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Most ENGAGING grammar book?


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I used to really like The Deluxe Transitive Vampire. But it's definitely for older kids. And there's no work. It's just an engagingly written short book that covers grammar.

 

Seconding Grammarland for younger kids. And... while it was not at all our cup of tea... Grammar Island and Sentence Island.

 

I think The Giggly Guide to Grammar is also a good one. Very funny, very light. It's an enjoyable read. It's one of my go to books for the game Bring Your Own Book (where having a versatile, funny book is a good thing).

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Yep, Grammar-land by M. L. Nesbett is great fun for the youngers to learn parts of speech. The book (unbelievably written in 1878) pokes fun at dreary and old-fashioned grammar instruction. This is widely available a free download. There are even quizzes (made by homeschoolers) IMS..

 

The other great (funny and engaging) grammar series is the comprehensive Michael Clay Thompson series (of which Gramar Island is one part). Unlike the free Grammar-land, MCT isn't inexpensive (but worth every penny IMO).

 

The funny (and effective) approach of teaching via story telling is similar in both.

 

The two programs do have a difference on the number of different parts of speech, with Grammar-land proposing 9 and MCT reducing it to 8 (with Articles becoming a sub-type of Adjective, rather than standing alone).

 

Being aware of this "conflict" n advance, I amended the court-room drama to meld the division of word to include Articles as Adjectives.

 

Nesbit had it right. Grammar instruction does not need to be boring, but most programs remain so. MCT offers a very different path forward for those who prefer an engaging approach.

 

Bill

Edited by Spy Car
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I was hoping to get some good ideas with this thread.  But the one suggested the most...Grammar Island...is the one series my daughter literally shed tears over.  Go figure!

 

For younger kids, The Sentence Family is well worth it.  It really helped my daughter understand the parts of speech.  The Humpties is also light and fun (little egg shaped parts of speech "people" you place above the words)...but it's difficult to find.  Winston Grammar has cards you set out, so it's a bit interactive.  The grammar my oldest daughter had enjoyed the most when she was in school was Shurley English (she loved the Q & A flow).  

Edited by BatmansWife
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What's the most engaging grammar book you've ever seen? Is there a grammar book written conversationally, with humor and maybe even passion? A grammar book that made you as the teacher want to keep reading? Does it exist?

 

Michael Clay Thompson's language arts materials, particularly the Island and Town levels.

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We also loved all the Grammar Tales and Parts of Speech Tales and Punctuation Tales by Scholastic.

 

Humpties has been mentioned.  Sentence Family is awesome.  I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head has been mentioned.

 

The Adventures of Genius Boy and Grammar Girl is really fun, but super hard to find anymore.  We used it for 7th grade, if I recall correctly.

 

All the Brian Cleary books are great.  

 

Capstone Press makes some good books, too, like the ones in the Word Fun Books Set (which you can buy individually)

https://www.amazon.com/Word-Fun-Books-Set-10/dp/B00IT0TXWE/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1489671334&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=capstone+press+pronouns

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I'll be teaching a couple of introduction to writing classes in our co-op next year, so some of these look very useful!

 

This is a fun reference for kids who are into comics, Super Grammar.

Thank you for this, ordered the book, my 10 yr old read the whole thing this weekend, told me what he learned and has now printed out the heroes and villains from supergrammar.com and is acting out their parts for his younger sister! I think he learned more from this book than our whole year of sentence diagramming!

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