EducationX2 Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 If you start grammar anytime after 3rd grade or so, do you teach your children the simple things like what a noun and verb is before then? I had planned on doing grammar this coming year. But really... our year is sort of packed. It is my senior year, I'm taking 23-24 credits both semesters and finishing up my honors thesis, I'm hopefully presenting at a couple of research conferences, I'm applying for grad schools, we'll be preparing for a long distance move, getting ready for my graduation, DD has violin and 4 dance classes, plus homeschool P.E and maybe one more activity.... I can either add grammar, or Spanish. We're already doing French, so a second foreign language isn't really a *necessity* but.... DD really, really, REALLY wants to learn Spanish. I'm quite convinced that holding off a year on grammar won't be the death of her education. But seriously though. No one is going to ask her what a noun is right? :lol: Should I go wake her up and tell her right now to be sure that I've taught her? I'm pretty sure the shock of being woken up will cement the experience in her mind. "Oh I know what a noun is. This one time, Mommy woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me......" (Okay, I'm all over the place with this post. I should go to bed. I'm exhausted and rambling. My point was- I think I'm going to wait on formal grammar. Should I teach DD the concepts like nouns, verbs, etc. or is it okay to wait another year, when she'll be somewhere in between 2nd and 3rd grade. What have you done? If she should know them now, I'm concerned that they won't get taught without a curriculum, I'm just a little disorganized. If you couldn't tell. :D) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tress Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 :lol: I had to laugh at your post and I'm seriously in awe :svengo:with all you are doing, and yes...you can wait with grammar. Nothing bad will happen. You can easily start that next year, there is no need to worry about nouns and verbs with a 6yo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EducationX2 Posted August 13, 2012 Author Share Posted August 13, 2012 :lol: I had to laugh at your post and I'm seriously in awe :svengo:with all you are doing, and yes...you can wait with grammar. Nothing bad will happen. You can easily start that next year, there is no need to worry about nouns and verbs with a 6yo. Don't be in awe. You know what was missing in that list of all that I'm doing? Sleep. Precious, wonderful sleep!!!!! :lol: (You'll notice I'm up at 5:30 am planning.... :tongue_smilie:) Plus I have my mom, who lives with us. She can't do any of the schooling, but she will be taking DD to most of her activities this coming year, and although we normally split the cooking and cleaning, when I'm extra busy she takes over completely with that kind of stuff. I guess I was just freaking out that I'd go in for my review and the reviewer would immediately drag DD off to public school for not knowing what part of speech "jump" is. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirstenhill Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 We're waiting until 4th grade to do in depth grammar study, and I have taught what nouns and verbs and adjectives are starting in 1st grade but informally...mostly because I wanted to be able to use that terminology and I thought it might show up in standardized testing (required in our state). I would just casually mention the definitions while working with spelling words and ask DD if various words were nouns, etc. My kids also like the free Grammar Jammers app, and I am thinking I might buy them a schoolhouse rock DVD this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 What does your state require? Since you have to do a review, it sounds like they might be looking for something. Honestly, I doubt they'll want to see much grammar at age 6, but they might expect noun and verb. I don't know. My state doesn't have requirements of what to teach or any reviews, so I can do whatever. DS2 will probably go through Grammarland sometime before 3rd grade, then start KISS. If you think your reviewer might ask about grammar, do FLL1. The lessons take literally 5 minutes or less. You could even double up lessons and go through it quickly if you wanted. It's so gentle, yet it teaches noun and verb and such. If the reviewer doesn't expect grammar, you can safely wait a year or two. I personally don't like to wait TOO long because I want my kids to understand grammar for writing, and this year in 3rd, my oldest has started writing paragraphs. Even though IEW uses different names, it's still helpful to explain to my son that a who/which clause is really an adjectival clause, and that means it acts as an adjective, describing a noun. Then he understands when I tell him it needs to be placed right after the noun it describes. I'm very glad he's already been through 3rd grade grammar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorrelZG Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Wouldn't listening to or reading Grammarland (free ebook/audio) be both fun and helpful? (I haven't looked at it much so I really don't know but it's what I read others say :D ) I did do most of FLL1 and it really is minimal on the time, especially if you ignore the copywork and just do the oral parts. I'm not doing FLL right now and only do grammar formally for a few minutes one day a week as part of the curriculum I'm using but DS gets grammar through Latin. You don't need a curriculum or a lot of time to teach what a noun or a verb is. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Everything you need to teach for grammar at that age could be taught during French and Spanish, other than a few composition topics that can be taught while writing. I'll bet you have been teaching grammar and just don't know it. A lot of people who teach Latin, don't teach formal English grammar, and just cover most of grammar during Latin and composition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvnlattes Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 I didn't start grammar with my kids until they were older and it's worked out fine for us. As other posters have said you can go over nouns and verbs, etc. informally as the need arises rather than doing a full-blown grammar course. The one challenge, I should point out, could arise if there is testing required in your state. We are required to test beginning in 3rd grade here. You can do a one-on-one assessment or a standardized test. When choosing the standardized test route in the younger years, my kids would look a little "low" on the language mechanics portion of the test. This was the section that covered grammar topics that have been typically covered in PS by that grade level. But I knew this going in, so I didn't let it freak me out. I wanted to mention it in case the same could apply to your situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbmamaz Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Mad Libs!! thats all I did for grammar for the first . . .um . . ok, my youngest hasnt done any grammar yet other than mad libs. he's so behind on LA i dont want to scare him! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5LittleMonkeys Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 I'm not even doing grammar as a separate subject for my younger group of dc until they get to middle school and then they will go through Analytical Grammar. They will learn a lot through Latin and composition though before they ever crack open a formal grammar program. If it will ease your mind though go here and just let her play these games. She'll have fun and you can check that "teach a verb and a noun" box off your list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EducationX2 Posted August 13, 2012 Author Share Posted August 13, 2012 Mad Libs!! thats all I did for grammar for the first . . .um . . ok, my youngest hasnt done any grammar yet other than mad libs. he's so behind on LA i dont want to scare him! :lol: She'd love these. I'll buy a stack with our next batch of curriculum and call it done. Thanks everyone! We aren't required to do testing, and the only requirement listed is "English" :001_huh:. I've got literature, spelling, phonics, poetry, copywork.... so, plenty of *stuff* that falls under English. I guess. (What the heck is "English". Sort of a category like "Social Studies," which I also have to teach :lol:) It'll be my first year doing portfolio review, so I'm really not sure what all they will be looking for. I guess if they make a big stink at my first review, I'll go ahead and get a grammar program before the second review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 If it will ease your mind though go here and just let her play these games. She'll have fun and you can check that "teach a verb and a noun" box off your list. Yup, that will do it. That's a nice site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 She'll be fine, go with her interests! We had some of those Jump Start computer games for 1st and 2nd grade, and they covered nouns and verbs--that's all the "formal" grammar my kids did! I gently corrected speech patterns at that age, which I think is much more important than teaching the definition of a noun or verb :). Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kb44 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Mad Libs, Mad Libs, Mad Libs!!! I loved those and a great suggestion I am going to use too, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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