Grammar for the Well Trained Mind

[Harriet]

My oldest son is 10 (would be in 5th grade). Last year he finished FLL #4 and when I was wondering what to do next, it was pointed out to me that a follow-up had just been made. So I got the first Grammar for the Well Trained Mind student book. 

I guess I'm a little confused, because the teacher book says "years 1-4". Am I to assume that the subsequent book/keys are basically the same, just using different examples. This is a 4 year program, no? 

I'm also wondering, did I start this a bit too young? I figured this was to be used after finishing FLL. But I'm reading that other people didn't start this with their children until 6th or 7th grade. We are currently on lesson 28. I wouldn't say my son is struggling badly with it, but it is pretty intense. 

I'm wondering if we should have waited; and, if so, what should we have done in the interim? I don't necessarily love the idea of switching to another curriculum only to come back to WTM. Maybe I should slow the pace down? Not necessarily have my mind set on finishing a lesson each day and 4 lessons per week? 

Any tips or advice on using this curriculum would be greatly appreciated! 

[Ausmumof3]

I’ve just bought it as well.

Im curious to know how often people are scheduling it and how long the lessons take.  I’m hoping to use it for my two oldest kids, 9 and 12.

[Harriet]

So far we've been doing 4 lessons per week, and the lessons are taking at least 30 minutes. Like I said, he's not completely lost, but the program does seem a lot more comprehensive and intense than what he was used to with FLL. I'm just curious if we should slow down, and not aim to do an entire lesson per day even? Or maybe even stop and wait a year or so? But, if so, what to do in the interim? 

[Sally Day]

We are using this for 5th Grade. We’re on week 9, having also previously completed FLL 1-4. We’ve managed on four thirty-minute slots a week, but now that it’s getting heftier I’m only asking him to complete some of the exercises (“get this one perfect and you don’t need to do the rest.”) I understand all four years cover the same teaching, but with different examples, yes. I also understand that SWB says it’s ok not to complete year 1, as it’ll all come round again! 

[lexi]

Well I tried this with my 6th grader. It was not successful.

Each year you cover the same material but with different student books so they are seeing different sentences and different exercises.

But oh my word, it was so difficult and tedious. The lessons took at least 20 minutes to wade through and my daughter was spending so so so much time working on the exercises. We made it maybe 3/4 of the way through book 1. It was too much. And she is my writer, reader, strong language arts loving girl. 

We switched to Abeka. Kind of boring but straight to the point, colorful, great review, and much less tedious and time consuming. She’s perfectly happy with it and no longer complains about grammar. 

I thought about stopping year 1 and starting over with year 2 but my daughter begged for something different. She nearly cried when I mentioned buying year 2.

All that to say, I found it very difficult for my daughter. So I’m not sure about using it for a 9 year old or anyone who is not solidly in middle school. I definitely recommend using it for older kids. It is a lot of work. 

[Harriet]

On 11/7/2018 at 1:47 PM, Sally Day said:

We are using this for 5th Grade. We’re on week 9, having also previously completed FLL 1-4. We’ve managed on four thirty-minute slots a week, but now that it’s getting heftier I’m only asking him to complete some of the exercises (“get this one perfect and you don’t need to do the rest.”) I understand all four years cover the same teaching, but with different examples, yes. I also understand that SWB says it’s ok not to complete year 1, as it’ll all come round again! 

Thanks! This is helpful. I don't really want to totally quit it because I really love SWB and I think her grammar foundation is amazing. And, like I said, my son isn't struggling to the point that he's in tears or anything like that. So I think maybe we'll just take a more relaxed pace with it and not feel the pressure to finish it this year. I could spread a lesson out over 2 days and I think that might work better. 

[cintinative]

@Harriet

We started book 1 last year when it was released. We had done FLL 1-4 and then since there wasn't another product (from WTM Press) available at the time, we did Fix-It and part of Junior Analytical Grammar (which we disliked, hence the switch midstream). My kids are currently 11 and 13. When we started they were 10 and 12.

We are going through GWTM *very* slowly. The first ten (?) weeks or so were not so bad. They were very reminiscent of FLL for me.  We were sometimes getting one lesson done a day. We work on grammar four days a week.  Once we got to maybe week 15, it started taking us multiple days to finish one "day" of work.  I laughed because we just hit the Week 28 review maybe a month ago and the review "week" took us about three weeks to do. I am not sure what their expectations were, but we do about 20-30 minutes a day. Often times just the lesson portion will take that long, and then there are three or four exercises. Just the diagramming alone can take 30 minutes on some lessons. I am just not sure about who designed the size of the lessons, but anymore, I simply ignore them in terms of how much we "should" be covering. The review lesson had exercises A through L.  That's 12 exercises for four days. The diagramming was at least five very long sentences. To me, it's just not realistic to get that done. I can't speak for a high school student--perhaps they could? Not a middle school student though. 

As I have said on other threads, this is a very intense and thorough grammar curriculum.  I am often learning right alongside my kids because I have never seen some of it.  We learn together, and I figure that when we go through it again (hopefully we will start on the next book in January), it will go more smoothly.  Overall, I am not unhappy with the curriculum. I just think they could have been more realistic with what a 5th-8th grader could complete.  

Also, please make sure you check the errata on their website.  Since all of us who used it last year were the first round of "guinea pigs" there were quite a few errors that we found along the way. It will save you frustration to mark those changes first. 

ETA: my understanding is that each "year" or colored book has different exercises, but they do not increase in difficulty.  I was concerned at first that they were going to get harder, but now that I know we are covering the same ground again, I don't feel so badly that we are just learning some of it this time around.  

Edited November 9, 2018 by cintinative