I need help integrating English grammar into Latin

[Cadam]

I am using LfC-A with a 10 yo. It is heavy on grammar but I am struggling. We dropped formal English grammar a la LCC in favor of learning it with Latin (sorry Susan) but I'm lost. I feel like I could do this if I had a good enough grasp of English grammar to relate the two. However, my grammar education is woefully lacking. I did grammar in 7th and 8th grades only (when I was in a private school) and got by on figuring out what "sounded right".

I have learned to define some of the basic grammar terms in the last few years of homeschooling my ds but I still can't tell you what a direct object is and although I know a preposition when I see one, I am not sure how to define it or pick out the prepositional phrase.

I either need to have us study English grammar , matching the topic to our Latin study or educate myself enough to really be able to pull grammar lessons out of our Latin.

Help? Advice?

I have R&S English 4, which ds did last year and "Language for Daily use" gold that someone gave me here. I could do something with those if I new what I was doing with them.

We are plodding through Latin , although we really like the program, and I think part of the slow down is the grammar.

[Cadam]

shamelessly bumping :o

[MomOfOneFunOne]

cadam,
You've probably noticed that LfC mentions that it is integrated with Shurley Grammar. We switched to Shurley in January and my daughter loves it and I think it is an outstanding English grammar program. On some days it takes a long time (up to 40 minutes) and on some days it doesn't take long at all (20 or so). I would say it's an intensive grammar program.

If you're uncomfortable with grammar, Shurley may certainly be a choice for you. It's scripted so all you have to do is follow along and say what they tell you.

One thing I really like: not a lot of busy-work. When she does a lesson, she has just enough sentences to do it a few times and get it down . . . not 20 sentences each lesson. There is also vocabulary with usually 4 - 8 vocabulary words/chapter which are written with definition and student's sentence on notebook paper.

For the teacher, it's quite easy but there are some things to make. We played sentence hop-scotch. For that I had to make 4 sentence type cards and draw out a hopscotch grid. Big deal. My daughter really liked that activity and it was easy to do. Another activity was adj/adv game in which my daughter had to make a list of 4 fruits and 4 veggies. On a note card she had to write a fruit on one side and 3 -4 hints on the other. Each hint had to have as many adjectives and adverbs as she could think of. When she had all her cards made, she read off the hints and I had to guess the fruit or veggie. It was just a silly little game to practice adjs and advs but it's just the kind of thing my little scholar likes. We played it several times!

There is also journal writing and I know that paragraph writing is coming up today but we haven't done that yet so I can't really tell you about it.

Anyway, good luck with your decision!

[Plaid Dad]

I'm assuming you want to stick with LfC? If you're not wedded to it, I would recommend Lively Latin, which seamlessly integrates English grammar instruction with Latin, with no previous knowledge or preparation required for the parent-teacher.

Rolling Latin and English grammar together only really works if the teacher is familiar with English grammar and can pull out the relevant points. The best way - but not the fastest - to accomplish this is to study grammar yourself. I know people here have taken themselves through various grammar courses and can make recommendations. If you need a quick reference guide, I like The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need (http://www.amazon.com/Only-Grammar-Book-Youll-Ever/dp/1580628559/). If you want something that specifically compares English and Latin grammar, pick up English Grammar for Students of Latin. (http://www.amazon.com/English-Grammar-Students-Latin-Learning/dp/0934034346/) Both have very clear explanations and examples. HTH!

[frogpond1]

and I think LfC would have been much easier having a year or so of Shurley. We were doing the diagramming instead of parsing and it was so much more difficult to translate the ideas into Latin. You can visually parse, instead of having to diagram. I think they made a very key decision advocating Shurley with their program.