Is FLL like OPGTTR?

[kristinannie]

I had planned on using FLL next year for 1st. If my son hates OPGTTR, would he hate FLL? If so, what would you recommend instead? His main dislikes of OPGTTR are too many words on a page (it overwhelms him) and the fact that it is dry and a little boring. Plus, the sentences don't really tell a story. They are just meaningless sentences for the most part.

[LittleIzumi]

To us--yes. We tried both twice, and we just do NOT like that style of teaching.

[kristinannie]

To us--yes. We tried both twice, and we just do NOT like that style of teaching.

 

 

I was worried about this since they are both written by JW.

[FairProspects]

To us--yes. We tried both twice, and we just do NOT like that style of teaching.

 

And we LOVE it, so it really depends on the kid and your teaching style. :D

 

To me, these curriculums are incredibly boy-friendly, unlike a lot of what is on the market, which expects students to write a lot, be intuitively verbal, be able to sit for significant periods of seatwork, etc.

 

IMHO, PHP books are designed for very short lessons that are through and explicit, but "just the facts" without all the coloring and pictures and bells and whistles that take extra time. This is perfect for us, because ds can do school effectively in a short period of time and get back to digging in the dirt, ripping up worms, bouncing off the walls, destroying things, and in general, just being a boy. :lol:

[morosophe]

I must admit, we pretty much skipped grammar for first grade. We have Schoolhouse Rock, so my son is getting acquainted with parts of speech, but I'm really coming to feel that a formal grammar curriculum is just not necessary in first grade. There's so much new stuff that they're doing anyhow, why pile that on top?

 

Several publishers seem to agree with me, since Rod & Staff and Daily Guided Teaching & Review don't even start their grammar programs until second grade. (And those are just the couple I've looked at.)

 

Are you doing copywork? For first grade, that's a great place for grammar to start and, really, end. Include proper nouns and place names, and then talk about why they're capitalized. Point out the verb (or other part of speech) and have your child redo the sentence with a different one. Definitely give sentences with direct quotes included, and talk about attribution and point out the punctuation. That kind of approach will do a great job laying the groundwork.

 

Or, you could do the sample pages of First Language Lessons found online or check it out from the library (ours has it) and try it with your son. He may surprise you!

 

Note: I have not done First Language Lessons because it just wasn't that appealing to me. Plus, it turns out that my son seems to be strongly visual, so all that chatting about grammar would have been completely wasted. Also, I'm an English major and talking about grammar is second nature to me anyhow, particularly when I can correct someone else. Pity my poor family members!

[Dinsfamily]

And we LOVE it, so it really depends on the kid and your teaching style. :D

 

To me, these curriculums are incredibly boy-friendly, unlike a lot of what is on the market, which expects students to write a lot, be intuitively verbal, be able to sit for significant periods of seatwork, etc.

 

IMHO, PHP books are designed for very short lessons that are through and explicit, but "just the facts" without all the coloring and pictures and bells and whistles that take extra time. This is perfect for us, because ds can do school effectively in a short period of time and get back to digging in the dirt, ripping up worms, bouncing off the walls, destroying things, and in general, just being a boy. :lol:

 

:iagree: FLL has been this for us as well. Ds even calls grammar one of his favorite subjects. The dc don't look at the book so it's easy to skip and paraphrase all you want. After the 5-10 min lesson, it's back to sword fights in the backyard. That's a demonstration of an action verb, you know.

[FairProspects]

Plus, the sentences don't really tell a story. They are just meaningless sentences for the most part.

 

FWIW, this is true of nearly all beginning reading programs. There is only so much you can do with "cat, mat, sat, cot", KWIM? Once you get further into the book and reading more fluently, the sentences and stories are much more varied and interesting. Many of them made my ds LOL when he read them, and several of the stories he asks to read over to himself after our lessons because they are so funny.

[FairProspects]

After the 5-10 min lesson, it's back to sword fights in the backyard. That's a demonstration of an action verb, you know.

 

:lol:This is exactly how we do the action verb lessons too! In the backyard, acting out each one. Ds loves grammar now too. It is favorite subject and he frequently asks for additional lessons.

[Guest]

I would say NOTHING. We have not made a good fit with any PHP books. (Sorry SWB and JW. No offense intended!) Frankly, early grammar is a complete waste of time, IMO. Schoolhouse Rock is a better option at this age. The original WTM said to start grammar at 3rd grade, not 1st. Wait for their little minds to mature a bit first. You will be glad you did.

[Classically Minded]

My daughter didn't much care for OPGTR, but she did love FLL 1!

[boscopup]

OPGTR and FLL are pretty different. For example, in OPGTR, your problem is cluttered pages (which I agree it's not great for the child reading out of the book - hence why I use the white board for that one), but FLL is read by the parent, not the child. Your child *can* read over your shoulder, but it's basically just oral grammar.

 

The script can get a bit annoying, so I went off script a bit and tailored it to meet my son. FLL1 was very repetitive in the nouns (common vs. proper), so we breezed through a lot of that since my son had already automatically picked most of it up. He didn't like FLL1 much in first grade because it was too easy for him. He liked FLL2 better. He LOVED the poems in both books and recently pulled out FLL1 just to read the poems. :D

 

The samples of FLL1 are pretty good representatives of the exercises in FLL. Print them out and see what you think of using them.

[nmoira]

To us--yes. We tried both twice, and we just do NOT like that style of teaching.

:iagree:

 

I think it is joyless as written, though I tend to resist a teaching style that pretends to be conversational but is in fact looking for a single correct answer.

 

However, I have an old copy sitting around, so I more or less use its scheduling with my youngest, making up my own lessons. Instead of repeating definition of a noun hundreds of times without reference to the bigger picture, we go on noun hunts in her copywork sheets. Even in the first lesson we talked about the kinds of things you can name and the words we use to do it, etc. rather than diving right into the definition. Because we started with sentences, she figured out on her own that nouns are often preceded by "a/n" or "the" and that describing words aren't the same as things. We substitute more interesting memory work, and skip or substitute lessons at will.