I love reading your posts, Catherine! You always stimulate and inspire me in my homeschooling journey. My two eldest are eleven and nine. I myself loved grammar when I was in school, but it is yet another topic that I find I must teach to my children with patience and low expectations. We are avid readers in our family, and I am daily amazed at the vocabulary and syntax of my children's speech. They sometimes sound like they popped right off the page of an Edith Nesbit novel! Their exposure to good literature is my best friend when it comes to grammar, because they have a strong, albeit vague, sense of language. When they were younger, we used a book called "Writing Skills", and it was helpful with basic grammar and composition practice. I have not found a good grammar curriculum, so I am excited to look up some that are mentioned here. Our homeschool co-op, called Catholic SchoolHouse, gives them songs to memorize the definition of the eight parts of speech, but knowing the definition does not mean they can identify the real thing in a sentence! The best grammar tool I have found so far is the study of French and Latin, and I wonder if you get the same benefit from ancient Greek. The children are learning grammatical concepts in order to disassemble and put back together these foreign languages, and it is amazing how much this process teaches them about English! It gives me a thrill, I can tell you! There is a book series that helps with this process of translating grammatical concepts, but it is directed toward older students or teachers. It is called "English Grammar for Students of Latin", or, fill in the blank with whatever language you are studying. Some of my homeschool mentors, like Bonnie Landry, say that dictation is their favourite gateway to teaching grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Here are a few fun picture books that I have used in the past:
"If You Were a Verb" by Michael Dahl--There is a complete series of these.
"The Girl's Like Spaghetti" by Lynne Truss, author of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"
Have you heard of the book, The Writing Revolution? It's a US title, where we are especially terrible at teaching grammar, and is not typical of instruction here. It gives wonderful exercises for teaching grammar in context and through the pupil's writing. Probably not quite enough on it's own, but could be with some thoughtful planning ahead. I love that it gives a path for making content more rigorous and interesting through really pithy and meaningful snippets of writing.
I worked in British primaries for several years as a TA and helped to drag many kids through this curriculum. There were usually a few (very able) children in the class who found it interesting and could take an instruction like "Make sure you use at least three relative clauses" and use it to improve (or, in the horrible nomenclature of the day, "up-level") their writing, but for the majority, it absolutely killed any sense of fun or passion for the subject. I think it's important to learn, but I've never understood why it can't wait until Key Stage 3.
Yes I agree, to me it feels like they are asking for way too much, way too early, when children should be concentrating on getting the basics really good. Interesting to hear a perspective from the school system, thank you Holly!
Given your interest in ancient history, poetry, and language, I think you would greatly appreciate this masterful series (his poetry curriculum alone is splendid too!)
Thankyou Catherine for this very interesting read - as always.
I do remember pre COVID listening to my eldest grandson who is now y10 using grammatical terms in lower primary school which I as a child in the 70s/80s had only really started using in secondary school. It hasn't made his grasp of English any better. It really isn't working. But his education as with so many was sledgehammered in 2020 and never really got back on track.
I find your approach to home education very inspiring. I class myself as an accidental home educator - picking up the pieces when it has gone wrong in school! The first time I did this was 2006 then again in 2012 and again in 2022. But they were all teenagers.
Last year my now 6 year old grandson refused to go back after Xmas so he had one term in reception class. It has scarred him deeply we can't even say the word School we have to say S.
And this was a child who had happily gone to day care previously.
Anyway in response to your writing I have been using the CGP books as my baseline. Like you, I check what the year group should be learning and start from there. And this is the joy of home ed because you can start with your base line and you can go forward in a way that works for you and the child. Taking your time, taking breaks, laying the solid foundation and building.
So I really value your recommendations. When I first read this article I ordered the Usbourne book and it must have arrived when I was busy and I evidently stashed it in the baking cupboard. I took it out yesterday when I was having a book reorganisation! I think I have a children's book habit and home ed is giving me another chance to really feed that habit!
Which made me just want to comment that aside from all the negative, horrendous press home educators are getting it is never mentioned exactly how much we are contributing to the economy.
Obviously to start with we are saving the council tax payer x amount.
But what a boom industry it has become. When I first started in 2006 there was a postal English, maths and science GCSE course which we used for about £7 a month.
Now there is everything at your fingertips and the opening up of museums and galleries for special home ed days or courses. My local authority do a lot of courses in their museums and I really embrace them. I know some home educators prefer not to. But my grandsons LA do nothing extra. There are people on some of my authorities museum days which have travelled 50 miles to join in!
Then there's the pencils and pens. I've just had a nice pack of 30 coloured felt tips from WHSmith but if anyone has a recommendation of the best felt tips ever for children I would be buying them. I know you don't have to spend a lot of money either to home educate. I have never spent so much time in my life enjoying good local authority parks as I have this last year during school hours!
