My 12 year old cannot punctuate!

[hsmom4]

I have successfully taught three children to punctuate and write well. In fact, one will be starting college at sixteen. She edits my writing. However, I used all the same materials with this child to no avail. He continues to put commas where there should be periods. He leaves out commas when they are needed. He just doesn't get it. He doesn't "hear" the end of the sentence. We've used Shurley Grammar, Daily Grams, Winston Grammar, Easy Grammar, Rod and Staff and every little workbook in between. Now I'm just having him write paragraphs, which I correct. His little brother writes perfectly. HELP! Does anyone have this problem? My fourteen year old says that her friends from public school write this way - no periods, just a few commas in long lengthy prose.

 

How can I help this child? Any ideas?

 

 

 

[Mama Lynx]

My 12 year old cannot punctuate either. :glare:

 

I have been told by people who know their stuff to just keep working at it. They tell me that if we just keep working at it, the kid will learn it, eventually. And so, we just keep going.

 

We use Classical Writing. I was concerned because we are in Homer B, and I thought that perhaps we'd have to stop and remediate. However, he does very well on the grammar, analysis, and imitation parts of the program; it's only his writing that's problematic. (He can't spell, either.)

 

The CW people told me to keep moving through Homer as we have been doing. Every time he writes a rough draft, we go over it together, sentence by sentence. I gave him a printout on run-on sentences, with some tips for identifying them. After that, I started having him read his sentences out loud, trying to identify the run-ons. We discuss the punctuation in each sentence.

 

Like your son, he simply doesn't *hear* the difference between a comma and a sentence. Because of this I am trying to have him read aloud more, and when he does I insist on emphasis.

 

He is v e r y s l o w l y beginning to identify his own errors. It is like pulling teeth, though.

[Beth in SW WA]

How funny is it that we are all having issues w/ our 12 year olds this week!

 

Calgon, take me away!!

[Sharon in MD]

We had used Winston and Abeka without much luck. We switched over to Jensen's Punctuation and then Jensen's Grammar...they seemed to work the best for us. However, it might also just be a case of he was finally at a point in age, or maturity, where it finally clicked.

 

Additionally, I think that the way Jensen's Punctuation presents 5 (I think) basic rules first helped my son get a handle on punctuation...It is also pretty inexpensive....we used it as a consumable workbook, although the author recommends having them copy the sentences so that you can reuse it.

 

Amazon has 3 new copies from 20.00....that 10 less than the publisher...

 

HTH

[LaJuana]

I just posted in a later thread about my experience with it. It has proven to be very effective for my writing students. I usually work through the book with my children when they are in 7th grade or so, once they have a really strong foundation in grammar. Frode Jensen makes the punctuation simple and easy to remember.

[Sharon in MD]

and then using the punctuation book. I forgot to mention that before.

[Peela]

I would do dictation 2-3 times a week, if that hadn't been used already as a strong part of his LA program.