Joyful_Journey Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I've come across a few older threads where this program was discussed and people were planning to use it. I'm VERY tempted to give it a try next year for my rising 8th grade dd, 6th grade ds, and 3rd grade dd. Would love to find out from DGP users how the program went for them. It just looks sooooo manageable and similar to the approach found in MCT practice books plus more (especially the bottom sections where they add in punctuation/capitalization and diagram the sentence). Any feedback? Love it? Hate it? Diane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Country Girl Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I've come across a few older threads where this program was discussed and people were planning to use it. I'm VERY tempted to give it a try next year for my rising 8th grade dd, 6th grade ds, and 3rd grade dd. Would love to find out from DGP users how the program went for them. It just looks sooooo manageable and similar to the approach found in MCT practice books plus more (especially the bottom sections where they add in punctuation/capitalization and diagram the sentence). Any feedback? Love it? Hate it? Diane Bumping, and also wondering if I can add a question. Is there any actual teaching in the books, or just practice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I've used it off and on throughout this year with three of my kids (7yo, 9yo and 11 yo). We've used it as a break from R&S but I just can't allow myself to think that it's enough practice. My kids love it, of course, because it only takes them about three minutes each day - LOL! They beg to do it. There is teaching in the beginning of the book but my guys wouldn't have been able to find it themselves so I usually introduce the new parts. The teaching is almost like a "glossary" at the beginning of the book. It shows each day (Monday, Tues. . . etc.) and explains what to look for, how to mark, what concepts are being taught so it's more like a reference for the child rather than what I would call instruction. What I would like, and have toyed with designing, is something similar but that does a sentence from beginning to end every day. One sentence, parse, identify type and clauses, etc., model another sentence after it, punctuate it and then diagram it but all in one day rather than spreading it out over a week. That would give my kids the repetition they need because only diagramming, parsing, punctuating, etc. once a week just doesn't seem enough to me. In fairness though, we haven't used the program consistently enough for me to determine the long-term effectiveness of using it all alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I've come across a few older threads where this program was discussed and people were planning to use it. I'm VERY tempted to give it a try next year for my rising 8th grade dd, 6th grade ds, and 3rd grade dd. Would love to find out from DGP users how the program went for them. It just looks sooooo manageable and similar to the approach found in MCT practice books plus more (especially the bottom sections where they add in punctuation/capitalization and diagram the sentence). Any feedback? Love it? Hate it? Diane I wanted to add that the MCT practice books are what I want but with the addition, like you said of the punctuation and diagramming! Is there anything like that out there? Daily Grams might come close also, but they don't use diagramming and they don't use the same sentence for all the exercises which I like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highfamily Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I've been curious about DGP too...have used MCT for the past 3 years. It still is the closest I've found to what you're describing. I do have my students analyze the sentence first (underline subject once, verb twice, mark complement, parentheses around prep. phrase, arrows for modifiers, etc.), do the four-level analysis, then diagram (there's just enough empty space to do that on the same page). I do wish there were more punctuation practice in MCT (we've had some this year in Essay Voyage), but I plan to supplement next year. Here's the list I've compiled from recommendations on this forum: Every Day Edits, Punctuation Puzzler from Critical Thinking, Evan Moor Daily Paragraph Editing, Daily Language Workout, and Use It! Don't Lose It! I will probably do one of the last two listed, but none of them exactly fits what I would like. I'm eager to hear any other responses! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MunRoLy Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I've been using it this year with all my kids, although I just stopped with dd10 because she wasn't understanding any of it. After a couple months my kids (on their own) began doing an entire week each day, so basically covering 5 sentences a week instead of 1. Even my 2nd grader was doing this voluntarily! So that's another way you can use the program. I'm going to continue with it next year. There is not much instruction, so I'll sometimes use google if I need help teaching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyful_Journey Posted June 5, 2013 Author Share Posted June 5, 2013 Well, rats! I was hoping that DGP was the solution to my grammar woes! I'm not certain what I should use now. :confused1: I may still use it for my 8th grader since she has already been through 3 seasons of AG and really just needs a little reinforcement next year (but I don't care for the AG reinforcement book). Since she has been through AG, she has already received instruction so she should be able to figure out what to do on her own and doesn't really need a ton of grammar review next year anyway. My 6th grader will be using MCT Town, and I suppose I could follow the lead of highfamily and just add in diagramming. I really would like some sort of capitalization/punctuation reinforcement for him (I just don't think there is enough of this in MCT). I'll check out some of the recs offered by highfamily (thanks for listing them!) for him. I would still love to use DGP for my 3rd grader, but 30 sentences just doesn't seem to be quite enough for an entire year. I could easily see her wanting to do the entire sentence exercises in one day! I wish DGP had more than 30 sentences. Sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddlemomma Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 I'm also looking at using DGP, as my dd HATES grammar. However, I was thinking about paring DGP with the free online Daily Grammar program. That would help me with instructing her, and then have her do the sentences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSinNH Posted July 18, 2013 Share Posted July 18, 2013 I'm also looking at using DGP, as my dd HATES grammar. However, I was thinking about paring DGP with the free online Daily Grammar program. That would help me with instructing her, and then have her do the sentences. Do you have a link for this? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddlemomma Posted July 18, 2013 Share Posted July 18, 2013 Do you have a link for this? Thanks! The link is: http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.html This will skip the home page and take you directly to the archive page which lists all the lessons. I used it some last year and my dd found it much more straightforward and doable. I think it would make a great pair with DGP. Best of all, it's free! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSinNH Posted July 19, 2013 Share Posted July 19, 2013 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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