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Grammar - How long do you continue?


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My oldest has been doing grammar forever.  We did Grammarland, FLL 3 and 4, Hacke grammar 5 and 6.  At this point it feels like we can be done with formal grammar lessons and focus more on writing and vocabulary.  We definitely need work on vocabulary.  Is there a reason to consider continuing formal grammar at this point?  Any thoughts or advice welcome.  I don't want to continue it just for the sake of continuing, but if I'm missing something I would also like to know what I'm missing.

 

Thank you!

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What is your goal with grammar instruction?  In other words, why are you having your student learn grammar?

 

For us, the overarching reason was to give my kids the vocabulary and understanding necessary to be able to talk about writing and language.  For example, it is very difficult to discuss what is happening in a student's writing at the sentence level unless everyone involved (in our case, student and parent) has a decent understanding of basic grammar.

 

That said, this understanding happened well before either of my kids got to what might be called advanced grammar.  And the resource that made the concepts that are truly essential for writing pop was MCT (and this understanding was in place by the end of Voyage).  Hake is also good--both of my kids used Hake 5/6 (one used 5 and the other 6) and 8--but Hake seems to work best for solidifying proper mechanics and usage and not as well for big picture understanding.

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There are only eight parts of speech and some thingummies like gerunds. I don't believe that native speakers of English need to study their own grammar for multiple years. I think a couple of good years of study, when the dc are 10ish, should be sufficient; from that point, the focus should be on writing, with grammar being corrected as needed.

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I think it varies based on goals and interests. I plan to be doing some kind of grammar well into tenth grade. We are just now getting into phrases, and parts of speech that flex their usage. Then I have to show the boys how you use some of those special parts of speech to paint vivid word pictures in writing. Then there's the whole delightful discussion of punctuation in writing style--I'm super excited about doing that with the boys in ninth or tenth grade. 

I'm kind of a grammar nut, though.

 

ETA: We use KISS--currently I'm taking eighth grade boys through the complete sixth grade level and it's kicking my tail. I'm doing it with the boys three days per week.

 

Also, you were interested in vocabulary. We take our word study from literature. Some of it also comes from Latin. 

Edited by Critterfixer
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I only did formal grammar with my son during middle school using Analytical Grammar. After that is was discussion based in the context of writing and revising and of course he learned a lot while studying foreign languages. We did very little formal vocabulary, as he was always an avid reader and loved new words. I might have done more with a different child, but verbal things always came very easily to him.

 

As a child, I despised doing grammar almost every year, so I was very excited to find a program like Analytical Grammar that is meant to be used over a shorter time period. Plus, I think he gained much more doing all of the sentence diagramming in Analytical Grammar than I did doing grammar for many more years. He now reads grammar guides for fun.

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I do grammar from about 3rd or 4th grade until 8th grade. In 9th, I just correct any grammatical in the essays. I’m sure my 10th grader has forgotten all the terms like “predicate nominativeâ€, but I think he at least knows how to use grammar correctly, even if he might not remember what all the technical terms are (objective case vs nominative case, etc.)

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Mine is still reading through R&S 9/10 in high school, but it definitely isn't everyday in 10th grade. It is when we have a longer day. I think there is good stuff in there not just related to grammar, but definitely includes grammar. I wouldn't drop it, but the focus is definitely more on other things. Up until 9th grade it was still a pretty much 3-4 day a week subject most of the time. 

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