Easy Grammar for 3rd Grade before R&S English in 4th?

[jer2911mom]

Is there any benefit to doing Easy Grammar in 3rd and waiting until 4th to start R&S English? I am intrigued by the prepositional approach in EG and was wondering if anyone has done it for a year and then gone to R&S afterwards. I would like to have diagramming, so I don't think I'd want to use EG long-term, and from what I understand R&S would be a fuller program overall. But I wouldn't mind taking a year to use EG if it would be beneficial. Would EG take less time than R&S? We are coming from CLE LA and wouldn't mind having a lighter year next year.

 

Thanks,

Kathy

[Ellie]

It couldn't hurt for your dc to have some grammar knowledge. I used both EG and R&S for the dc in my little one-room school; they really needed all the grammar they could get, bless their hearts. I think knowing how to cross out prepositional phrases was helpful.

 

EG only does grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. R&S is a more comprehensive English, as it includes composition (which includes poetry), public speaking, and using resources such as the dictionary and thesaurus.

[Walking-Iris]

I used EG in 3rd grade and I personally think it's a great program. My ds learned a ton and I haven't had to use any grammar this year. He worked through an Editor In Chief and other than that his grammar has been editing his own writing and review while doing dictation.

 

I didn't like Daily Grams, so I used an Evan Moor Daily Language Review along with EG instead.

[Terabith]

That's exactly what we did, and I was VERY impressed with the results. We did FLL 1/2 (the old edition) in first grade. (She was an older first grader working about a year ahead at that point, and it was quite easy to do it in a year and still only spend 10 minutes a day on it.) Then we did Easy Grammar and Daily Grams for second grade. I love it. I think the prepositional approach is a good one, and it is laid out in a very clear way. It also doesn't require the writing that R&S does. We've moved into R&S, and I'm impressed. It was a great foundation. I actually recommend continuing with the Daily Grams even with R&S. I think the short editing practice is really helpful and only takes a couple of minutes.

[jer2911mom]

It couldn't hurt for your dc to have some grammar knowledge. I used both EG and R&S for the dc in my little one-room school; they really needed all the grammar they could get, bless their hearts. I think knowing how to cross out prepositional phrases was helpful.

 

EG only does grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. R&S is a more comprehensive English, as it includes composition (which includes poetry), public speaking, and using resources such as the dictionary and thesaurus.

 

Thanks, Ellie! I'm glad you think EG was helpful. We will be using either HOD or SL next year (or parts of both), and HOD would include copywork, narrations, and notebooking. I might use SL's Diamond Notes either way to work on paragraph writing. I'd like to start IEW at some point, but may wait until 4th for that. I've also got WWE2 here I can pull in, so I think one way or another we can make up for the composition portion. My dd has had a lot of dictionary and alphabetizing work in CLE this year, so I think she is good there.

 

Would we miss much in R&S 3 or would it be covered again in 4?

 

Thanks,

Kathy

[jer2911mom]

I used EG in 3rd grade and I personally think it's a great program. My ds learned a ton and I haven't had to use any grammar this year. He worked through an Editor In Chief and other than that his grammar has been editing his own writing and review while doing dictation.

 

I didn't like Daily Grams, so I used an Evan Moor Daily Language Review along with EG instead.

 

Thanks! What is the reason for adding the language review along with EG? Is it needed?

 

Thanks,

Kathy

[jer2911mom]

That's exactly what we did, and I was VERY impressed with the results. We did FLL 1/2 (the old edition) in first grade. (She was an older first grader working about a year ahead at that point, and it was quite easy to do it in a year and still only spend 10 minutes a day on it.) Then we did Easy Grammar and Daily Grams for second grade. I love it. I think the prepositional approach is a good one, and it is laid out in a very clear way. It also doesn't require the writing that R&S does. We've moved into R&S, and I'm impressed. It was a great foundation. I actually recommend continuing with the Daily Grams even with R&S. I think the short editing practice is really helpful and only takes a couple of minutes.

