CW Users past and present: Homer and Grammar

[siloam]

This seems to be on more than just my mind right now.

 

I would love to know how many people tried Harvey's, how may completed it, how many ditched (and for what other program), and if you didn't even try what did you use?

 

In addition, I would also LOVE to hear how and if you had to modify Homer then. From reading the core book it seems my dd can already do all the skills required, at least in Homer A. I don't want to back into a corner where she doesn't have skills she needs for Homer B (yes I am only reading the sections we need for Homer A right now and skipping the parts for Homer B).

 

Please feel free to expound. :D

 

Oh and I did allow multiple answers!!

 

Heather

Edited February 4, 2009 by siloam

[HappyGrace]

:lurk5:

[profmom]

Tried Harvey's but we didn't like it. We went back to R & S because we like it's systematic approach and believe it is rigorous. Grammar in Homer hasn't been difficult so far, but it's different enough that I feel it is worthwhile. So, we don't skip the grammar in the workbook -- we just ignore the Harvey assignments and proceed with R & S without trying to coordinate the two.

 

(We also have grammar in Latin so we're used to things like parsing.)

[Heather in VA]

Harvey's is painful and unnecessarily annoying. My oldest never touched Harvey's. We did Analytical Grammar and Latin. She is now in Chreia and is having no trouble with the grammar. Sometimes we are a little confused at first because Chreia uses Harvey terminology which isn't the same as more modern grammar programs, but it only takes a minute to "translate" into what we call these things and she's fine.

 

I tried Harvey's with my middle DD when she started Homer. We lasted 3 weeks and then I ran screaming to JAG. It hasn't been a problem.

 

Heather

[Amy from WT]

In our co-op we use Our Mother Tongue for grammar with Homer. It seems to work relatively well, although I quibble some with the retention. I think some combination of OMT with some of the Shurley techniques and perhaps a diagramming workbook would be just about perfect.

[PeterPan]

In other threads, some people mentioned doing their regular grammar program (in our case Shurley) and just tackling the Homer grammar as it comes up. So far this is working for us just fine.

[PeterPan]

In our co-op we use Our Mother Tongue for grammar with Homer. It seems to work relatively well, although I quibble some with the retention. I think some combination of OMT with some of the Shurley techniques and perhaps a diagramming workbook would be just about perfect.

 

 

Amy, I started having my dd diagram one of the Shurley sentences each day after we parse, and it's working out great. I keep it really low key, using a white board, no pressure at all. I did them at first, and now she has taken over. And I'm LOVING the way our WT2 techniques carry over to Homer. It doesn't feel nearly so swamping this way, already having our comfortable habits from WT2 of how we like to work!

 

And yes, our retention with Shurley is excellent.

[mamaof2andtwins]

We didn't use Harvey's because we were already using something else, and quite frankly it irks me when a curriculum that you want to use hinges itself on another curriculum. We were using CLE, and I was quite happy with it. My children have a fairly strong grammar background. I also don't like how CW differs from traditional diagramming convention of subject complements.

 

Jennie

[HiddenJewel]

Dd is using the Older Beginner workbook and is using Jensen Grammar.

[HiddenJewel]

I also don't like how CW differs from traditional diagramming convention of subject complements.

 

Jennie

 

I thought their changes were actually better than normal diagramming in that they made it clearer.

[luna]

I didn't do the poll because we are in the middle of using Harvey's and contemplating a switch. We always used Abeka and dd had a good experience with that. We started CW for Older Beginners this year and we are both struggling to get the diagramming right. I'm actually considering skipping it altogether, and have her simply mark everything in the sentence. I've always been a supporter of diagramming and now I am starting to have second thoughts! I don't want to go back to Abeka, so I am curious to see what others are using. I just started Aesop with my younger daughter and think we won't use Harvey's at all.

[mamaof2andtwins]

I thought their changes were actually better than normal diagramming in that they made it clearer.

 

My issue was that my children had already learned the more traditional manner of digramming, and I wasn't about to go back and make them change.

 

However, I do agree with what you are saying.

 

Jennie

[Mamagistra]

I wanted to love Harvey's, but I don't. :tongue_smilie:

 

I prefer to cover the bulk of our grammar through Latin, and I often touch on things that come up in Homer using my preciousssssss oop copy of Descriptive English Grammar. :D

[siloam]

Well you are all convincing me to forget Harvey's. I do own it and the grammar guides to go with it from CW, which, by the way, are just the exercises in Harvey's written out in easy to work with form. I didn't see any additional exercises. While I think we could make it through Harvey's I keep asking myself why put myself and especially my dd through the pain?

 

I really like JAG. It makes sense and is not painful to do. My dd doesn't love it but tolerates it well. Why not just continue with AG instead? That's what I think we will do!

 

Heather

 

[bugs]

so I wasn't going to switch to Harvey. My two oldest are using CW Older Beginner and so far the grammar has been less challenging than the R&S. I did try to reconcile R&S with CW but found that I didn't really need to.

[jenadina]

I'm using Homer myself (I soooooo need to work on my writing!), and am using Harveys with it. My son, however, will more than likely be sticking with Growing with Grammar when he is ready for Homer. Why fix something that isn't broken?