Better late than early grammar

[macmacmoo]

I know there a couple who prefer to hold off doing grammar till later and start talking about nouns and capitalization at the very get go of kindergarten and first grade.

 

For those who do that, when do you start grammar and what curriculum do you recommend. What do you do in the years prior? Copywork?

[Peaceseeker]

I started at 5th-6th grade with both of my kids. I did do a quick unit on punctuation and capitalization and basic parts of speech in 4th grade, but otherwise we just focused on copy work and studied dictation in the early years.

 

I may do another run through grammar during high school if needed, but hopefully we will just be able to do it through editing their writing by then. Both scored very well on the grammar sections of the standardized tests I gave them without much formal grammar. We read a lot of great books and they are surrounded by people with fairly decent grammar so I think that they just picked it up naturally. We chose Easy Grammar for middle school.

Edited April 3, 2017 by CaliforniaDreaming

[Ellie]

I know there a couple who prefer to hold off doing grammar till later and start talking about nouns and capitalization at the very get go of kindergarten and first grade.

 

For those who do that, when do you start grammar and what curriculum do you recommend. What do you do in the years prior? Copywork?

 

I don't do formal grammar until the dc are 11 or 12. Children can learn things like capitalization and simple punctuation, as well as how to write sentences and even stories that make sense, without studying grammar. When the dc are old enough (and I mean how old, not what grade), then I do Easy Grammar, once or twice.

 

Both Writing Strands and Understanding Writing teach children how to write well without first having studied grammar. In fact, the author of Writing Strands, Dave Marks, did not believe it was necessary to formally study grammar; he and his wife were both English teachers, so he did have some experience. :-) Their only son, Cory, earned at a Master's in poetry, BTW.

[birchbark]

With my firstborn, I started grammar in 1st grade with FLL. I decided to chance my approach.

 

With my subsequent kiddos, I am introducing grammar in the 4th grade with The Sentence Family. I plan a more thorough treatment in middle school. 

 

From 1st to 4th grades, we work on the CM skills of copywork, dictation, and narration. I casually discuss punctuation, capitalization, and spelling while we do it.

[Targhee]

Parts of speech formally when they're 8 or so. Grammar outright when they are 4-6th grade (depending, development is so different). We love MCT. I think Town level in 5th was a sweet spot for 2 of my kids.