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<\/p>\nI decided to work on “part 2” this week and do the second R of Relationships next week–I’ve had a crazy busy week and today picked up 3 bushels of peaches that need done\u00a0right NOW!<\/p>\n
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I said this would be a much shorter\u00a0post–well, maybe!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grammar…..read Ruth Beechik<\/a>! \ud83d\ude09\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Ruth Beechik says over and over (and over and over) that you don’t learn grammar to write, you write to learn grammar.\u00a0 I wholeheartedly agree.\u00a0 And quite frankly, life is too short to work on grammar books every single year of a child’s life.\u00a0 I know some of you may raise an eyebrow at that, but as one who has graduated three from homeschool now, and all three can write fairly well, I feel I have a little experience\u00a0to make that statement!<\/p>\n I think learning grammar in context is the best way.\u00a0 A really good resource I’ve used for that is Learning Grammar through Writing<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 It seems to be out of print right now, but available used.\u00a0 I used it more as a resource for me to teach on the spot.\u00a0\u00a0 Really, a good handbook would do the same.\u00a0\u00a0 Something you could look up and point out why a comma goes here (or doesn’t), whether to use lie or lay, and whether to say their\/there\/they’re.<\/p>\n Believe it or not, that is primarily the way I have taught my older daughters–and after awhile they learn to use those handbooks themselves! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n Hear Ruth Beechik’s tongue-in-cheek but oh-so-true wisdom on grammar:<\/p>\n Did God’s voice thunder from Mount Grammaticus,\u00a0“These nouns and these verbs which I give unto you shall you use with all the inflections thereof which I declare unto you; and you shall teach them unto\u00a0 your children and your children’s children unto all generations”?<\/p>\n No one I know believes that such an event occurred, but many people treat grammar as though it occurred.\u00a0 For over two centuries our schooling has conditioned whole generations to view grammar as an authoritarian system.\u00a0 Our textbooks contained all the pronouncements about “right” and “wrong.”\u00a0 Maybe we, personally, didn’t understand some of them, but that was our fault, we thought.\u00a0 It was clear–to somebody.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~You CAN Teach Your Child Successfully<\/a>, p. 197<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here is an interesting tidbit that also might shed some light on the “study of grammar”:<\/p>\n Grammar teaching….was closely intertwined with study of the classic poets, and not a means for learning language.\u00a0 In primary school, Greek children had already learned to write fluently<\/em>, and then in grammar school they studied the classic writers, and learned grammar in that context.<\/p>\n You would not want to imitate Greek teaching methods, since they were limited.\u00a0 For instance, because they had no printed books, a great deal of time was spent comparing the students’ written copies with the teacher’s in a critical examination of the text.\u00a0 As time went on, the Greeks lost all sense of why they were teaching the classics.\u00a0 Emphasis was on words and details rather than on meaning.\u00a0 Knowing details of the classics became an end in itself, and lost was the vision of heroism, morals, thinking and other higher purposes in literature.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some would argue that we are suffering the same loss of vision about why we teach grammar.\u00a0 As a scholarly discipline, it is one of the highest uses of the human mind.\u00a0 But as an authoritarian system, it fails us.\u00a0 It doesn’t help our children write, as we hoped it would.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~You CAN Teach Your Child Successfully, pp. 165-166<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n True confessions–I have some that don’t know all the “technical” terms of grammar–but they can write.\u00a0\u00a0 As usual, if I’m going to err, I want it to be on this side of that debate!\u00a0 \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n The Language Lessons books by Sandi Queen I mentioned last week do have some gentle grammar.\u00a0\u00a0 If you’re not using them, I suggest finding a good handbook you like (Rod and Staff<\/a>, Writers Inc<\/a>., or the aforementioned Learning Grammar through Writing).\u00a0 I personally do NOT feel you need a separate grammar “program” to work through.\u00a0 If it is not going to necessarily help your child write better, and it’s taking time away from real writing–why bother?!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n There are a few “Charlotte Mason” type gentle grammar studies out there that I could use, if I were inclined to do something more “official” with grammar.\u00a0 Karen Andreola’s Simply Grammar <\/a>is sweet and pretty low-key.\u00a0\u00a0 I know it’s written for “elementary age”, and it’s mostly oral, but do you really need a scholarly study of grammar for every child?\u00a0\u00a0 If you really, really feel they need “more”, please wait until they are older (I would say 15 or older and writing well) and maybe do Easy Grammar<\/a>.\u00a0 But please do NOT buy all the graded workbooks, just the main book and please do NOT make your child do each and every problem on each and every page.\u00a0\u00a0 They can go over it, do a few exercises, and if they get it, go on.\u00a0\u00a0 The goal is NOT to fill that workbook up but for them to learn it so they can implement it in their writing!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Now on to spelling!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n With my oldest two, I did the traditional spelling methods.\u00a0\u00a0 Leah used to be able to pass her tests with flying colors….then not be able to spell “with” or “white” in her writing!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I became very frustrated with the “traditional method”, and I was blessed to get a good deal on Spelling Power <\/a>many years ago.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I really liked it for the oldest two daughters.\u00a0\u00a0 The next two seemed to get bogged down in it.\u00a0\u00a0 We tried Alphaphonics <\/a>for awhile, and it was helpful, but still didn’t help as much as I had hoped.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For Susannah, we found Apples<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Apples 2 was okay, but she liked the first one better.