How often do you do grammar?

[Sparrows-Song]

We are using Rod and Staff (grammar parts only) for both my 6th grader and 4th grader, and using something else for composition. I'm wondering how often do you cover grammar each week, (if you do,) and how long each day?

I'm trying to decide if we should cover grammar for X number of weeks, then composition, or try to do both at once. Or, split up the weeks to cover grammar on certain days, and composition on others.

Thanks!

[Excelsior! Academy]

We do Rod and Staff daily. We try to do composition exercises on a regular basis.

I do require some writing every day. Some days it is dictation and copywork, and their history assignments. We use Veritas Press and they include writing in some of their assignments. Other times we do book reports, reports, or free writing. My oldest is working on a book. The older two like to write lyrics and sing them. I require all of their writing at a separate time from grammar mainly to stay on track for the book. I've noticed that Rod and Staff does include some outlining, book reports, and note taking assignments. I think those count, as well.

[Cadam]

When we did separate grammar (now it is part of Latin) we did it daily but with R&S I always cut down the number of things ds had to do. I would have him do the odds or evens or something like that.

[MIch elle]

along with IEW writing. They are done independently of each other usually (if there is no R&S composition lesson for that week). Each can take from 45-60 min/day.

[Lisawa]

We are using Rod and Staff (grammar parts only) for both my 6th grader and 4th grader, and using something else for composition. I'm wondering how often do you cover grammar each week, (if you do,) and how long each day?

I'm trying to decide if we should cover grammar for X number of weeks, then composition, or try to do both at once. Or, split up the weeks to cover grammar on certain days, and composition on others.

Thanks!

3-5 days a week... it depends... because we are also studying Spanish, we get some from that... *Ü*

We are using JAG and AG.

Lisa

[momofkhm]

Grammar gets done every day. It takes however long it takes. The girls (13 and 10) only do evens or odds. DS usually does it all, but when it's only 10 sentences and all he has to write down are the verbs - well, enough said.

Composition. DD10 does whatever comes up in R&S. DD13 has an outside writing class - Writeshop 2. She works on that whenever she needs to. All three have to write me a few sentences on whatever their history reading that day was.

[Tammyla]

Grammar & Comp. are done daily here.

[Jenny in Atl]

Everyday!

[AllSmiles]

We do grammar (Rod and Staff) and writing on a daily basis.

[Rhesa]

Apparently I need to pick up the pace! :eek:We are rather relaxed with English for the Thoughtful Child for 1st grade. I don't do anything workbook-y, we just talk about grammar.

[mcconnellboys]

Daily. I alot 30 minutes, but it generally takes about 15-20.....

Regena

[ArwenA]

We do the grammar parts of Shurley English and spend about 10 minutes per day five days a week. That's for dd 9, my other two don't do any formal grammar.

[ArwenA]

Ooops! About writing...
DD 9 loves writing and is assigned about 30 minutes of writing from Writing Strands daily, she writes a lot more than this, often two hours a day.

[DKinTX]

We do R&S daily here. But my kids do it independently. We skip the oral portion of the lessons, and often they don't do all of written exercises. I say, for example, "Do written exercises A, B, skip C and D, and do Review and Practice A."
I should clarify that my 9th, 7th, and 5th graders do it independently, but I sit with my 7yo and do the lesson with her.

[juls]

I am using Growing with Grammar 3 and Writing Tales 1 for my third grader.

[EvergreenEclecticAcademy]

For 2nd grade, we are doing FLL2 twice a week and Spelling Workout 3x per week, on alternating days.

[nutmeg]

Apparently I need to pick up the pace! :eek:We are rather relaxed with English for the Thoughtful Child for 1st grade. I don't do anything workbook-y, we just talk about grammar.

Oh gosh, no problem there. We didn't even start grammar around here until 3rd grade.

We do it daily now, but that's 6th and 4th grades.

[Karen in CO]

Or at least not yet. We do copy work a couple of times a week and if dd is writing something and wants help, I will give it. I don't plan to do formal grammar until 3rd grade and then I'm not sure, but its probably a daily task.

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

Apparently I need to pick up the pace! :eek:We are rather relaxed with English for the Thoughtful Child for 1st grade. I don't do anything workbook-y, we just talk about grammar.

Oh, I think in first grade just talking about grammar is a wonderful way to proceed.

It doesn't take twelve years to teach grammar. Don't sweat it. Really. ;)

(BTW, for the OP, for 6th -8th grades, we did grammar every day, like brushing the teeth. Dd did probably 90% of the assigned grammar work in R&S, and only class practice was done orally. No regrets from either of us.)

[KIN]

We do grammar every day, but as I mentioned in a previous thread I'm not sure how much he is retaining at this point! :)

[Plaid Dad]

We do grammar (via Latin) every day.

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

We do grammar every day, but as I mentioned in a previous thread I'm not sure how much he is retaining at this point! :)

Yeah, I hear you. When we pulled dd out of school in Jan of 5th grade, she knew what a noun was, what an action verb was, and that there was such a thing as an adverb and an adjective, and she thought maybe she had heard of helping verbs.

Oy.

Winston Grammar for 1/2 year, R&S 6, 7, 8 with Latin alongside to reinforce, and she's amazingly well-grounded in grammar usage despite little or no early foundation.

