mom2Hh Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 Has anyone used KISS grammar as their first grammar program for grade 2 level? It looks interesting but I'm having a hard time getting through the info on the website. Not sure that I want to print everything out myself but I like that it uses real literature to teach grammar. If you used it please share your pros and cons. My son will be 7 in sept and is reading above 2nd grade level (not sure what level though!) but has not learned any grammar and done little writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 (edited) I can't help with the grade 2 book question, but do you have a tablet at all? KISS works great on a tablet. It's also not that bad to print, since you can print it in black and white on fast draft. The answer key doesn't have to be printed. You can work off the computer for that. (note: I've only used grade 3 book and haven't looked at grade 2) Edited July 28, 2012 by boscopup Swype error Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matilda Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 I used it last year as a first-year grammar program. I liked it quite a bit. I printed off the Student pages and the Answer key. We put the student pages in page protectors and used dry erase makers. Pros: Lots of exercises, so you can do more or less depending on how your ds is doing. Uses real sentences from literature. Cons: The printing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2Hh Posted July 28, 2012 Author Share Posted July 28, 2012 I can't help with the grade 2 book question, but do you have a tablet at all? KISS works great on a tablet. I don't have a tablet, but how do you use it with a tablet? (I'm starting to find more reasons why I might want a tablet.... this could be another...?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohannaM Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 Has anyone used KISS grammar as their first grammar program for grade 2 level? It looks interesting but I'm having a hard time getting through the info on the website. Not sure that I want to print everything out myself but I like that it uses real literature to teach grammar. If you used it please share your pros and cons. My son will be 7 in sept and is reading above 2nd grade level (not sure what level though!) but has not learned any grammar and done little writing. We're about a third of the way through the level 1 grade 2 book. My dd is about a year younger than yours, and also a good reader. I would recommend reading (or skimming) the "How to Use KISS" and "Psycholinguistic Model" essays towards the top of the workbooks page. There is also a lot of good info in the Analysis Key to read through as the teacher. After getting through that I felt like I understood the KISS method better. Pros: - doesn't require writing - uses sentences from literature - I like how it uses the logic of the sentence to teach grammar. i.e. the KISS approach asks how a word is being used and therefore what part of the sentence it is instead of having a static list of, for instance, helping verbs Cons: - it doesn't have as much repetition as something like FLL, so as we get into the parts of speech (noun, pronoun, adjective etc..) I'm finding we have to slow down to add in more repetition (this may also be because my dd is on the younger side) I hope this helps you think it through. Besides, there is no reason you can't print a few lessons and try them, after all, it's free! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoo_keeper Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 We're about 10 exercises into KISS Level 1 Grade 2, but we don't fit your description (i.e., my 5 & 7 yo's have already done GWG, MCT Town, & some Killgallon). I really like KISS so far, but if we hadn't had any background, I assume the lessons would take more time, and as the PP pointed out, you might need more outside practice. As for cost, I thought it was super cheap. I mean, of course it's free, but I had it (the student book) printed out and bound nicely for just $10. Then, since I have multiple kids, we just slip the book inside a workbook window and use dry erase markers for the lessons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2Hh Posted July 28, 2012 Author Share Posted July 28, 2012 We're about 10 exercises into KISS Level 1 Grade 2, but we don't fit your description (i.e., my 5 & 7 yo's have already done GWG, MCT Town, & some Killgallon). I really like KISS so far, but if we hadn't had any background, I assume the lessons would take more time, and as the PP pointed out, you might need more outside practice. As for cost, I thought it was super cheap. I mean, of course it's free, but I had it (the student book) printed out and bound nicely for just $10. Then, since I have multiple kids, we just slip the book inside a workbook window and use dry erase markers for the lessons. thanks. what is MCT Town? what is a workbook window? I understand what it's for but did you make it yourself or is it something you bought? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoo_keeper Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 Ack, I meant MCT Island (I was posting about Town earlier and still had that in my brain). MCT stands for Michael Clay Thompson who has written a language arts curriculum. The 3 early levels are termed "Island" then "Town" then "Voyage." And, no, I didn't make the workbook window, I purchased it here. While I do have the girls write in some workbooks (e.g., GWG, WWW, GD Italics, SM wbs) there are other books that we use dry erase markers coupled with the workbook window such that we can reuse them again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsplaymath Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 Has anyone used KISS grammar as their first grammar program for grade 2 level? It looks interesting but I'm having a hard time getting through the info on the website. Not sure that I want to print everything out myself but I like that it uses real literature to teach grammar. If you used it please share your pros and cons. My son will be 7 in sept and is reading above 2nd grade level (not sure what level though!) but has not learned any grammar and done little writing. KISS is the only grammar my daughter has ever used. She started it in 2nd grade, and is now in 8th grade (and wrote the book in my signature). We take our time working through the books, because we're not in any hurry to finish. As long as we're learning, that's great. We used the 2nd grade book off and on for a couple of years, then used the 3rd grade book on and off for a couple more, and then used several of the miscellaneous pages on the website. At the beginning, we could whip through a lesson in one sitting very easily. Now we're working in the 6th grade