How much are we contributing to the economy is a question that should be asked.
Thanks once again Catherine you are a beacon in times of doubt.
Thank you so much Zena for this thoughtful comment. As it happens, I do actually have thoughts on the best felt tips ever for children and will share in a post very soon! So sorry to hear about your grandson, I hope he is doing ok and that he hasn’t lost his love for learning even if he’s lost his love for school. It sounds like he’s lucky to have you on his side.
For grammar we have loved the Island series from Michael Clay Thompson - basically a funny book with lots of examples. My eldest has discovered he loves the puzzle of diagramming sentences. Plus an annual reading of Grammarland! I was surprised to learn that adverbials are, basically, prepositional phrases. Parts of speech are called different things in UK/USA, who knew?!
I’d never heard of Grammarland! Immediately adding to basket. Tell me which books you use for MCT - there are so many for each level and they’re not cheap. Do you use the full set or are some more useful than others?
This is so interesting. We are based in South Africa and I had no idea the English curriculum still had such a strong focus on grammar. I’ve been thinking a lot about our grammar program lately, partly because there seems to be some research suggesting that it’s a waste of time in school (to be specific - that it does t improve children’s writing). But I kind of don’t care, we’ll still teach it here. It also feels like at younger ages children struggle linking abstract concepts to concrete examples - a struggle I’m very much having with my eight year old. Despite this I feel like it’s a worthy use of our time, though I’m still not entirely sure why. I feel like there is a value in understanding how language works and there is a value in the effort required to make those links. Anyway, we use “First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind”, it doesn’t look like it would align with UK curriculum but I like it for the most part. It does include diagramming though which is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Hi Angeline, I think you’re absolutely right that the abstract concepts are hard to grasp, and the challenge with grammar is there’s no easy way to make abstract, concrete. With maths, for example, when things get a bit too theoretical we can usually find a way to model it with maths cubes or other ‘real’ things. But there are no maths cubes for grammar!
Totally agree with you on grammar, every time I’ve tried to use a workbook on it it’s sucked the joy out of everything so we do our own thing, with help from Brave Writer units.
Loré Pemberton is my aunt!
Oh you’re so lucky! Her pictures are full of such warmth.
I love reading your posts, Catherine! You always stimulate and inspire me in my homeschooling journey. My two eldest are eleven and nine. I myself loved grammar when I was in school, but it is yet another topic that I find I must teach to my children with patience and low expectations. We are avid readers in our family, and I am daily amazed at the vocabulary and syntax of my children's speech. They sometimes sound like they popped right off the page of an Edith Nesbit novel! Their exposure to good literature is my best friend when it comes to grammar, because they have a strong, albeit vague, sense of language. When they were younger, we used a book called "Writing Skills", and it was helpful with basic grammar and composition practice. I have not found a good grammar curriculum, so I am excited to look up some that are mentioned here. Our homeschool co-op, called Catholic SchoolHouse, gives them songs to memorize the definition of the eight parts of speech, but knowing the definition does not mean they can identify the real thing in a sentence! The best grammar tool I have found so far is the study of French and Latin, and I wonder if you get the same benefit from ancient Greek. The children are learning grammatical concepts in order to disassemble and put back together these foreign languages, and it is amazing how much this process teaches them about English! It gives me a thrill, I can tell you! There is a book series that helps with this process of translating grammatical concepts, but it is directed toward older students or teachers. It is called "English Grammar for Students of Latin", or, fill in the blank with whatever language you are studying. Some of my homeschool mentors, like Bonnie Landry, say that dictation is their favourite gateway to teaching grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Here are a few fun picture books that I have used in the past:
"If You Were a Verb" by Michael Dahl--There is a complete series of these.
"The Girl's Like Spaghetti" by Lynne Truss, author of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"
Have you heard of the book, The Writing Revolution? It's a US title, where we are especially terrible at teaching grammar, and is not typical of instruction here. It gives wonderful exercises for teaching grammar in context and through the pupil's writing. Probably not quite enough on it's own, but could be with some thoughtful planning ahead. I love that it gives a path for making content more rigorous and interesting through really pithy and meaningful snippets of writing.
I haven’t heard of it but will definitely look into it, that sounds very interesting. Thank you for sharing!
I worked in British primaries for several years as a TA and helped to drag many kids through this curriculum. There were usually a few (very able) children in the class who found it interesting and could take an instruction like "Make sure you use at least three relative clauses" and use it to improve (or, in the horrible nomenclature of the day, "up-level") their writing, but for the majority, it absolutely killed any sense of fun or passion for the subject. I think it's important to learn, but I've never understood why it can't wait until Key Stage 3.
