GWG, LLVY, or wait and use PLL?

[Haiku]

Years ago, when my daughter was a toddler (and before I knew about WTM), I discovered Primary Language Lessons (PLL) and was very interested in it. I had planned to use it with my daughter if we ever did grammar.

 

Yesterday I gave my daughter the K12 reading placement test just for my own curiosity (we have no plans to use K12). She did very well on it but was placed in K (she's actually in first) because she was tripped up by the "grammar" aspects. For example, when she wrote her dictation sentences, she did not use punctuation and wrote them in all caps, so she got no points for that section.

 

I'm not very worried about this. She's only six. But it made me wonder whether I should start doing grammar with her. I hadn't planned to do it until 2nd or 3rd grade and I was going to use PLL.

 

I started looking at some other grammar programs for younger kids, just to see what's out there.

 

Both Growing with Grammar (GWG) and Language Lessons for the Very Young (LLVY) look interesting to me.

 

My questions are:

 

1) Should I start grammar now or should I not worry about it until she's older and then use PLL?

 

2) If I start now, which program would you recommend? GWG looks secular and LLVY looks very conservatively Christian. Is this actually the case?

 

Thanks!

 

Tara

[LindaOz]

I have a dd who has not long turned 6. She is doing a phonics program, but on top of that I made her a writing book by just stapling lined paper together and writing a simple sentence for her to copy. I sit with her while she copies the sentence underneath mine so I can guide her letter formation and make sure she adds capitals and full stops etc in the right places. Sometimes she might tell me a sentence to write then she will copy it. Sometimes she will just go ahead and write her own sentence. From this simple instruction/practise she has now become a 'story writer' and writes many of her own 'stories' just because she wants to.

 

I guess what I'm saying is that I would recommend holding off on the grammar program until your dd is older and just have her copy your writing for now. You can teach her heaps of things this way.

 

Have fun,

Linda:)

[AudreyTN]

At this age, I teach it as it comes up. For example, a six year old would need to know that a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a period. Later on, if she writes a question you can explain a question mark. My dd is beginning 3rd grade and this will be her first year of "formal" grammar.

 

And if you do decide to start now, I would look in to First Language Lessons.

[Haiku]

Thanks for your replies!

 

Tara