At what grade do you ditch the grammar?

[foofoobunny]

We finished Bob Jones English 7 this year, and it felt like such a waste of time.  At what point do we just do literature/writing/vocabulary?

[JadeOrchidSong]

We will finish R&S English 8 and be done. Ds12 and ds10 finished 7 and 6 now.

[SilverMoon]

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Edited October 30, 2022 by SilverMoon

[foofoobunny]

We did Rod & Staff for 4th and 6th grades.  Bob Jones is supposed to be pretty advanced, but I think Rod & Staff is moreso.  I'll have to check out Analytical Grammar and Stewart English.  Thanks.

[Momling]

Drop it. If they can use punctuation properly when they write, you've done your job. If they can talk about why and use words like 'appositives' and 'possessive' and 'dependent clause', then you get bonus points.

[SparklyUnicorn]

My son will be in 8th coming up.  We took a break in 7th minus a few review sheets here or there.  In 8th I'm having him go through Easy Grammar 12th just as a final review and then we will be done.  I've been doing grammar with him since he was 5 so really he is DONE.  I liked that Easy Grammar 12th covered a few extra topics he has not covered before and that it is nice and quick.

 

 

[Ali in OR]

We'll go through R&S 8th. We also use MCT products, and I appreciate from those books how the grammar instruction is meant to create good writers. We discuss it while editing dd's essays (she's been using Essay Voyage this year). It gives us the language to discuss when a comma is needed--"you need a comma before the 'and' because you have two independent clauses here," or "this word is a subordinating conjunction, making this a dependent clause, and you don't need a comma if the dependent clause is after the independent clause." This would sound like a bunch of gobbledy-gook to many of dd's public school peers who aren't taught grammar, but dd understands what I'm saying and is learning that you don't just guess where commas are needed. It's much easier when you understand the rules. I will go ahead and drop spelling and Latin, but we'll keep grammar through 8th grade. We send her off to public high school for 9th.

[Farrar]

We have done grammar off and on. I definitely don't intend to do it as a formal subject after middle school.

[Lori D.]

Drop Grammar as a formal subject when you have covered it to your satisfaction for each of your unique students. :)

 

When did we stop? Grammar was done as a formal subject up through 8th grade here.

 

In high school, that Grammar learning was applied to Foreign Language, Composition/Writing, and Public Speaking/Debate. We did do light Grammar review (2x/week, 10 min/day) throughout high school using The Chortling Bard -- mostly as a reminder to practice grammar usage and mechanics in their writing and proof-editing for Composition/Writing. ;)

[SebastianCat]

We use BJU English through 6th grade, then switch to Analytical Grammar in 7th.   While I appreciate the basics in grammar that my kids learned through BJU, it is very "gentle" compared to AG.   I felt that Season 1 of AG was much more "meat" that really forced my DS to think much more critically about grammar.

 

We might not complete all 3 seasons of AG, but will continue through 8th grade, then be finished with grammar.   

[foofoobunny]

Thanks everyone!  I appreciate all your comments!

 

[Mom-ninja.]

Never! My kids love it. :)

[G5052]

I dropped it in 7th when they started Latin.  Mine do Latin each year after that, so enough is enough.

 

Then we do a punctuation/capitalization review with Jenen's Punctuation when they're getting into longer writing assignments and more complex sentences in about 11th grade.

 

That's it.

[Mommy22alyns]

I will stop after R&S 8, but the high school program I intend to use (MFW) has some grammar, lit, and writing built in.

[mom31257]

BJU 7th is a waste of time. I switched ds to CLE and found it much more useful and challenging. Dd used CLE LA through 9th grade and then continued using ACT/SAT practice grammar books every year until she took her tests. 

[peacefully]

Ds will be in fifth-grade next year, and I think we are going to take a break from a formal grammar program until middle school and re-evaluate then. So far he has completed Junior Analytical Grammar, JAG Mechanics, Killgallon Elementary Grammar, Winston Basic, Winston Usage, and Winston Advanced. He can identify and diagram most types of verbals, phrases, and clauses, in addition to the basic parts of speech and parts of a sentence. He can punctuate correctly most of the time and can catch most (but definitely not all) of his usage errors when given the opportunity to revise and edit. 

 

We'll keep revisiting grammar concepts in the context of revising his writing assignments, which to me is the whole point of studying grammar in the first place.

[LisaKinVA]

I stop most grammar instruction after 8th grade.  After this, we are doing MCT's Magic Lens levels as a general quick review -- but our focus is mostly on composition, vocabulary, and use of grammar vs. this is this and that is that.  MCT 4-level analysis is a nice warm-up kind of program.  It doesn't take long to do.  

 

Here is how it looks for my three oldest students (next year's plan):

 

PokeMan (Grade 6)

CLE finish level 6, begin level 7 (daily)

Caesar's English 1 (daily)

Writing with Skill (4x a week)

Killgallon for Middle School (1x a week)

 

Oldest two will be doing MCT Magic lens 1 together.

 

PonyGirl (8th) will look like this:

 

MCT Magic Lens (daily)

MCT Word within the Word (daily)

WWS 4 days/week

Killgallon for Middle School (1 day a week)

 

LEGOManiac (10th) will look like this:

 

MCT Magic Lens (daily)

MCT Word within the Word (daily)

WTM Academy Writing Class

Killgallon for High School (1 day a week)

 

Literature is a different subject for us -- although some compositions for the English course may come from readings in history, literature, science or other current events/readings.