Emagine Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 A friend of mine was talking about how she uses Easy Grammar as a stand alone. I looked online and such and can not decide if I would do such a thing. The easy side of me says it would take less time and might be ok for my pokey child. The other is I am concerned if it is enough meat. He does diagramming perfectly so I am not worried about that. My youngest has not grown old enough for it yet. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 A friend of mine was talking about how she uses Easy Grammar as a stand alone. I looked online and such and can not decide if I would do such a thing. The easy side of me says it would take less time and might be ok for my pokey child. The other is I am concerned if it is enough meat. He does diagramming perfectly so I am not worried about that. My youngest has not grown old enough for it yet. Thoughts? As a stand-alone for grammar? Yes, of course, it is. How "meaty" does a study in grammar need to be? For a native speaker of English? Living in an English-speaking country? There are only eight parts of speech, plus some thingummies like gerunds. Millions of English-speaking people in the world never diagram a single sentence and yet they are still well written and well spoken. If you're determined to do diagramming, I'm thinking a year or two of Easy Grammar (or a year of EG, followed by a year of Daily Grams, followed by a year of EG) will make diagramming easier. On a complete side note, I think it's interesting that spell check recognized "thingummies." :lol: 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emagine Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 TY so much for your reply. I have some thinking to do lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Ellie agreeing with your post... however, I'm not sure we have spell check on this forum foruumm. forrarm nope... no red lines to say I messsed it upp. ??? anyway... yes.. easy grammar is a stand alone grammar workbook. diagramming is just one method to use for some people to help organize sentence structure. it's not the only method to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarynB Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Ellie is right. Easy Grammar is thorough and complete. Don't let the name "Easy" Grammar fool you. How old is your DS? What grammar has he done previously? I especially liked EG's prepositions-first approach - it makes so much sense. I let my DS choose whether to continue EG or switch to Hake. He chose Hake because it has more review (more than he needs, actually), is written more to the student (he wanted more independence) and because it does include diagramming. However, more review and a diagramming supplement could easily be added to EG *if* you want it. Those two components are not necessary for many students. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emagine Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 My son will be 11, the other is 7. They both have been doing GWG with ease except the time it takes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 We used Easy Grammar one year, and it was a great year of grammar. I did teach every lesson (using the Teacher's Guide) and go over every sentence they got wrong on a white board. I don't think it would work as well as a "hand 'em the workbook and forget it" curriculum. There is much more teaching of the concepts in the Teacher's Guide than in the workbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Ellie agreeing with your post... however, I'm not sure we have spell check on this forum foruumm. forrarm nope... no red lines to say I messsed it upp. ??? Perhaps it's a function of Mozilla Firefox. I get the Red Squiggly Line of Wrongness everywhere. Which is not to say that I misspell lots of things, lol. (It doesn't recognize LOL. I'll have to add that to my dictionary.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myeightkiddies Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 I always do one year of Easy Grammar with my children. Usually they are either in the upper elementary grades or middle school. With one or two I did it twice with a year or two in the middle. It is thorough. Some people think not because of the word Easy. Typically I do Easy Grammar Plus, so I am not too familiar with the lower levels. I would expect that they too are fine. Other years I will use a program that includes diagramming. Depending on the level of the student, I incorporate writing, literature, and vocabulary. We don't do spelling because the children have never needed it beyond grade 2. If a student only did Easy Grammar (along with writing/vocab/lit) each year, I am sure they would have a well-rounded Language Arts program. Diagramming isn't necessary, but don't tell my children that. I personally love it and have since I did it in elementary school (had to diagram the Gettysburg Address and the Preamble). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emagine Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 " If a student only did Easy Grammar (along with writing/vocab/lit) each year, I am sure they would have a well-rounded Language Arts program. " I would love suggestions. We do R&S Spelling, seems to work over AAS here. We're doing WWW, can not say I love or hate this. Reading is an issue. Right now I let them read any book they pick due to lack of interest and delays. Intense work and subjects over stimulate. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Um_2_4 Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 I used the easy grammar (8th grade I think) to tutor a foreign college student who is rather fluent in English. He was thrilled with how it was laid out and found it very easy to understand and told me it made so much sense (compared to how he was taught English grammar in France). He took it back with him and still refers to it. (By the way his major is international law at the Sorbonne, so very English intensive, kwim). