Tree House Academy Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 (edited) Okay, we were bopping along enjoying Writing Tales II when all of a sudden, we came to lesson 14. Holy cow! They have him picking out every single adjective, verb, adv, and noun in the sentences. He is supposed to circle the adv and adj and draw arrows to what they modify. Okay, he is 9. This is not exactly his strong point..and I have a degree in English and this is even a bit much for me. Not that I can't do it, but it is not exactly "easy" either. Is it me, or is this a bit over the top for grammar at the age of 9? We are doing GWG 4 as well and have not gotten nearly this in depth with grammar to where he has to label every word of a sentence with what it represents grammatically.:001_huh: Edited to add post below to this one: He can identify the 4 parts of speech - one at a time. However, they are having him find and differentiate between infinitive verbs, state of being verbs, action verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and nouns all at the same time. One of the sentences is "Once he thought he would play a trick on the villagers and have some fun at their expense." And he has to find and name each and every one of the above in the sentence. It was definitely hard for him and he missed quite a bit trying to do them all at once. We even did one thing at a time and he was getting confused. I don't remember learning that kind of grammar (i.e. putting it all together and labeling sentences) until highschool. Maybe it is just hard because he is not terribly great at grammar to begin with. :( Edited March 9, 2009 by Tree House Academy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Well, I've never used Writing Tales, but that does *not* sound like overkill to me. I would definitely expect a 9yo to be able to identify those four parts of speech within sentences. Perhaps you could break the assignment up over a couple of days? Do it a few sentences at a time? First pick out the nouns and the verbs, then go back and identify the adjectives and adverbs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree House Academy Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 (edited) He can identify the 4 parts of speech - one at a time. However, they are having him find and differentiate between infinitive verbs, state of being verbs, action verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and nouns all at the same time. One of the sentences is "Once he thought he would play a trick on the villagers and have some fun at their expense." And he has to find and name each and every one of the above in the sentence. It was definitely hard for him and he missed quite a bit trying to do them all at once. We even did one thing at a time and he was getting confused. I don't remember learning that kind of grammar (i.e. putting it all together and labeling sentences) until highschool. Maybe it is just hard because he is not terribly great at grammar to begin with. :( Edited March 9, 2009 by Tree House Academy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovemykids Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 It sounds like too much to me, but I am not into pushing academics at an early age, unless your child already happens to be skilled in whatever particular area they are working on at an advanced level. The beauty of homeschooling is how we can take material and tweak it to fit our individual students. This is what I would do if I were you; if you feel it's too much, leave it for your next student who may be a grammar whiz at age 9! :lol: Your son is going to get a repeat of these same grammar concepts year after year; there is no urgent need for him to master it this year. Plus, it looks like he has plenty of review with all of the grammar programs you are using. But that's just my .02 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Rebecca, I sold my tm, but I don't recall my dd or any of the kids in my class having trouble with those exercises. You need to break it up and slow it down. Have you played the games for those concepts? We played games every week in our class, and they do such a great job cementing the concepts. If he can't nail the different verb types, then go back and play that game. If he's struggling with adjectives or adverbs, review them some more and play the games. He doesn't need workbooky practice so much as he needs contextualized practice. See what you're seeing is the difference between doing an exercise in isolation (find all the adjectives when that's all we're looking for and all we've been talking about) vs. the more difficult exercise of really understanding, discriminating, and throwing it together. He'll get there. You're also going to have a review lesson coming up soon that will give you a breather with time to catch up. Don't be afraid to do those exercises orally or with him. Grammar is FUN, and you can make it fun. Don't let these exercises be torturous! Play the games. Take the concept and analyze the model with it, so that by the time he gets to the workbook exercises they're easy. I had a bin of colored markers and crayons and whatnot and we marked up our models, looking for punctation (stops and go's with red and green), adjectives (a colorful one like purple!), adverbs, etc. So it's sort of a spiral approach to grammar that WT is trying to get you to do. If it has piled up on you, back up and rebuild. Do it to the model, then the exercises will be easy. Make it a game, tackling the sentences, one at a time, and see if he can find them! You don't have the energy-feeding dynamic you get in a class, but you can still make it fun. Grammar is so fun. After all, grammar is words, and we like to talk! