references in it) which can also be done almost completely orally and has good built-in review. R&S grade 5 is a very rigorous grammar course that includes diagramming.

Nancy

When They Can’t WRite by Charlotte Morgan (http://www.yorkpress.com) sounds like a really good match. It’s a little pricey but it’s thorough & complete — and starts out with “nouns” and “verbs” — and abstract vs. concrete nouns — and then builds that subject - predicate concept with tons of creative examples and lots of practice that’s even fun.

Do you think I could get away with just the manual and a little creativity?

I like the idea that its designed for middle/high school kids that are struggling.

Hi,

Your experience sounds very similar to mine. I started homeschooling my son last year in November. We are going to homeschool again this year (he will be in 6th grade). I hope to conitue working on catching up.
I will be using Winston Grammar. I love the looks of the program. It’s hands on and builds from the basics up. I’m really excited as I think it will be just the ticket for my son.
Check it out………………it might be right for your son too.
Best of luck.

I think the manual would be enough — then you can really cater the exercises to that day. (One thing I really liked about worknig 1:1 and making up my own stuff was you could personalize it.)