NatYoung17 Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I've been using "First Language Lessons" by Jessie Wise with my dd (7) and we've liked it so far, but while we were looking for nouns and verbs in sentences of a story I realized that she really doesn't know what they are... she can tell me what she learned about nouns ( a noun is the name of a person, place, thing or idea etc.), but she doesn't really understand it - I guess? I feel like she's just guessing when I ask her what the noun in a sentence is... So, my question is what would you do at this point? Just back off completely from grammar lessons for a while ( I did read some CM stuff recently and it seems she doesn't think grammar should be taught this early)- or just try to go over that stuff until she gets it? Should I supplement with a different approach ? I'm just really not sure what to do, other than NOT continue on, since she hasn't really grasped it... We're in the second part of the book (grade 2). :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladydusk Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 You don't say how far into FLL2 you are? I don't think I'd stress about it too much at this point. There are very few times when FLL2 asks the student to identify words and their type. That comes later, I think. That is a very abstract idea, compartamentalizing words. FLL 1/2 is trying to get the idea of what job those kinds of words do, but not yet necessarily having 7 yo identify them. That being said, I have written a simple sentence on a whiteboard (in one color) then identified the words with my daughter writing "noun," "verb," "article," etc. in another color. I've just used one of the sentences they have for copywork in the book (I have the older edition) But, I walk her through it one word at a time. We're at the end (10 or so lessons to go! I'm ready to move on to FLL3!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lionfamily1999 Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I agree with the pp, also you might try coming up with nouns. Nouns name persons! What kinds of persons can you think of??? Mother, father, fireman, chef, boy... &tc. Don't worry :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I posted a similar concern about retention with my dd who is using FLL4, and a lot of folks pointed out that FLL has a *lot* of review and repetition, these definitions and concepts get repeated over and over again in the program. So partway through one level, you might not be seeing the retention, but it's a cumulative thing, KWIM? Anyway, I'm hoping they are right ;) but I've also found that using GrammarLand - including doing the exercises at the end of each chapter - has made her "real-world" ability to id parts of speech in the context of "real" sentences grow by leaps and bounds. Also it helps that we're studying Latin too - after covering something in grammar and in latin, it seems to stick better than it would with either alone. Some kids also really respond to story-grammar, like the Brian Cleary or Ruth Heller books. I don't think they'd work stand alone, but I think that hearing the same content in a lot of different forms really helps it "stick" so if your library has any of these books, try them out. I think of it as the nibbled to death by ducks approach to grammar learning! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikkid Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 (edited) You might try something like The Sentence Family to bring personality to each grammar character. You wouldn't have to introduce everyone, just the main characters like noun and verb first. Then you can act them out, taking turns to have one of you be "noun" and the other "verb". I bought the digital copy through CurrClick for $12. My dd LOVED drawing the characters and acting them out. It gave her a great foundation for when grammar got harder this year in 3rd grade. We still have the pictures up on the school wall of each character she drew and we refer to them often when she forgets what the part of speech a particular word is in a sentence we are analyzing. I agree about the Brian Cleary books the PP mentioned. And also about all the repetition. All this same info from FLL1/2 is covered again in FLL3 (just with a bit less repetition) so I wouldn't worry too much if she's not disliking grammar time yet and it's working for now. Edited February 10, 2012 by nmbdoug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatYoung17 Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 Thanks so much for your suggestions! I will look into some of those additional books, since we're about half way through 2nd grade and it seems like they are expected to know it...at least she was supposed to find adverbs and adjectives in a story, when I realized that nouns and verbs are still hard for her... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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