jenn- Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 DD is in there working on her grammar. She is having a very hard time grasping the concept of adjectives. She can find the obvious ones like the color or size of the item, but not some of the other ones. We had tears yesterday and some yelling (that was my part :blushing:). I just got so tired of walking her through every.single.sentence, and her still guessing wrong. Then we had to diagram them and more yelling and crying ensued. I expect to help her get started on a subject, but after I have explained it on the first 3 or 4 sentences I expect her to do it on her own from there. Today I am making her try it all on her own and just know that she is in there making a bunch of mistakes (I seriously doubt she will get a single one right on her own). How much hand holding do you think I should do? I know if I go sit in there she will start guessing hoping I will give her the answer. Do I just mark them all wrong and make her do them again? There are a ton of examples for her to refer to including the ones we did yesterday, so she should be able to figure this out. I will say grammar is not my strong subject. I am best friends with the answer key. Maybe a lot of my frustration is not knowing how to explain it any better because I barely grasp the concepts myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraGB Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 I would suggest closing the grammar book and focusing only on adjectives for a while. Maybe google for some fun games to play regarding adjectives or taking turns writing a descriptive word for a noun. The more you play with it, the easier finding them will become for her. After you're confident she understands, re-open the book. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Mad Libs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 At that age we do grammar together on a white board. In my opinion grammar is not a "do or die" subject at that age. I don't expect them to fully do it on their own until fifth grade. Since it's causing so much stress maybe take a break from formal grammar and do Mad Libs for a couple of weeks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenn- Posted November 10, 2009 Author Share Posted November 10, 2009 Mad Libs is great for getting her to use the easy adjectives, but not the harder ones. She just won't come up with them on her own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy loves Bud Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 At that age I give all the help they need. Non-obvious adjectives can be very abstract. I would simply walk her through each sentence, letting her find all the adjectives she can, and then explain which other words are adjectives and why. I don't regret this approach. My 11 year old is now fantastic at grammar. Patient persistence. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Mad Libs is great for getting her to use the easy adjectives, but not the harder ones. She just won't come up with them on her own. Help her make a list. Make a goal of coming up with 200 adjectives in the next month. Put them in categories. When you do Mad Libs (or your lessons) challenge her to come up with different types of adjectives. Adjective lists (some sorted in categories): http://www.enchantedlearning.com/grammar/partsofspeech/adjectives/ http://www.keepandshare.com/htm/lists/free_adjective_list.php http://www.zozanga.com/grammar/adjectives/listofadjectives.htm http://www.wordbroker.biz/adjectives/ And I agree with Amy, even though I wasn't hard-nosed about grammar in the early grades my kids score great on Language Arts. My 13 year old scored perfectly on almost all of the Language Arts sections of the Iowa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 DD is in there working on her grammar. She is having a very hard time grasping the concept of adjectives. She can find the obvious ones like the color or size of the item, but not some of the other ones. We had tears yesterday and some yelling (that was my part :blushing:). I just got so tired of walking her through every.single.sentence, and her still guessing wrong. Then we had to diagram them and more yelling and crying ensued. I expect to help her get started on a subject, but after I have explained it on the first 3 or 4 sentences I expect her to do it on her own from there. Today I am making her try it all on her own and just know that she is in there making a bunch of mistakes (I seriously doubt she will get a single one right on her own). How much hand holding do you think I should do? I know if I go sit in there she will start guessing hoping I will give her the answer. Do I just mark them all wrong and make her do them again? There are a ton of examples for her to refer to including the ones we did yesterday, so she should be able to figure this out. I will say grammar is not my strong subject. I am best friends with the answer key. Maybe a lot of my frustration is not knowing how to explain it any better because I barely grasp the concepts myself. Have you considered buying a higher level grammar book for yourself and learning it? I cannot teach what I don't understand, and I get more frustrated at my boys than I should when this happens. I would shut dd's grammar book and focus on learning it myself. She's not trying to frustrate you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athena1277 Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Don't know if it would help or not, but it may be worth watching. Schoolhouse Rocks - Adjectives http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYzGLzFuwxI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenn- Posted