\u00a0 Then we used (ahem…very minimally!) Spelling Wisdom <\/a>from Simply Charlotte Mason<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 It is basically copywork, and when they are ready, you dictate the sentence or passage to them.\u00a0 She liked it fairly well, and I don’t know why we let it drop.\u00a0\u00a0 She’s “graduating” now, but if she wants to pick it back up, we might! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Cassia started using Andrew Pudewa’s Phonetic Zoo.\u00a0<\/a> I did not buy all the cds–I thought we could make our own tapes!\u00a0\u00a0 A bit of work, but doable!\u00a0 She really liked it, but life got in the way and we didn’t keep up with making the tapes (which is probably why maybe <\/em>you should buy the cds…).\u00a0\u00a0 I looked at AVKO’s Sequential Spelling<\/a>, and it looks good, but Cassia decided to try Natural Speller <\/a>by Kathryn Stout.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Now this is not a pull-it-out-no-planning item!\u00a0\u00a0 But neither will it take you forever to figure out!\u00a0 We just got started on this last spring before my mom passed away, so it’s on hold until this fall.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I basically have used a lot of what I’ve learned from other spelling programs and Ruth Beechik about testing the words they miss vs. studying a list and then testing.\u00a0 So I was going through the lists from grade 1 (sometimes the simplest words trip you up!).\u00a0\u00a0 There is a little grammar instruction in there, too.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If you are brave enough to not have a “curriculum”, per se, you can use Ruth Beechik’s ideas in You CAN Teach Your Child\u00a0 Successfully.\u00a0 She has Common Word Spelling Lists for grades 4-8 in there (even though Kathryn Stout’s has grades 1-4 in hers, I again don’t think children need formal spelling instruction until 4th grade or older…usually older!).\u00a0\u00a0 You could test them until they miss some, let them study those, help with any “rules” that might apply (but don’t get caught up in that too much!), and then retest with another list the next time.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I have actually done this with Diane Lopez’ book “Teaching Children<\/a>“.\u00a0 She is a Charlotte Mason advocate, and her book is subtitled “A Curriculum Guide to What Children Need to Know at Each Level Through Sixth Grade” (what a mouthful!).\u00a0\u00a0 She has a Spelling section as well as a Dolch Sight Word List in the Reading section for each “grade”.\u00a0\u00a0 Again, I don’t advocate worrying too much about spelling too soon.\u00a0\u00a0 But going through these lists\/ideas as well as using words from their writing (Ruth Beechik advocates writing every day!), will really give you more of a well-rounded spelling program than you realize!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Also, please don’t do 20-30 words at a time!\u00a0 5-10 are really enough.\u00a0 If you are just “testing” to see where they start missing grade level wise, you could maybe add more in just for that purpose, but please don’t give them 20 words each week (or whatever time frame) to study!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Barb Shelton <\/a>\u00a0(another favorite!) in her Jumpstart Navigator <\/a>said that for years her children had only 5 spelling words each week.\u00a0\u00a0 Her daughter went on to do well in college, and I believe her son is a well-adjusted adult as well!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Diane Lopez’ book doesn’t have word lists for spelling, but has listings like:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1. Phonetic and structural analysis principles<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Example:\u00a0 silent letter(s) “ight”–bright \u00a0fight \u00a0light\u00a0 might<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 night\u00a0 right\u00a0 sight \u00a0tight<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 2. Content areas<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Words from the content areas should be used to supplement<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the regular word list. (This is taking words from their<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 writing and reading.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 3. Sight words<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Use words from the Dolch list and the basal reader.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 4. Calendar-related words<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Review the days of the week, months\u00a0of the year, and<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 seasonal words.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Ideas taken from Second Grade Spelling section<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I didn’t list\u00a0all the ideas, but\u00a0that gives you a picture of what it’s like.\u00a0\u00a0 And again–this is very doable and low-key!\u00a0 I like low-key!\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The bottom line for me is to not stress about “doing it right” or “covering it thoroughly” but working through it gently, in context with real life writing and reading.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In all honesty, isn’t that what you do when you need to check up on your grammar?\u00a0\u00a0 Or spelling?\u00a0 Do you go do a “course” on it or just look up what you need?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There may be reasons where a formal study of grammar would be helpful, but I honestly haven’t used diagramming sentences since I had to do it in high school.\u00a0\u00a0 It didn’t make me a better writer, either.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I share all this to help you relax–you will find what works for you and for your child(ren).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And of course, above all, keep the 3Rs of Relationships top priority!\u00a0\u00a0 If it’s causing tears (in your child and\/or you<\/em>!) or making you have knots in your stomach, it’s time to change!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If you want some help planning your schedule, head on over to Belinda Letchford’s blog (I love her website<\/a>, too!).\u00a0 She has three posts on planning that are very good and realistic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Planning Part I:\u00a0 Getting My Head Around Planning<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Planning Part II:\u00a0 Writing a Study Schedule<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Part III:\u00a0 Prep Time<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
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