Grammar advice

[WahM]

Hi, my daughter had completed FLL 1-4 and now that she’s in 5th grade I decided to go with R&S English since it’s recommenced in the well trained mind and I’ve heard great things about it here and I needed something more independent, but it just doesn’t seem to be the right fit for her. She’s not retaining anything from the lessons she’s getting almost all of the answers wrong because she doesn’t seem to grasp the way they present the lessons. We never had any issue with FLL, she always did great in grammar. Do you guys have any suggestions for a thorough grammar program with diagraming and that’s independent for the most part. I don’t know how long I want to try to stick it out this with this program as there have not been any improvements.

[Momto6inIN]

Analytical Grammar was almost completely independent for us. 10-15 minutes at the beginning of the week to present the lesson, then a few minutes each day to grade the exercises with them. I liked that it was a 3 year program(6th-8th for us) and we didn't have to do grammar the whole year but could focus on it for part of the year and then focus on composition for the rest of the year with just a few independent review exercises to keep skills sharp. AG is thorough and no frills and has worked for all 3 of my oldest kids so far who are all very different learners. If I was you I'd consider skipping grammar this year and picking up AG next year. One year off isn't going to hurt anything 🙂

[Miss Tick]

We have done basically the same thing that Momto5 described. During the time we took off we occasionally reviewed all the definitions and lists (and poems) While doing AG I have really slimmed down the amount of work they do - with FLL as background, they really didn't need to do every problem to understand the topic and do well on the tests.

[WahM]

Great! I’ll look into it. Thank you.

[WahM]

4 hours ago, OKBud said:

Wait, though, is she properly placed in R&S? FLL is really thorough, and R&S is really straightforward. If she learned everything in FLL, she should be A-OK with R&S. 

R&S CAN be used "mostly independently" but it sounds like she just needs you to go over it with her at the beginning of a lesson. If she knows all the grammar from FLL, and is really just not understanding the layout or wording of R&S, that is something you can teach her. So that she becomes increasingly independent.

What I did with R&S 5 was briefly look through the lesson and see if anything was new. If so, I'd talk to DS about it. I'd sit with him while he did the first in a set of questions, to see that he understood what was being asked of him and could, with thought on his part, complete it. If he absolutely breezed through it (ie knew it right off the top of his head), he could skip the whole thing and move to the next part of the day's work. Sometimes he needed me more, sometimes he needed me less just like with anything else at that age ime.

 

It might be wording or formatting that’s just not working for her. I go over the lesson with her as outlined in the teacher’s manual, and she always answers everything correctly, then I assign some of the written practice and review and practice and she reads the lesson portion in her book before beginning, but when she turns in the work it’s like she’s not quite understanding or is too bored to really pay attention and put in effort. 

[WahM]

20 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

Look into Hake Writing and Grammar. it is also recommended in TWTM. 

Thank you I will look into this one, too.