serendipitous journey Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 (edited) My 13-year-old would really like to enter 9th grade next year (his precise grade level has been a bit up in the air 😉 ), and I'm wanting to pare down a bit and am wondering if we can stop formal grammar after this year. He's in Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind 1 (purple books this year, and we'll finish that. It is easy so far but we're just in week 15). Much of the grammar is stuff he has covered/is covering in Latin, and we plan for him to continue Latin to the AP level as well as begin classical Greek study next year. I am wondering if we can stop formal English grammar after we finish the purple books, or if there is a strong benefit to continuing on for another year or two. thoughts? and: thanks in advance! Edited April 7, 2019 by serendipitous journey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 It took us a loooong time to finish GWTM. The funny thing is, we started the Red book and the first lessons are so easy! I promise you when you get to week 20 or so, it will be much harder. Right now we are on week 5 and we can actually get a lesson done in a day. By the time we got to week 30-something in the purple book, it was taking us three days to finish a lesson.  I'm feeling a bit let down by GWTM at the moment because my son took a brief grammar assessment and didn't do so well. My guess is that it had to do with 1) brain fog and 2) GWTM doesn't focus so much on mechanics, homonyms, etc.  So, my advice, based on our experience alone, is to drop after the purple book but *consider* whether a review of mechanics would be useful. The UM school that we had to take the assessment for recommended the Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation. It would be super easy to go through if you feel like you need it. There are even pre-tests and grammar/punctuation mastery tests. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 If you flip the question the other way and ask if grammar is a high school subject, the answer is generally "no." Address any issues if they arise, maybe as part of composition. You could always do a short summer intensive if you found a large gap. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted April 2, 2019 Author Share Posted April 2, 2019 Thanks for your thoughts! cintinative, I appreciate the heads-up on the mechanics/usage element (and on the steep learning curve coming up around week 20). I'd not heard of the Blue Book you rec'd, but it looks terrific. I also have grammar flashcards from Memoria Press (their grammar has a lot more focus on punctuation than FLL/GftWTM) and may enter that information -- or the definitions from the GftWTM or the Blue Book -- into our Anki memory work to keep it fresh. SusanC, that's just what I was thinking; but my own high school did have a memorable grammar component to the language arts so I am on the fence. Addressing issues as they arise, esp. if we are sure to learn the rules governing punctuation &c, is a very attractive option right now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 Apparently the contents of the Blue Book are on the website https://www.grammarbook.com/ and you can pay for quizzes, etc. if you want. Since i have not used the book yet, I can't compare the quizzes online versus in the book. I found the book very easy to follow from a reference standpoint.  1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted April 2, 2019 Author Share Posted April 2, 2019 Just now, cintinative said: Apparently the contents of the Blue Book are on the website https://www.grammarbook.com/ and you can pay for quizzes, etc. if you want. Since i have not used the book yet, I can't compare the quizzes online versus in the book. I found the book very easy to follow from a reference standpoint.  hug! Free is SO GOOD right now. 🙂 Thank you! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 Another vote that grammar is not a high school subject. And that any student who has done it all through K-8 is definitely done. But also, any student who did it intensively in middle school for even a year or so is also almost certainly done as well. Typical students just don't need years and years of grammar instruction. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted April 7, 2019 Share Posted April 7, 2019 I’m pretty hard-nosed about this stuff and I’d even say he’s done with grammar, especially considering his plans for foreign language. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted April 29, 2019 Author Share Posted April 29, 2019 Just updating our plans: after living through a couple weeks of academic preparation for ninth grade in the fall, my child decided he'd rather take things at our previous pace 😉 so we're settled into just finishing out seventh grade. We're going away for a month in May, and so are just stopping where we are in the purple book: Week 19, since we began the year with MCT grammar and then switched to this. I'm not sure if we'll work more on MCT grammar over the summer; and if, for eighth grade, we'll set aside formal separate grammar, or do MCT, or try the GfWTM red book. Thoughts? I might ought to post a separate thread about this ... I'm just not sure if GfWTM is worth the time/suffering! Part of me thinks we'd be better off spending that time reading Shakespeare or Homer or other literature that's still a bit out of reach for DS working on his own; that is what we're not having time for these days. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted April 29, 2019 Share Posted April 29, 2019 56 minutes ago, serendipitous journey said: Part of me thinks we'd be better off spending that time reading Shakespeare or Homer or other literature that's still a bit out of reach for DS working on his own; that is what we're not having time for these days. ITA with that part of you. 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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