A comparison between MP English Grammar Recitation and Fix It! Grammar or thoughts on which one to use....

[Lamppost Academy]

Hi there, I'm looking for some help. My 4th grade daughter's English Grammar has been spotty. We have done all the Classical Conversations English memory work and WTM First Language Lessons here and there.  We need to get serious about her writing in the next year or so and she definitely needs grammar instruction, If we are using IEW next year, is Fix It! along with it good enough? Should we do MP English Grammar Recitation this year to prepare her for it? Can/should you do both? I'd like some thoughts from you ladies who have used them... 

[Lamppost Academy]

I also wanted to add that my daughter is taking Latin 1 through Veritas Press Academy this year and she has a 100%. So I think her ability to learn grammar is good. I'm now leaning towards just starting grammar and writing together next year with Fix it! and IEW. Thoughts would be much appreciated.

[almondbutterandjelly]

There is a school of thought that Latin contains sufficient grammar that you don't need to do much grammar in English.  So that's an option.

I have heard good things about Fix It but have not used it myself.

I am of the school of thought that makes grammar fun and a joy to learn, so at 4th grade, I would be doing The Sentence Family.  And perhaps Schoolhouse Rock.  I also think highly of Critical Thinking Company's Language Smarts workbooks.  So those are options.

This is probably not that useful to you, as I sense that you want more "rigor."  But I thought I would share my perspective.

Edited December 3, 2020 by perky

[maptime]

I’ve used both programs.  Here are a couple of thoughts, based on what you wrote.

 if you plan on using Fix It next year, I don’t think you need to squeeze in another grammar program this year solely for the sake of preparation.  Fix-It starts from the beginning, and seemed to progress quite gently.

I did take my ds through MP’s English Grammar Recitation the same year he was working through MP Latina Christiana.  It meshed nicely with what he was working on in Latin and didn’t take too much time, but he would (and did) say that his conceptual understanding wasn’t  great.  I think the memorization component proved helpful in later years when applied to other grammar studies, but the exercises themselves did little to actually make the concepts “click” in such a way that he could apply them elsewhere.  If you’re looking for a good list of grammar memory work that you flesh out in the context of other writing assignments, I could see it being a helpful resource.

 In regard your question about whether Fix-it grammar is “enough”, I think that depends on your plans and goals.  Some people use Fix-It all the way through as their primary grammar instruction and are perfectly happy with the results.  I don’t think it ever gets into sentence diagramming, so if that is important to you, you may want to consider something else down the road.  But I think it can certainly serve as a gentle introduction to grammar for a 4th/5th grader, if it seems like it will work nicely with the writing you’re wanting to focus on.

I don’t want to muddy the waters by throwing out more options, but if you’ve identified a need to make writing a focus next year and want to start laying the groundwork for it now, have you considered taking her through Treasured Conversations?  The first section is a very gentle introduction to grammar, and the latter portion gets the kiddo writing in a very painless (and dare I say... fun?) way.  You may not *need* to prep for IEW and/or Fix-It next year, but if you think it would be helpful to, I’d just go through TC and call it a day🙂

HTH!

Edited December 4, 2020 by maptime
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