[PinkInTheBlue]

R&S grammar everyday except for right now while we are waiting for our new books to come. :)

[Donna T.]

I use R&S and we do it daily. I haven't added a formal writing curriculum yet. For now (3rd grade), we're just doing one, sometimes two, R&S lessons and either copywork or dictation, everyday. He works on language arts (including spelling) for about 30 minutes a day. Maybe 45 if he is dragging his feet.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I am also using R&S for a 6th grader and a 4th grader. We do it every day, but:

6th grader is a very concientious girl who wants to learn everything well, and does very well with language arts. She decides how much grammar she needs to do. She reads the book, but only does the exercises if the material is new. This is her 4th year of R&S, so much of the material is review. She skips those exercises, and only does the "new stuff". I give her the Chapter tests, and only review what she misses (she got over 95% on both of the last chapters). She is cruising through the book quickly this way, and will finish in about a month. We will then do a writing course (IEW or Classical Writing, I haven't decided which, yet).

OTOH:
4th grader is a smart boy who hates writing and will do anything to get out of it. We still do most of his exercises orally. Half the writing he does is on a white board. The other half is only done with much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. :o) He's getting better, though. Perhaps by 6th grade, he'll be able to be more independent, like his sister. We find the writing in R&S quite sufficient for him. He just did his Reptiles report (Lesson 55), and he did a great job. I'm please with just R&S for fourth grade.

[Hoggirl]

We use R&S grammar only and IEW for writing. We are in the grade 6 book for R&S. We do the oral review exercises (in the TM) and the review exercises from the student text orally. I buy the worksheets, and, except for diagramming, this is about all ds does in writing. We do not do the R&S writing lessons/exercises. At the beginning of the year, I counted up the total number of exercises and tests, and divided by 36 (# of our school weeks). We needed to do about 3 lessons a week to complete the book this way (there will be a few weeks where we need to do four lessons a week, but not many). DS does writing from IEW (watches DVD, works on assignment) four days per week for 30 minutes on those days. We just "go on to the next thing" with IEW. On the day ds does not do R&S grammar, he does some in the Walch Prose & Poetry Toobox workbook and some in the Reiman Publication outlining workbook.
Cynthia

[Rhonda in TX]

We do CLE Mon-Thurs. I'm looking at JAG for next year because it takes less time. I'd like to be able to do it a couple of days a week. Or, maybe work on it daily to finish it, then just review a couple of days a week the rest of the year. I really like the philosophy of JAG. Grammar is a finite subject. Learn it, then just review.

We just started IEW and I am really concentrating on that. My DS's writing skills are incredibly weak, so I feel that needs to be the priority.

[Melora in NC]

We do R & S Grammar, 4th grade, every day (5 days a week). It usually takes about 35-35 minutes. When there is a R & S writing assignment, that is what we do for writing, otherwise I try to have ds do a written narration, or we work on CW Aesop.

[Riverfront Headmistress]

along with IEW writing. They are done independently of each other usually (if there is no R&S composition lesson for that week).

This is what I do as well.

[Sparrows-Song]

Thank you all for answering! You have been very helpful!
I think what I'll do is see how many lessons we have left before the end of the year and divide that by weeks to see how much we must do per week.

Next year when they are a bit more independent, we might do more.

Thanks again!!!

[Pam in MA]

It may be we do a real lesson as part of Classical Writing, but it often comes up in Latin or French in a different way.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

We cover R&S grammar 3 days a week. It takes no more than 15 minutes. We also cover grammar in CW Aesop once every 2 weeks for maybe 10 minutes.

As far as writing, we do dictation almost daily, and then one CW assignment every 2 weeks.

HTH

[Lori D.]

- grammar instruction: Winston Basic, then Winston Advanced
(parts of speech, noun functions, sentence types, etc.)
3x a week, out loud together/on whiteboard -- 8-10 minutes per session

- grammar mechanics: editing/word usage/punctation/etc. practice (various things)
3-4x a week, 3-5 minutes per session

- grammar discussion: SL and home-made types of dictation worksheets
1-2x a week, 10 minutes per session

All together, grammar has never taken us more than 15 a day, about 3-4 times a week. We do writing instruction/writing process/revising of writing as a separate subject -- about 20-30 minutes a day 4-5x a week. Hope that helps! Warmly, Lori D.

[GLOWAcademy]

We do it daily, except fridays, thats library day :)

[godpoetry]

I have a 4th and a 7th grader so we do it everyday. More writing for my 7th grader than my 4th.

[Audrey]

3x/wk. here

[AmyinPA]

Grammar is done daily. We also use R&S and since we do a good bit orally, it takes maybe 20 minutes at the most. We also do writing daily. We use Spectrum writing workbooks. This takes a lot longer...maybe 30 to 45 minutes, depending the on the exercise du jour.

[Mommyfaithe]

I find we need to be consistent if it is going to stick.
~~Faithe

[Linda in NM]

we do grammar review daily (about 5-10 minutes). We do some punctuation work once/week; he does Word Roots on the computer on Mondays; we do IEW on Tues/Wed/Th with Trisms. We do Language Lessons for the Secondary Child (Queen Homeschooling) daily (about 5 minutes).

[Michelle in GA]

We do grammar everyday, but only work for 15-20 minutes. Writing is done everyday for 30-45 minutes.