can you give me your honesty opinion on this free

[Tina Duke]

online elementary writing/grammar program?

[Beth in Central TX]

Can you give us the link or the name of the program?

[Tina Duke]

Can you give us the link or the name of the program?

http://www.sfreading.com/resources/ghbgrd1.html#

[Beth in Central TX]

Well, it's free so that's good.

It looks like it involves a lot of writing for a 1st grader. This would be difficult for my boys at that age, but your child might not balk at this. I'm not a big fan of creative writing either. I think narration is just fine for this age.

It also seems to introduce a lot of advanced ideas for 1st grade: nouns (singular & plural), pronouns, verbs (present & past), adjectives (which, whose, how many, and what kind of), contractions, titles, etc. I'm just thinking of the slow, gentle approach of grammar found in FLL, and this program seems to be the complete opposite.

Just my $0.02 though...

[SandraDumas]

I found that the older grades review everything that's taught in first. So unless you have a very old 1st grader (turns 7 in Sept or Oct) or one that's very advanced and mature, I would use the older grades as written but use the first grade, and do lots of the work orally.

I personally love workbooks, and these are free and colorful.

I also noticed the creative writing. Unless your kid seems to be into it, you may consider skipping some of that.

[Fourmother]

Overall, I've been more than satisfied with the quality of the free Scott Foresman materials, especially considering the price! The lessons are to the point, not spoon-fed or repetitive. Plus, my son can work independently while I'm teaching another child.

I used these Scott Foresman materials with my first grader last year to supplement then replace First Language Lessons which really didn't work for us. My son has had no trouble understanding the grammatical concepts presented. This year I'm using the grade 2 materials along with Rod and Staff English 2. We skip over the writing exercises and do just grammar, since at this age we concentrate on copywork. My son happens to be a child who likes workbooks, so Scott Foresman has been very usefull for us.

I say give it a try. It won't cost any more than the paper and ink needed to print the pages. If the writing would be too much for your child, just do the exercises orally. One per day would suffice for most first graders.

Hope this helps.

[godpoetry]

I have not used the 1st grade, but I am using the 3rd and 4th grade ones now for my son. We skip some of the writing because he hates to write. You can always do some of it orally. We did not do much grammar in 1st grade because he was still focusing on copywork, phonics, and the other basics.