Grammer for 1st/2nd grade?

[kelpiegirl]

What do you guys use fro grammer 1st/2nd grade level for a child who does not like repetition? DS is reading well but self-taught so I don't think he really knows nouns, etc. He can write sentances but no one has ever taught him the actual mechanics. I know that 1st language lessons is highly recommended but I'm told it has a lot of repetition. Has anyone found anything that is better? Do you just skip the reps when they are not needed? I want him to love "school" and use our time effectively as I will have a newborn/infant to care for as well.

 

Thanks,

Susan

[Dmmetler]

My 6 yr old is LOVING MCT Island coupled with the Shurley Jingle Time gr 3-5 CD. The Jingle time CD is giving her the memorization and chants (and sillyness) and the MCT is giving her the framework. She's done grammar Island and is currently doing practice Island, Music of the Hemispheres, and is greatly enjoying it (and writing some pretty nice poems, too-even if they ARE all about ferocious, fire breathing dragons).

[Deniseibase]

We did Growing With Grammar with my DD when she was that age, it has very little repetition. She liked it quite a lot.

[boscopup]

I wouldn't recommend FLL1 for an accelerated child. We did it in 3 or 4 weeks, IIRC, with me greatly removing repetition from the script. FLL2 is a lot better, as it isn't a bunch of lessons on proper nouns vs. common nouns. It still has a lot of review, though that's actually been good for DS to learn the definitions and such. For the next kid, I'll probably use FLL1 for K and FLL2 for first grade.

 

We're getting ready to start R&S English 3 for 2nd grade (though it is very much Christian, so if you need something secular, this is really not it). It just arrived today, and thumbing through it, I think we'll like it. We used R&S 2 in the beginning (halfway through first grade), but it was a little too easy, and it was sometimes a bit too much implication that you're sinning if you don't use a complete sentence. :tongue_smilie: I picked it up again recently and started using one of the later units, and it's not so bad about that. I didn't see much of that in grade 3 and up either, so I think it's just the early units of grade 2.

 

FLL included a lot of oral usage stuff that my son really didn't need (my middle son may need it, as he has weird word order as it is). He speaks with proper grammar, and has no trouble with "What is a complete sentence." So we're moving on to slightly more challenging material. He's ready for more parts of speech, diagramming, etc.

 

A lot of folks like MCT, so that's another one to look at. I haven't tried it and currently have no plans to. I'm a bit more traditional in grammar instruction. You might enjoy it though! :)

[Janelless]

We're using MCT Island coupled with books from the library and FLL 1 (with me heavily editing and weeding through skipping lessons). Loving MCT though. DD was self-taught and also hates repetition. So FLL 1 is taking a lot of weeding through to skip the repetition.

[Halcyon]

Another vote for GWG.

[2smartones]

I used R&S, but we did most of it orally, and sped through until around the 4th or 5th grade books. That's where it starts to beef up quite a bit all of a sudden.

[kokotg]

We like Royal Fireworks Press' Aesop series. I'm planning on doing that in 1st/2nd grade with my youngest and then moving into MCT Island from there. Oh, and we do Writing With Ease, which has you talk about stuff like parts of speech, punctuation, etc. as you come to them in copywork. I feel like that's plenty of grammar for 1st and 2nd grade.

[Food4Thought]

I'm probably one of the few who goes light on grammar at this age. I've been using Evan-Moor's Daily Language Review for the last year and DS loves it. It has a few problems each day on word usage, spelling, and sentence structure. When we hit something DS doesn't know, I spend a few minutes teaching the concept. We've actually covered a lot that way, and he appreciates that it's not too rigid.

 

We also get books from the library by Ruth Heller and Brian P. Cleary for introducing parts of speech. Those have been helpful.

[give_me_a_latte]

This has been on my mind, because my son can't STAND repetition. I love the idea of FLL, and I think he could handle FLL1 now. But I really don't want to start so early. Yet if I wait until 1st I'm afraid it will be waaaay too slooow for him. I'm constantly mulling over grammar choices...

[Embassy]

With one guy I used an Evan-Moore Grammar book, informal activities, and then I went to Bob Jones English 3. Didn't like Bob Jones

 

With my other guy I am using Mad Libs and the same Evan-Moore Grammar book. I am planning to try GWG3 after finishing up those.

[cmarango]

:bigear:

[EKS]

I would use MCT's Island level materials.

[LisaKinVA]

I used FLL 1/2 in K (we finished it up before he started 1st grade.) Although, we didn't do the writing assignments. We skipped a lot. We really just focused on the chants, picture narrations, poetry, etc. I plan on doing the same thing with my next Ker... and then moving into FLL3 in 1st, then to MCT Island for 2nd.

 

FLL is very gentle, and easy toimplement.

[Satori]

We're enjoying GWG and MCT Island. We also do FLL, but in an accelerated way without all the repetition. If all this gets to be too much, we'll focus only on GWG, it has served us very well. So far we both really enjoy grammar so we don't mind overdoing it for now.

[kelpiegirl]

Thanks for the insight. We've had some internet issues so couldn't check back sooner. I'm going to look into all of these. We are in no hurry but figured we needed to introduce some concepts before he gets too far ahead & makes his own rules up :-)