November 10, 2009 Author Share Posted November 10, 2009 Help her make a list. Make a goal of coming up with 200 adjectives in the next month. Put them in categories. When you do Mad Libs (or your lessons) challenge her to come up with different types of adjectives. Adjective lists (some sorted in categories): http://www.enchantedlearning.com/grammar/partsofspeech/adjectives/ http://www.keepandshare.com/htm/lists/free_adjective_list.php http://www.zozanga.com/grammar/adjectives/listofadjectives.htm http://www.wordbroker.biz/adjectives/ And I agree with Amy, even though I wasn't hard-nosed about grammar in the early grades my kids score great on Language Arts. My 13 year old scored perfectly on almost all of the Language Arts sections of the Iowa. Thank you for the websites. I might have to use some of those adjectives in my NaNo novel. :D Have you considered buying a higher level grammar book for yourself and learning it? I cannot teach what I don't understand, and I get more frustrated at my boys than I should when this happens. I would shut dd's grammar book and focus on learning it myself. She's not trying to frustrate you. If it was for my grammar phobia, this would be a good idea. Just the thought of diving in deeper than the basics makes me break into a cold sweat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdeveson Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 The thing with grammar is that 1) there's not that much to learn, and 2) what there is can be really, really hard. Lots of people don't do formal grammar at all until middle school. By then, most kids have the processing power to get it the first time. You can cover all grammar in 12 weeks if the child is old enough. At that age, a child can achieve mastery in a couple or three yearly passes. Your little one may simply not be ready for adjectives. You know your dd best and what would work for her. If it was my ds, I would drop adjectives right now and revisit them next year. We struggled with grammar for a few weeks in grade 3 and 4. Each time I dropped it. Now, in fifth grade, he gets everything. He's working almost completely independently. We'll be done with grammar in another two weeks and we won't see grammar again until next year. We'll spend the rest of the year on writing. Regardless of what you decide to do, remember that she has years to achieve mastery of grammar. Adjectives don't have to happen this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deece in MN Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Part of the problem is that we adults have the answer keys. This makes the answers obvious to us and it is hard to get past why our dc don't "get it". I wouldn't worry if she doesn't get the abstract adjectives. Give her the answers, tell her which ones they are after she finds the "easy" ones. She will get it eventually and it will save both of you lots of tears and frustration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Part of the problem is that we adults have the answer keys. This makes the answers obvious to us and it is hard to get past why our dc don't "get it". I actually don't order the answer keys for my kids' grammar books. Maybe that's why I prefer we do it together? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newlifemom Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 If I could condense all that I have learned hsing for 7 years now it would be this: Repetition, repetition, repetition. My dd 11 who has never struggled with grammar exactly is just now 'getting it' KWIM. All those years where she managed to circle the right word etc was practice. She could do it, but she didn't know why. Now she does, or rather she is beginning to understand. Shoot, I can't find all of the adjectives and I am studying them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenn- Posted November 10, 2009 Author Share Posted November 10, 2009 Part of the problem is that we adults have the answer keys. This makes the answers obvious to us and it is hard to get past why our dc don't "get it".I wouldn't worry if she doesn't get the abstract adjectives. Give her the answers, tell her which ones they are after she finds the "easy" ones. She will get it eventually and it will save both of you lots of tears and frustration. Everyone has given great advice, but this one really hits home for me. Without the answer key, I probably would have missed some of the things they call adjectives. I think I am pushing too hard. From now on if she gets the easy adjectives right, I think I will at least be more helpful in finding the others. Usually I just have to ask the question the adjective answers and she can find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Nice thread!:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Have you considered buying a higher level grammar book for yourself and learning it? I cannot teach what I don't understand, and I get more frustrated at my boys than I should when this happens. I would shut dd's grammar book and focus on learning it myself. She's not trying to frustrate you. :iagree::iagree::iagree: I find that if I learn something, sure enough, some situation to point out to kiddo will pop up in two weeks or less. Adjectives should pop up in about 2 minutes. In a relaxed moment, child say "blah blah blah adjective blah blah.". You: X was an adjective. It modified Y. Can you name another adjective that can modify Y? Like Z [make z funny or two her tastes, like horsey if she is horsey]. Etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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