CC's Essentials grammar program - does it work?

[staceyobu]

My kids are participating in this for the first time this year. I've been pleasantly surprised with how much I have enjoyed IEW writing. However, I'm really unsure about the grammar program. It is really different than the FLL approach or CLE. It seems really overwhelming to me so far. Introducing all the sentence structures in one week. Introducing every conjunction known to man in one week.

 

I'm considering supplementing at home with something else because I'm not sure how this year will turn out as far as learning grammar. But, if I supplement with something else, it will take time away from making the program really work.

 

Any thoughts? Did their program work well for your kids?

[bethben]

That program really depends on the tutor. A really great tutor will make it work. A bad one can make it very confusing. I think the way it works well is if you have 2-3 years to devote to it. One year will only skim the surface of it.

 

 

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[lanalouwho]

From what I understand, the first year through they are not expected to learn and retain everything. Every subsequent year, it's expected that they remember a little more each time.

But I've never done it personally, so take that FWIW.

 

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[fourisenough]

My DD12 did Essentials for two years (ages 9-10). She is a very fast memorizer and she had had one year of FLL plus AGJr under her belt. We really liked the grammar instruction, but would have been completely overwhelmed without her learning style and background knowledge. We left after two years because she had mastered the body of knowledge. Since leaving Essentials she has completed Analytical Grammar (over two years) and most of it has been review for her.

 

I would only supplement if your child isn't getting it. And in that case, I would do the extra work on non-CC weeks (during breaks or over the summer). It really is very heavy on the memorizing and pretty light on the application. And because every sentence you analyze fits that week's pattern/purpose, it is easy to just plug and chug without really getting it. I see now that we're working with more varied sentences that it stretches my daughter in a different way. I do really love the approach of just analyzing one sentence: parse every word (part of speech and its job in the sentence) and then diagram the whole thing.