cjgrubbs Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Why or why not? For 6th grade with my son we will be using IEW's Fix-it, Phonetic Zoo and Medieval Writing. He has dysgraphia and struggles with anything to do with writing. He has great ideas but he handwriting is poor and it hurts him to write. We have worked on some dysgraphia exercises and things were getting better and end of school year....we will pick this back up with school starts again. I learned to do it but I have never used this - not one time. Now granted I majored in Finance and Economics, got my Certified Financial Planner designation and worked in financial planning. I did use a lot of my writing skills, as we always gave our clients a written financial plan explaining our recommendations in words (as some people don't love/understand tables/charts/graphs) but never really found a use for diagramming sentences. I don't want to add another burden to my son's schedule, particularly one he won't enjoy, especially if there is really no purpose for it..... However, if we could do a short unit study or something on it just to give him experience, I would consider it, especially if someone could recommend a guide for this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyg Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 We love sentence diagramming. I think it synchs with some people's way of thinking, and doesn't sync with others. But for everyone in my house, we love it. As a student, I found it logical, concrete, and fun in a puzzle-y sort of way. I think it just fits in my thinking style. To this day, when I'm stumped on which word to choose in a complex sentence, I'll diagram it in my mind. It makes it very obvious which words go with which and what function each serves. We also use diagramming in Latin for the same reason. My husband says learning sentence diagramming is what taught him to think logically. If your student doesn't take to it, I would just do the minimum and let it go. But do give him a chance to try it. He might really take to it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 (edited) I go back and forth on this. My son can diagram sentences beautifully, but it doesn't transfer to his writing AT ALL. I once mentioned to my husband how good my son is at diagramming and he said, oh, yes, he was excellent at that in school, too. That totally deflated me because the man (while brilliant, loveable and wonderful in many ways) is an extremely poor writer. I'm talking incomplete sentences, very poor grammar, spelling, syntax, etc. I know SWB says if you can diagram, then you can take a sentence that sounds awkward and see what the problem is with it. I think my son would be diagramming every sentence in his paper because none of them seem awkward to him and I'm not really even sure how that would help in many cases. Now, if I could really figure out how to apply this, then it might make it worthwhile. But, we keep plugging away at it. He's good at it and he likes it and Saxon Grammar only has 2 sentences to diagram in each lesson. Lisa Edited July 4, 2011 by LisaTheresa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Need to? No. Will he benefit from it? Yes. I would not do a unit study and drop it. I would start at the beginning with a basic sentence skeleton and work up from there. Once he has the concept mastered, diagramming a few sentences everyday will barely add ten minutes to his workload. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Need to? No. Will he benefit from it? Yes. . :iagree: It's a lot like Latin. You can have a perfectly excellent homeschool without it, but adding it in makes it just a little better. Barb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irishmommy Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 If you can still identify every part of the sentence do you still feel it is necessary? I just go back and forth. My son has learned the four step analysis in MCT, so I am on the fence about traditional diagramming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjgrubbs Posted July 4, 2011 Author Share Posted July 4, 2011 Need to? No. Will he benefit from it? Yes. I would not do a unit study and drop it. I would start at the beginning with a basic sentence skeleton and work up from there. Once he has the concept mastered, diagramming a few sentences everyday will barely add ten minutes to his workload. Silvermoon, or anyone, can you recommend a book or curriculum to get us started on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Silvermoon, or anyone, can you recommend a book or curriculum to get us started on this? I love the way Rod and Staff works in diagramming naturally throughout the program. Barb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GardenTenders/Kim Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 I didn't learn until college. I wish I would have when learning grammar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 (edited) . Edited June 7 by SilverMoon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BinahYeteirah Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Does anyone have any secular recommendations? Does FLL cover this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyJudyJudy Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 (edited) Does anyone have any secular recommendations? Does FLL cover this? Yes. Hake's Grammar and Writing covers diagramming as well (Hake begins in 5th grade). We plan to use Warriner's next year, and it covers it very well, but you can only buy the "good" versions used, and it is difficult to find teacher's manuals. Edited July 4, 2011 by JudyJudyJudy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finnella Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 There's a good stand alone book on the topic: The First Whole Book of Diagrams by Mary O. Daly. It's nothing but diagramming. It's a good resource that anyone could use as a supplement to a grammar program. It starts with very basic sentences up to very complicated ones, including the Preamble to the American Constitution. I did see a few examples of sentences with "Jesus" or "proverbs" in sentences, so it's not completely secular. It is nowhere near as religious as R&S, however. Most sections have no religious content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 (edited) I posted some links in this thread. BTW, I would not recommend the Mark Twain Media workbook I linked to in that post. I, and others, have found errors in it. HTH Edited July 5, 2011 by nansk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 If you can still identify every part of the sentence do you still feel it is necessary? I just go back and forth. My son has learned the four step analysis in MCT, so I am on the fence about traditional diagramming. Yes, because diagramming helps the student see the interrelationships between the words. Two adverbs or two prepositional phrases can play very different roles in a sentence but MCT's 4-level analysis treats them as the same. The diagram will have them coming off the words being modified, making it obvious what they are doing in the sentence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 If you really want to understand a foreign language, diagramming will help immensely. Our Mother Tongue by Nancy Wilson is a gentle intro, we like M. Daly's book as well as R & S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 If he really hates it and has a tough time getting through the drawing amd writing, just do o.e a day. Take the recommended book for diagraming only and do one sentence a day. If you do one a day for 180 days of school for 6 years you will do 1080 sentences in a less painful manner. Someone suggested this at the local homeschool convention. She was advocating starting in lower elementary grades where you would end up with over 2000 sentences diagramed. If he gets comfortable with, you can always add a second sentence later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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