Teaching Grammar

My son took a practice ACT test here at the house. We discovered he was stronger in math and science than in English and Reading. As a result, we started doing Daily Grams, which is not as boring as Rod and Staff. I really like Rod and Staff in general, but it is a bit drill-and-kill.

Daily Grams

The cover of Daily Grams for 7th grade

Personally, I love grammar. My children, on the other hand, do not find it as enthralling as I do. Over the years, I have found myself caving in to their requests for more history and less grammar and the results are showing. Fortunately, they can learn grammar skills quickly.

Just 40 days into Daily Grams and our son has definitely improved his ACT score in English. We have also specifically targeted ACT prep, of course, but I think it helps to have a dedicated curriculum which breaks down punctuation, capitalization, vocabulary, and grammar.

Daily Grams has 180 lessons per book. Each lesson is exactly one page. You cannot go wrong with that. After eight years homeschooling, I find that I am still very fond of open-and-go curricula, just as I was when my oldest started kindergarten. Daily Grams is definitely one such curriculum. The student works independently on the page and then we correct it together. Maybe I should spend some time “teaching” it, but when you have two on two different levels, it is more efficient to let them work on it themselves at their own pace.

The other advantage to letting them work on it first is that I find out where they still have gaps. For instance, neither of them could remember what a conjunction is. One of them could not tell the difference between pronouns used as subjects or objects. This is really good stuff. We are discovering the Swiss cheese holes in their knowledge and filling them up. In other words, we are learning.

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