Yes I agree, to me it feels like they are asking for way too much, way too early, when children should be concentrating on getting the basics really good. Interesting to hear a perspective from the school system, thank you Holly!
We have used various grammar books, but the one we absolutely loved was the Language Arts series by Michael Clay Thompson. https://www.rfwp.com/mct-language-arts/about-the-mct-curriculum/
Given your interest in ancient history, poetry, and language, I think you would greatly appreciate this masterful series (his poetry curriculum alone is splendid too!)
Thank you Ruth, this curriculum really does look good and you’re not the only one to recommend it which is always a good sign!
Thankyou Catherine for this very interesting read - as always.
I do remember pre COVID listening to my eldest grandson who is now y10 using grammatical terms in lower primary school which I as a child in the 70s/80s had only really started using in secondary school. It hasn't made his grasp of English any better. It really isn't working. But his education as with so many was sledgehammered in 2020 and never really got back on track.
I find your approach to home education very inspiring. I class myself as an accidental home educator - picking up the pieces when it has gone wrong in school! The first time I did this was 2006 then again in 2012 and again in 2022. But they were all teenagers.
Last year my now 6 year old grandson refused to go back after Xmas so he had one term in reception class. It has scarred him deeply we can't even say the word School we have to say S.
And this was a child who had happily gone to day care previously.
Anyway in response to your writing I have been using the CGP books as my baseline. Like you, I check what the year group should be learning and start from there. And this is the joy of home ed because you can start with your base line and you can go forward in a way that works for you and the child. Taking your time, taking breaks, laying the solid foundation and building.
So I really value your recommendations. When I first read this article I ordered the Usbourne book and it must have arrived when I was busy and I evidently stashed it in the baking cupboard. I took it out yesterday when I was having a book reorganisation! I think I have a children's book habit and home ed is giving me another chance to really feed that habit!
Which made me just want to comment that aside from all the negative, horrendous press home educators are getting it is never mentioned exactly how much we are contributing to the economy.
Obviously to start with we are saving the council tax payer x amount.
But what a boom industry it has become. When I first started in 2006 there was a postal English, maths and science GCSE course which we used for about £7 a month.
Now there is everything at your fingertips and the opening up of museums and galleries for special home ed days or courses. My local authority do a lot of courses in their museums and I really embrace them. I know some home educators prefer not to. But my grandsons LA do nothing extra. There are people on some of my authorities museum days which have travelled 50 miles to join in!
Then there's the pencils and pens. I've just had a nice pack of 30 coloured felt tips from WHSmith but if anyone has a recommendation of the best felt tips ever for children I would be buying them. I know you don't have to spend a lot of money either to home educate. I have never spent so much time in my life enjoying good local authority parks as I have this last year during school hours!
How much are we contributing to the economy is a question that should be asked.
Thanks once again Catherine you are a beacon in times of doubt.
Thank you so much Zena for this thoughtful comment. As it happens, I do actually have thoughts on the best felt tips ever for children and will share in a post very soon! So sorry to hear about your grandson, I hope he is doing ok and that he hasn’t lost his love for learning even if he’s lost his love for school. It sounds like he’s lucky to have you on his side.
For grammar we have loved the Island series from Michael Clay Thompson - basically a funny book with lots of examples. My eldest has discovered he loves the puzzle of diagramming sentences. Plus an annual reading of Grammarland! I was surprised to learn that adverbials are, basically, prepositional phrases. Parts of speech are called different things in UK/USA, who knew?!
I’d never heard of Grammarland! Immediately adding to basket. Tell me which books you use for MCT - there are so many for each level and they’re not cheap. Do you use the full set or are some more useful than others?
This is so interesting. We are based in South Africa and I had no idea the English curriculum still had such a strong focus on grammar. I’ve been thinking a lot about our grammar program lately, partly because there seems to be some research suggesting that it’s a waste of time in school (to be specific - that it does t improve children’s writing). But I kind of don’t care, we’ll still teach it here. It also feels like at younger ages children struggle linking abstract concepts to concrete examples - a struggle I’m very much having with my eight year old. Despite this I feel like it’s a worthy use of our time, though I’m still not entirely sure why. I feel like there is a value in understanding how language works and there is a value in the effort required to make those links. Anyway, we use “First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind”, it doesn’t look like it would align with UK curriculum but I like it for the most part. It does include diagramming though which is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Hi Angeline, I think you’re absolutely right that the abstract concepts are hard to grasp, and the challenge with grammar is there’s no easy way to make abstract, concrete. With maths, for example, when things get a bit too theoretical we can usually find a way to model it with maths cubes or other ‘real’ things. But there are no maths cubes for grammar!
Totally agree with you on grammar, every time I’ve tried to use a workbook on it it’s sucked the joy out of everything so we do our own thing, with help from Brave Writer units.