book (Levels 3/4), doing about 6 sentences a week --- two sentences a day on MWF. KISS is a great program! But don't be in a hurry to finish any book in a set amount of time. Much better to be laid back about it, keep the pressure low, and enjoy yourselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 I don't have a tablet, but how do you use it with a tablet? (I'm starting to find more reasons why I might want a tablet.... this could be another...?) You download the Word doc to your computer, then save as a PDF (I used CutePDF on Windows, since it's free and works very well). Transfer the file to the tablet and open it in an app that lets you annotate PDFs. The one on Android I use is called ezPDF. When I open it in there, I can click on a little pencil icon and start using my finger to draw all over the page. We mark up the sentences per the instructions. Just makes it more fun, plus we can snuggle up on the couch to do grammar. :D There are very occasional pages where writing is required, so I just print those out if I need to (and some we did orally or only wrote 2-3 sentences and skipped the rest). I also do Latin on the tablet (GSWL ebook). DS loves tablet school. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2Hh Posted July 29, 2012 Author Share Posted July 29, 2012 thank you for the info on how to use a tablet- I think my son would like using it! and thanks for all the other info on KISS grammar. I signed for the yahoo group hoping to understand it better but am not approved yet... so far one thing I'm confused about is the levels/grades. I thought he called the first book a second "grade" book... did he intend for it to be used by grade one year per grade in a public school? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoo_keeper Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 so far one thing I'm confused about is the levels/grades. I thought he called the first book a second "grade" book... did he intend for it to be used by grade one year per grade in a public school? I believe that by the time a student completes level 5.8 that the student supposedly will have no more need of grammar training. According to what I've read, this would be true regardless of whether the student starts Level 1 in grade 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. (Personally, after reading WTM advice, I plan on doing both grades 2 & 3 for Level 1 and then subsequently only doing 1 grade per level.) Now whether each level will take 1 school year to complete is another matter. I've read here that the author might have underestimated the assignments' time requirements so I'm thinking that 1 level could end up spanning multiple years. But since we're starting young, I'm not worried about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 I signed for the yahoo group hoping to understand it better but am not approved yet... so far one thing I'm confused about is the levels/grades. I thought he called the first book a second "grade" book... did he intend for it to be used by grade one year per grade in a public school? I'm not sure where the 2nd grade book fits in, but the rest of the curriculum, you just start at level 1, and move through the levels until you finish them all. You select the grade level to determine sources for the sentences. For example, the 3rd grade book uses Beatrix Potter, but a 6th grader may want a more mature source for analysis. ;) Both the 3rd and 6th grade level 1 books teach the same concepts in each exercise. It's the sentences that are different. So you can move between grade level books within a level. So let's say you go through Level 1.4 in the 3rd grade book and you wanted to then switch to the 6th grade book, you'd pick up at Level 1.5 in the 6th grade book. Hopefully that makes sense! Again though, I don't know where the 2nd grade book fits in. We started the 3rd grade book in 2nd grade, since DS had been doing 3rd grade grammar for a while. It's been fine for him - grammar comes easily to him. I need to look at the 2nd grade book one of these days, as I may use it for DS2 at some point. We'll see. He's a long ways off, as I don't think grammar will come so easily to him, and he's only 5.5 right now. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsplaymath Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 I signed for the yahoo group hoping to understand it better but am not approved yet... so far one thing I'm confused about is the levels/grades. I thought he called the first book a second "grade" book... did he intend for it to be used by grade one year per grade in a public school? In KISS, you start at Level 1 and work your way up through the levels, no matter your student's age or grade level. At each KISS Level, the grade-level books (or the online pages, for people who want to use those) have the SAME lessons and instructions. The exercises have longer and more challenging sentences at the higher grade levels, but the concept that the student is practicing in each exercise is the same. The second grade book is different from the others, for young students who need a gentler introduction to the grammar work. One thing I really appreciated about the 2nd grade book was that it did NOT teach the different types of complements. All complements (predicate adjective, predicate noun, indirect object, and direct object) were marked with a "C". That gave my daughter plenty of time to master the concept of a complement before adding the idea that there were different types and learning to distinguish them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dealea86 Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 For those who have actually used the 2nd grade level 1 book... is it just me, or does that book NOT have the same lessons the other books have? People keep saying that the workbooks have all the lesson instruction you need, but... I'm not finding that. So how do you get around that? :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoo_keeper Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 Keep in mind we're only a few weeks into the book, but I haven't been floundering from a lack of instruction. But you are correct that the 2nd grade level 1 book is significantly different from the other level 1 books. I think that's the reason that other posters have recommended doing both grade 2 and 3 of level 1 (which is our plan) and perhaps why the author is thinking of taking down grade 2 level 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 Are there instructions in the answer key? There are lengthy explanations in there for 3rd grade and up. Honestly, for my other kids, I'll probably use something else until they're ready for third grade level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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