Planning high school grammar...help.

[Crissy]

My son is in 8th grade and just finished Rod and Staff's 8th grade English book. We were about to call grammar Done until I began re-reading TWTM's rhetoric stage chapters. I am reminded that he will be better prepared if he covers this subject throughout high school
Jeffrey will cover composition separate from grammar, so I'm not thrilled with the idea of R&S's 9/10 books.
Have any of you made this change? R&S through grade 8, then onto something else? What did you choose?
Anything else I should consider?

[vmsurbat]

We switch to Abeka's Grammar texts in high school. You can easily take one book and stretch it out for two years as a review text. It is very easy to assign partial exercise sets and the ease of a worktext (after hardback R&S English) is a treat for a busy highschooler.....

Having had two children graduate and done well on various tests, I can tell you that you are wise to insist on grammar review to the 12th grade.

HTH,

Vicki in MNE
Mom to 5

[yinne]

We finished Rod & Staff's 8th grade book last year and my dd is using Analytical Grammar's High School Reinforcement book this year. It is just enough review to reinforce what she has learned, but not time consuming. I believe AG plans on having 4 different books by the time the series is complete. This year she is using the American Authors book. You can check out samples at www.analyticalgrammar.com.

Yvonne in NE

[Crissy]

Vicki, did you jump right into Grammar III, or do you think there is a better starting place when switching program?

Yvonne,
Thank you for the link. I will take a look at AG.

[Rachel]

No grammar for 9th grade this year, but I will use something next year as a review and then call it quits.......my son has had a lot of grammar (R&S) and he does well with it and I really want to concentrate on literature and writing for high school........do what works for you

[Jan P.]

Crissy,

I'm not Vicki, but I've used Abeka's Grammar and Composition I and III. You could easily start with III, but it does cover ground more quickly than GCI. I guess it depends on how much grammar your child has already had. If he hasn't had a formal program then go with GCI. If he has had quite a bit of grammar then go ahead into GCIII. In my opinion, grammar is grammar. GCIII just has a bit more and moves a bit faster. I do think these books overkill with the rules. I do wish Abeka kept their rules a bit simplier.

FWIW,

[Crissy]

Thank you, Jan. He has had a significant amount of grammar (finishing through grade 8 in Rod and Staff), so I think we'd go with GCIII.

[LizzyBee]

A friend of mine used Jensen's Grammar and was pleased with the book and the results.

[Sandy in Indy]

I truly think that R&S grammar through book 8 is MORE than enough grammar. If you see a deficiency in writing during the high school years, then I'd plan on a brush up. Otherwise, I'd spend the time on something else. Neither of my older kids has done grammar in hs. My oldest is an English major in college...and is president of the university's English honor society.

[Denise in NE]

Like Yvonne, we also used Rod and Staff through 8th grade and are working through the AG High School reinforcement book. There is just enough there to keep grammar fresh without overkill. DD does 1 lesson every two weeks. I highly recommend it!

Denise in NE

[vmsurbat]

The junior high books (I & II) will be too easy for your son who has gone through R&S 8.

One thing I like about the upper Abeka books are the "Improve the Sentence" writing exercises (at the end of each chapter). These covers things like parallelism, eliminating excess wordiness, and more. Just enough to keep those ideas fresh in our student's mind....

I also think you could easily choose between the 9 and 10th grade books--they are very similar, the writing component differs the most so you might base it on that (If you might want to use the writing resource--I've pulled a few things out from there...) I happen to have bought the 9th grade book (III) for my daughter (now in college) and thus all the rest of mine start with that one because I've already invested the $$ in the teacher's manual.

Best wishes with your decision,

Vicki