Kathy in NC Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 My eighth grade dd is doing extremely well on her Christian Light Grammar exercises and tests. I'm just wondering whether there is a point where grammar becomes "busy work", and we could simply drop it? Does anybody drop grammar? How do you determine when? Thanks, Kathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plansrme Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 I also posted a while back asking whether R&S 8 was enough to call it "done" and got mixed responses, with probably more "yays" than "nays." I'm not there quite yet (we'll do R&S 8 next year), but then I plan to stop grammar with this child. She has excellent retention, and I am confident that she will remember it for life. For my younger daughter, I will still be drilling grammar in the car on her way to college. So maybe that's the answer: it depends on the child. Helpful, right? Terri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ria Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 I think 8th grade is a fine time to end formal grammar study; however, I continued working with my children on grammar throughout high school by means of critiquing/editing their formal writing. I still do that today with my younger kids, even though they are now in ps. Once an English major, always an English major, lol. Ria Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 After R&S 7, I do Warriner's Third Level ( a 8th grade text). Then we take a year off grammar, doing grammar only wehn it pops up in writing or other related areas. Then we switch over to SAT prep. SAT prep for the verbal section involves a lot of grammar, but it is more applied -- the kind you will actually see in "real life." So we drop grammar as a stand-alone subject at the end of 8th, doing it only as related to either writing or SAT prep after that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janice in NJ Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 My oldest (10th grader) is using the A Beka grammar workbooks in high school as recommended in TWTM. It only takes a few minutes a week, and I've found that the drill-n-kill practice is really helping him internalize more and more of the this "stuff" - things that he "knew" for the 8th grade grammar tests, but didn't/couldn't USE without being prompted in his writing/speaking. :001_smile: We still spend most of our high school "English" time on writing, literature, and vocabulary development. But I'm glad that we've taken that bit of extra time every week to work on grammar - and the A Beka program is EASILY done without my daily involvement - easy tracks for a kid to run on. Steady improvement without a lot of effort (from either of us); gotta' LOVE those when they pop up in the world of homeschooling high schoolers. :001_smile: What ever works for your family.... Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 My oldest (10th grader) is using the A Beka grammar workbooks in high school as recommended in TWTM. It only takes a few minutes a week, and I've found that the drill-n-kill practice is really helping him internalize more and more of the this "stuff" - things that he "knew" for the 8th grade grammar tests, but didn't/couldn't USE without being prompted in his writing/speaking. :001_smile: the A Beka program is EASILY done without my daily involvement - easy tracks for a kid to run on. Steady improvement without a lot of effort (from either of us); I'm so glad you shared this. I'm so far planning to continue it in high school, as per WTM (the argument in the book for doing so was pretty convincing to me), but have never seen anyone here write about their experience with doing so. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in NC Posted February 28, 2009 Author Share Posted February 28, 2009 I'm not sure what we'll do. I do know we won't go back to A BEKA. My cheerful, compliant dd might actually rebel over that! I thought about Analytical Grammar, but that is so expensive! Perhaps just using an SAT prep book? Ah, the choices. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to answer. Have a blessed weekend, Kathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lllll Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 (edited) My eighth grade dd is doing extremely well on her Christian Light Grammar exercises and tests. I'm just wondering whether there is a point where grammar becomes "busy work", and we could simply drop it? Does anybody drop grammar? How do you determine when? Thanks, Kathy I can't really answer your question except to offer a few ideas. All our dc have completed the ABeka Grammar series. But I really wanted to make sure they were using what they had learned. So I found some sentence diagramming books (Moutoux) which go from ridiculously easy to very difficult. They flew through the easy stuff and are now on the difficult sentences. On Thursdays I give them the sentence. They have the whole week to diagram it. The next Thursday we all gather together at the table and they all compare their diagrams and discuss them among themselves. When they finish their discussion, I pass out the answer (I copy it out of the book and give each of them one to check their own work.) More discussion follows. Then I give them the next sentence for the next week. The whole process takes less than 30 min., once a week. They love this, believe it or not. And I think it helps them to remember and use the grammar vs checking grammar off as just another subject they completed and never have to think about again. And they have figured out that grammar (diagramming) is a lot like logic ... many, many variations in the way it's done ... very, very helpful for them to see that just because it's presented this way in this book doesn't mean that's the only way it's ever been done. I often hear them exclaim things like 'That's not the way ABeka taught this' or 'I think he just made up his own system here' or 'ABeka never taught us the hard stuff like this' and so on. It keeps them on their toes. ;) HTH Edited February 28, 2009 by ksva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in NC Posted February 28, 2009 Author Share Posted February 28, 2009 I love the idea of doing one sentence a week. Where did you find the diagramming book? Did I say that I love this idea? Thanks again, Kathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lllll Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 I love the idea of doing one sentence a week. Where did you find the diagramming book? Did I say that I love this idea? Thanks again, Kathy Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. Just got back to town today. To find the diagramming books, Google "Gene Moutoux" and his website should be among the choices. I would do the link thing if I knew how. :blush: HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 I think 8th grade is a fine time to end formal grammar study; however, I continued working with my children on grammar throughout high school by means of critiquing/editing their formal writing. I would think that by the end of 9th grade what Ria is doing should be enough. If they are doing lots of writing, they should be getting enough grammar as a natural result? At least I hope so for my ds's sake.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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