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaOz Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 My dd13 is using Easy Grammar Plus and we are finding it to be a really good grammar program. She works through the lessons on her own, and has had very little trouble with anything. She enjoys this program and particularly likes the way it teaches prepositional phrases first. It is working very well for her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myeightkiddies Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 " If a student only did Easy Grammar (along with writing/vocab/lit) each year, I am sure they would have a well-rounded Language Arts program. " I would love suggestions. We do R&S Spelling, seems to work over AAS here. We're doing WWW, can not say I love or hate this. Reading is an issue. Right now I let them read any book they pick due to lack of interest and delays. Intense work and subjects over stimulate. :( Let them read what interests them, especially leisurely. Based on what they are doing for Science or History, you could assign brief reading on those subjects. If you are at a loss to which books go well, most of the History/Literature Unit Studies curriculum have book lists. Just go to their sites and write down some titles and authors that seem to go well. Don't overwhelm your children, so make the readings brief but daily. Some of those sites/companies are: Heart of Dakota, Tapestry of Grace, My Father's World, Sonlight, Biblioplan, etc. When choosing assigned reading, it is important to be sure there is some interest. It's good to challenge them with something new, but if they are dealing with delays or other hurdles, easing them into something new is best. If you want to ask their opinion, don't really give them just the title of the book, give them some insight to the story. Look up a description of the book online. Ask him if he would like to read about Pharaohs building huge pyramids in the desert or knights and castles. Often the title or just the book cover makes them think of work. Let them see the possible adventure. Edited to add: You don't need to buy these books new. Your library should have most. If they don't, many (majority) are sold used on this site or eBay. Since a lot of homeschoolers use the above mentioned curriculum, they often sell the books from the book lists after they finish them. When they are reading have them keep a small notebook. Anytime they find a word that is unfamiliar, have them write the word down in the notebook. Together you both can look up the word in a dictionary or online. Do it together for awhile until he is comfortable on his own. This shows him how easy it is. Write the most suitable definition in the notebook and be sure he understands what it means. This is what we did, and it works. A couple weeks later we discuss the words in the notebook, and that is all I do with it. Once in high school we go a bit deeper in vocabulary. This same method is what I do for spelling. It works as well. Typically I don't need a spelling curriculum after grade 2. My children are all great spellers. Writing is something different. Some programs work with some but not others. I can't recommend a program because I haven't had one work well with more than one child. They all respond to different things. I'll be trying IEW (homeschooling all these years and never used it) soon, so we will see. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lineinthesand9 Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Ellie, Bless your heart. You are one of my "go-to" sages here! Many times, your practical advice and opinions have been "just the ticket." Thank you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Ellie, Bless your heart. You are one of my "go-to" sages here! Many times, your practical advice and opinions have been "just the ticket." Thank you. Oh, you're quite welcome! :cheers2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBoogie Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Just chiming in to say that I ordered Easy Grammar 3 for next year and have been looking through it. It looks very complete. (And I have a Kindle and the autocorrect is horrible on these things.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momacacia Posted August 1, 2016 Share Posted August 1, 2016 As a stand-alone for grammar? Yes, of course, it is. How "meaty" does a study in grammar need to be? For a native speaker of English? Living in an English-speaking country? There are only eight parts of speech, plus some thingummies like gerunds. Millions of English-speaking people in the world never diagram a single sentence and yet they are still well written and well spoken. If you're determined to do diagramming, I'm thinking a year or two of Easy Grammar (or a year of EG, followed by a year of Daily Grams, followed by a year of EG) will make diagramming easier. On a complete side note, I think it's interesting that spell check recognized "thingummies." I know this is a very old thread, but came across it as I was looking for Easy Grammar reviews. I just have to say I find it comforting that my perspective on grammar is similar to Ellie's. I'm sure she doesn't have the visceral reaction I'm having to it right now (blech), but I so want it to be easy, I so dislike it (in spite of being a good writer, former lawyer and lover of classical and other languages), and generally just want it to "go away" until we get to Latin or something(anything) else. And it's heartwarming at this time of year as I hurriedly plan that Ellie calls everything beyond parts of speech, "thingummies." My sentiments, exactly. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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