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in CA Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Yup, I remember that lesson. If you have done all the previous lessons though, your child has been introduced to each and every concept...they are now just wanting them to try and use what they know. Not always easy. I sat with my son, teacher key in hand, and helped him whenever he got stuck. We started by finding all the pronouns, then the nouns and their adjectives. We then moved on to the verbs in all their forms and the adverbs. It really isn't difficult if you take it step by step. My son is 11 yrs. old though and has a lot of grammar under his belt. The hardest part for him was the various verb forms...but he only needed a bit of help (Infinitive verbs are what throw him :confused:). I imagine a 9 yr. old might need more solid hand-holding, but that is OK...help him and teach him along the way. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Well, I would have my Latin students do that, even in the elementary classes... But I would certainly slow down and take it step-by-step together *with* any child that was struggling to do it. So I really don't think that differentiating infinitives and state-of-being verbs, identifying pronouns and prepositions and the like is unreasonable for a middle-elementary child -- but I also think it's reasonable to help them learn to break it down step-by-step in their own minds. "Okay, first you read the sentence to me. Now, what are you going to look for first? Verbs? Okay, so let's find them. What can you tell me about that verb? Alright, are you sure that one is a verb? Okay, so tell me what you're going to look for next..." etc. I actually think this type of exercise is *very* valuable for kids. But sometimes they need to be reminded to slow down and to ask *themselves* some basic questions as they go... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in CA Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Rebecca, I sold my tm, but I don't recall my dd or any of the kids in my class having trouble with those exercises. You need to break it up and slow it down. Have you played the games for those concepts? We played games every week in our class, and they do such a great job cementing the concepts. If he can't nail the different verb types, then go back and play that game. If he's struggling with adjectives or adverbs, review them some more and play the games. He doesn't need workbooky practice so much as he needs contextualized practice. See what you're seeing is the difference between doing an exercise in isolation (find all the adjectives when that's all we're looking for and all we've been talking about) vs. the more difficult exercise of really understanding, discriminating, and throwing it together. He'll get there. You're also going to have a review lesson coming up soon that will give you a breather with time to catch up. Don't be afraid to do those exercises orally or with him. Grammar is FUN, and you can make it fun. Don't let these exercises be torturous! Play the games. Take the concept and analyze the model with it, so that by the time he gets to the workbook exercises they're easy. I had a bin of colored markers and crayons and whatnot and we marked up our models, looking for punctation (stops and go's with red and green), adjectives (a colorful one like purple!), adverbs, etc. So it's sort of a spiral approach to grammar that WT is trying to get you to do. If it has piled up on you, back up and rebuild. Do it to the model, then the exercises will be easy. Make it a game, tackling the sentences, one at a time, and see if he can find them! You don't have the energy-feeding dynamic you get in a class, but you can still make it fun. Grammar is so fun. After all, grammar is words, and we like to talk! :) :iagree: Great advice as always, OhElizabeth. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNC Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Christian Light sells Language Arts Reference chart "cheat sheets" for grades 3&4 and 5&6. They review in an extremely concise way all of those things. It is laminated and double sided. Packed with info! My children are ages 7&9 have to look at the sheet for their daily lessons, but must put it away for quizzes and tests. They are inexpensive and very useful! Scroll down: http://www.clp.org/store/by_course/33 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree House Academy Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 Thank you ALL so much! I have found so many things helpful in this thread. I love the laminated chart. I made a large one for our school room, but i think he gets tired of getting up and looking, so he guesses. :( I think the little laminated one will be perfect. :) I actually was SKIPPING the games, so we will now drop back and do those before moving on. Thanks so much for that suggestion as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andie Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 I'd consider copying the page so he could do one at a time, perhaps. Or different colored pencils for each part? Honestly, my son would have been able to do the work at that age, but would have gotten confused with the arrows and underlining, I think. It would have distracted him when he went back looking for the next part of speech. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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