arcara Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Hi, I have been homeschooling for a while, so I feel like I should have this figured out by now, but I don't. For grammar instruction I love JAG and AG for the middle grades and up, but I don't have anything that I love to get them there! I've used Easy Grammar and FLL, but I've found both to be kind of lacking. I like something thorough, but not too slow. I like it to flow and be well organized. My son rolls his eyes waiting for me to go through the FLL lessons with him. He needs instruction, but he doesn't need me to do everything with him. I would love to find something that I LOVE and that I could stick with until we get to JAG. So, share the early elementary programs that you love! (Have I used the word "love" enough?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LillyMama Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 :bigear: I feel the FLL hate building in my two... I hope it turns around, but if not, I am listening... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Tried FLL. Wanted to love it. Quickly loathed it. LOVE MCT Language Arts. Sentence Island is my favorite grammar book so far (not a good writing book, but a fabulous grammar book). FWIW, we like Sentence Island as a grammar book *way* more than Grammar Town. Grammar Land is a close second. A lot of people like the Brian Cleary and Ruth Heller grammar "story" books, and I liked the idea, but the grammar concepts definitely did not stick/transfer with my girls. Ditto with Schoolhouse Rock - very entertaining, but they didn't learn the grammar that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birchbark Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 We absolutely love Sentence Family but it is parts of speech only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcara Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 Thank you for the suggestions. I'll look into these. Any others? I'm not looking for anything cute or fancy. AG certainly isn't. I think I like its straight-forward approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Rod and Staff. I love it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildiris Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Shurley English with modifications. DD~14 used this 3rd-6th grade, then used Hake. DD~14 recently took ACT. She said although she did not like Shurley at the time, Shurley was what she remembered the best and relied on for the ACT. Her ACT English score was 34 out of 36. I plan on using this program again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raceNzanesmom Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 R&S, but we don't start formal grammar instruction until 3rd grade. Before R&S, I teach grammar through other subjects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyk Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 I love FLL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 We start PLL in 2nd and continue it in 3rd. In 4th we are going to begin ILL. Gentle, but thorough introduction to grammar. Besides that, we deal with grammar in real life through ds' narrations, sentences in writing, dictation passages, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mystika1 Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Easy Grammar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 KISS Grammar We use it on the tablet. The sentences are from real literature, so you actually have to think. It moves quickly enough for my accelerated learner for whom grammar comes easily. This child probably would have been fine waiting until whatever age JAG starts though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegirlwhopaintedtrees Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 KISS Grammar We use it on the tablet. The sentences are from real literature, so you actually have to think. It moves quickly enough for my accelerated learner for whom grammar comes easily. This child probably would have been fine waiting until whatever age JAG starts though. That's good to know about KISS grammar - that it's good. I've been thinking about using it on our tablet, especially since it is free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elfknitter.# Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 KISS Grammar We use it on the tablet. The sentences are from real literature, so you actually have to think. It moves quickly enough for my accelerated learner for whom grammar comes easily. This child probably would have been fine waiting until whatever age JAG starts though. :iagree: We just started doing this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncmom2dawters Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Shurley English provides a great foundation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allymom Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 I love FLL! :iagree: However, I do skip things in FLL1 and do 2 or 3 lessons a day with my dd2, since we just started it at 7 years old. Previously both girls were doing Daily Grammar and they dreaded it and nothing was sticking. So FLL is a breath of fresh air. She would be totally bored if I made her do every writing assignment and only did 1 lesson a day. This way we won't have 80 lessons on nouns. My girls love the poetry memorization, however, and I'm sure some kids would loathe that part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcara Posted May 17, 2012 Author Share Posted May 17, 2012 How do you do KISS on your tablet? My ds would LOVE this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 When we did FLL1/2, we condensed it mightily. Tried a foray into R&S (yuck) and then went into Shurley, which is the bees knees for grammar-haters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 How do you do KISS on your tablet? My ds would LOVE this! Download the Word doc to your computer, open up in Word, Save as a PDF (I use CutePDF, which is free - you just "print to PDF" instead of saving as, technically... it installs as a printer). Then put the PDF on your tablet and use a PDF annotating app. On my Android tablet, I use ezPDF. It was $2.99 and worth every penny. We just click a button, then start drawing our underlines and finger writing our labels above words. Very easy to do, and my son loves it! There are several iPad apps available to annotate also, and I know there have been whole threads on those, so it should be easy to find. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datimasa Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 I'm surprised so many don't like FLL! We LOVE it! But, I like things to be scripted in this area since it SO far from my strong point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 I'm surprised so many don't like FLL! We LOVE it! But, I like things to be scripted in this area since it SO far from my strong point. I like FLL3. I just like KISS better. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinmami01 Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 I so wanted to love FLL...just didn't work for my boys. We LOVE Growing with Grammar over here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyNellen Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 I love FLL! We are FLL lovers, as well. We just speed up and double or triple lessons as necessary. I am about to begin the series for the 5th time. It is certainly effective - my 15 year old was just dazzling his 8 year old brother by reciting all the definitions and lists from FLL 1 and 2 perfectly...8 years after completing it!!! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calimom04 Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 i love abeka up until 3rd. We are switching to bju because abeka 4 looked really repetitive. I have bju writing and grammar for next year I'm already loving it! DD hasn't used it so I can't say how good it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elfknitter.# Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Download the Word doc to your computer, open up in Word, Save as a PDF (I use CutePDF, which is free - you just "print to PDF" instead of saving as, technically... it installs as a printer). Then put the PDF on your tablet and use a PDF annotating app. On my Android tablet, I use ezPDF. It was $2.99 and worth every penny. We just click a button, then start drawing our underlines and finger writing our labels above words. Very easy to do, and my son loves it! There are several iPad apps available to annotate also, and I know there have been whole threads on those, so it should be easy to find. :) :iagree: I use the app Notability on my iPad which allows dd to mark up the exercises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lots of boys Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 :bigear: I feel the FLL hate building in my two... I hope it turns around, but if not, I am listening... We are in this same place. I am still pushing forward with it but getting more and more resistence and less retention... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Critterfixer Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 My boys liked FLL in first grade, but I really had trouble with the scripted lessons and the repeated definitions. My boys can still repeat the defs, but really had no clue when it came to what they really meant. No huge deal, since they were only 7 at the time, but still!! We switched to KISS and like it. I wouldn't call either of my sons grammar-naturals (well, my hFA son may well turn out to be) but both of them now can pick a prepositional phrase out of their own writing and tell you whether it is adverbial or adjectival in nature. I'm pretty pleased with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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