 

Thank you! So did you move into R&S in 3rd? Do you see anything there we might miss by starting in 4th instead? Thanks for your rec on adding DG to both EG and R&S. I hadn't really understood what is was used for, so thanks for explaining about it being editing practice.

 

Thanks,

Kathy

[Ellie]

Thanks! What is the reason for adding the language review along with EG? Is it needed?

 

Thanks,

Kathy

 

 

Some think that EG needs to be supplemented or reviewed. I disagree (even though the author wrote Daily Grams for that very purpose, lol). I think it's enough to do EG, although I don't think it needs to be done every year; EG one year, followed by DG, followed by the next level of EG, followed by the next level of DG, should be sufficient. EG and DG (or other grammar review) simultaneously is unnecessary. JMHO, of course. :-)

[lmrich]

I love crossing out the prepositions! I have used EG with all my students and then switch to R&S.

[Terabith]

I dont' think there would be any problem at all going into the R&S 4th grade book after Easy Grammar 3rd. Honestly, I used the third grade one only because I had a friend who had it so I could use it free. Another friend who is currently using the 4th grade book let me look at it, and my daughter would not have had any trouble. However, when I taught Easy Grammar, I did include more prepositions. We just memorized a longer list. I took a month at the beginning and memorizing prepositions was ALL we did. We acted them out, but the most effective was the classical conversations song with them.

 

I don't think Daily Grams is technically NECESSARY, but it provided spiral review that was really helpful for my daughter. We're doing a paragraph editing book this semester, and I don't like it nearly as well. The Daily Grams just was super fast and easy and was just the right amount of review for my dd to keep the rules in mind. But your mileage may vary.

[jer2911mom]

 

Some think that EG needs to be supplemented or reviewed. I disagree (even though the author wrote Daily Grams for that very purpose, lol). I think it's enough to do EG, although I don't think it needs to be done every year; EG one year, followed by DG, followed by the next level of EG, followed by the next level of DG, should be sufficient. EG and DG (or other grammar review) simultaneously is unnecessary. JMHO, of course. :-)

 

Thanks, Ellie!

[jer2911mom]

I love crossing out the prepositions! I have used EG with all my students and then switch to R&S.

 

At what level do you switch to R&S? Do you add DG with EG or R&S?

 

Thanks,

Kathy

[jer2911mom]

I dont' think there would be any problem at all going into the R&S 4th grade book after Easy Grammar 3rd. Honestly, I used the third grade one only because I had a friend who had it so I could use it free. Another friend who is currently using the 4th grade book let me look at it, and my daughter would not have had any trouble. However, when I taught Easy Grammar, I did include more prepositions. We just memorized a longer list. I took a month at the beginning and memorizing prepositions was ALL we did. We acted them out, but the most effective was the classical conversations song with them.

 

I don't think Daily Grams is technically NECESSARY, but it provided spiral review that was really helpful for my daughter. We're doing a paragraph editing book this semester, and I don't like it nearly as well. The Daily Grams just was super fast and easy and was just the right amount of review for my dd to keep the rules in mind. But your mileage may vary.

 

Thanks for your thoughts and for telling me how you used EG! I'm really glad to know DG is fast, easy, and provides review. Do you use it every year? So is it basically a small editing exercise each day? How many lessons per year (do you have to do it every day or is there some flex to skip)? Which paragraph editing book do you not like?

 

Thanks,

Kathy

[Terabith]

I've got the Evans Daily Paragraph Editing. It's okay......it's just more time consuming and a bit more complicated than Daily Grams. We're only in third grade, so I can't say that I have used DG every year, but we've used it two out of three! I think there are something like 180 lessons in a year, but in practice I did them about three times a week. I just stretched it out. It's not a strictly graded thing where you have to finish at any time. It's just cyclical review of capitalization, punctuation, sentence combining, parts of speech, etc.

[jer2911mom]

Thanks, Terabith!