How To Teach Grammer????

[Robin Hood]

We are in R & S 3. Mostly oral. Some written. From what I understand, as the kids advance, it is a lot of repetition. My kids don't always get it the 1st time. We are on lesson 70 and there is still a lot of thinking going on to find answers, but they are getting it little by little. Do your kids master the lesson before you move on? Mine don't. Do you move on and eventually they get it? Mine seem to. Moving on to 4th, 5th, 6th and etc grades, if you keep moving on, does it keep repeating stuff so they eventually get it? Or should they have mastery by the year's end? Or chapter's end by that matter?

One dd does get most of it, but her answers frequently show lack of attention and application rather than lack of understanding. The other is just a wee bit slower. But it's the doing that sinks it in, right? Over and over and over and ...... right? (I hope I am right.) That's the meaning of the GRAMMER stage, right?

I'm just feeling a little discouraged after they each diagramed 12 sentences with simple subject/ simple predicate/ and direct object and only got a little over 1/2 correct. They do great orally but the written seems a bit more difficult.

[Beth in Central TX]

Yes, I think it's the repetition that makes R&S Grammar such a solid program, but it's not just straight repetition of previously learned facts; it's also the building of more difficult concepts on the previously learned concepts as you move through the years.

It sounds like your kids are doing fine with the program. We do most of it orally too; however, I also do a lot of the diagramming on a white board (especially when they were younger). I would model the diagram, and they would follow the example with a similar sentence. It really sounds like you just need to do a little more work on diagramming, which does need to be written in the lower grades.

I do R&S orally even now, but I also purchase the corresponding worksheets for my boys to do. There's not a worksheet for every lesson which is good, but it does provide a little more written practice than what we are doing orally. If I don't see a lot of practice on diagramming in the worksheets, I do assign a few of the diagramming problems from the book every now and then. For me, diagramming is important.

[angela in ohio]

Yes, they will have plenty of more chances to cement the concepts. We just keep moving. The 4th grade book really helps reinforce the 3rd, and the same with the 6th reinforcing 5th, I found. There is nothing in 3 that you have to have completely mastered to move onto 4.

I do think the written work is the important part. We do grammar, at least in my house, to improve writing skills. If they are having trouble with the work when it is written, I would actually do more of it. JMHO (and opposed to most here, LOL)...

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Yup. Ditto. What they said.

You're doing fine.

I started both my kids in R&S3. I now have one in 4 and one in 6. The sixth grader works independently. She skips the things she knows already, and does the rest. She takes the test at the end of every chapter, and reviews what she missed. She aces the ITBS every year. I'm pleased as punch. My fourth grader has still struggled, sometimes, with diagramming skeletons. But, all of a sudden, in the past week, it's like a light bulb came on. The simple subject/simple predicate thing has become old-hat, and he's on to mastering direct objects/predicate pronouns. It's fun to see.

Neither of them could recall a thing they learned in the green book at the end of 3rd grade.

Hang in there. You've got it right. It's all about repitition, digging neural pathways.

[Alana in Canada]

Well, I'm not opposed to doing more if the child is struggling.

I've taken some sentences from the book and put them into Word--and made my son diagram them. He was having an awful time with subject and predicate. So, we did that--and only that--for a couple of days--then we went back to the textbook.

I want my child to master the material before moving on. Saves a LOT of frustration later on for all of us!

I'm also using CW-Aesop to reinforce our grammar. For example, I sat with him and coached him to think up and include all the different types of sentences for our re-write. As we were doing that and I was writing it down, I did my best to leave out all punctuation. His job was to put it all back in.

Theory + application = mastery.

[one l michele]

I've done a lot of thinking about Grammar this year. I took a look at our math, we're using Horizons, it's going wonderful. The boys both have plenty of review, it's something they do daily, it builds off of previous skills. IMO Grammar is a lot like this, or should be. Grammar needs to be used regularly and I really think most kids need to actually write it in order to retain it and not just be exposed to it. I've decided to use Flashkids LA, it's workbook because I like the way the info is presented, the skills it covers, that it's something they do daily, but it doesn't take a lot of time, and the price, can't beat $5.50 at Barnes and Noble. I will likely add in daily paragraph editing for 3rd, but even the two will not take much time. I'm leaning toward AG in 6th and don't feel the need to have my kids diagram before then.

[Robin Hood]

Thanks ladies. The girls were doing great and seemed to be getting grammer down. We did 2 weeks of some Winston Grammer hands on games and they were nailing verbs, nouns, articles, helping verbs, the dreaded be verb, (you), etc. They even got nouns that I didn't know were nouns. I had no idea that dates were nouns, but they did. They know subjects and predicates, but the simple subject and predicate makes them think. But then when we threw in the direct object, it was like a monkey wrench. All nouns became fair game. Verbs became subjects. I guess it all eventually gets straightened out. I just needed you to tell me so.