and the whole series
by Pamela White
Years ago, with First Son, we used IEW's Writing Course. It worked pretty well for him in the sense that it told him exactly what to write and he would write it. After reading Know and Tell (review here), I decided to be brave and go back to a more Charlotte Mason approach to writing. I must admit, First Son's writing is still an area of concern for me, but I have decided to try to be comfortable being uncomfortable.
We did not, however, change our spelling or grammar programs. The programs we were using took only a few minutes a day and provided simple but steady progress in both skills with minimal work on my part. I wrote about Sequential Spelling already (though I might need an updated post on it), but this post is about our grammar program: IEW's Fix It! Grammar. I was first attracted to this program by the idea that students would read a sentence with some grammatical errors (or with incomplete punctuation, etc.) and then fix the problems. It seemed to me good training for reading their own sentences and recognizes mistakes or weaknesses in their sentence structure.
For each book, I purchase the spiral bound teacher's manual. Then, using the code included with the purchase, I print a copy of the student workbook and put it in a pronged folder. You can use the code to print copies for all your own children, but it is allowed only for the original purchaser. If you want to sell the teacher's manual (or if you buy used), you must purchase printed copies of the student workbook. (There are different policies for school and coop settings, so check the website if they would apply to you.)
When I first introduce this book to my students, and for as long as they need, I read the exercise and work through it each day with him or her. The first book is generally only one sentence a day. Each week, the student labels a few more parts of speech and makes a few more corrections. Then, the student copies the corrected sentence into a dedicated notebook. (At the end, they have a whole story they can keep...not that any of my kids want to keep them.)
There are also vocabulary words for each day. I always ask my kids about those, but we don't spend time looking them up or copying them into a notebook.
Once my kids are comfortable with the whole process, they do the reading and marking on their own. I check it with them, briefly discussing anything they missed, and then they copy it for me to check the next day. The teacher's manual does not assume a student will catch every fix or even fix every mistake the same way. I allow my older kids, especially, great flexibility in how they want to rewrite sentences, as long as they follow good grammatical practices.
I love that usually the teacher's manual has far more information than I need to answer any questions that come up. First Daughter has occasionally asked for more information, so she has a copy of the grammar glossary printed for her school shelf. The glossary is an extensive explanation of all the grammar terms and rules from all six of the books in the series, so there's a lot in there kids don't need to worry about, especially early on.
I ended up liking Fit It! Grammar more than Primary Language Lessons, which we had tried with First Son, because it was less work for the student and less work for me. I also felt like I didn't need the memorization exercises (which we do in other ways and which were difficult or impossible to do in a lesson anyway). While Primary Language Lessons was gentle, it was hard to see where it was going. Some of the lessons seemed much too difficult and some much too easy. Fix It! Grammar seems to progress in a more predictable way.
First Son started Fix It! Grammar Book 1 in the middle of sixth grade and finished the first two books before the end of eighth grade. He has since completed the third and fourth books each within a year. There are 33 weeks' worth of lessons if you do grammar four days a week, but we usually work on it five days a week and finish in fewer than 33 weeks, once the kids are working independently.
First Daughter took two years for the first book, but has done the second and third in one year each. Second Daughter took two years for the first book and will probably take three years for the next two books.
Second Son is another story altogether. He started this year in third grade and I had every intention of moving slowly and working through each sentence with him, but he fought me on it a lot. Not the grammar part; that was easy. It was the sentence copying that was just too tortuous for him. That boy can read and narrate like a pro, but ask him to write a word and he collapses in hysterics. So we took that very slowly, spending at least two if not three days copying a sentence. I did make him work, though! I wrote it in cursive and made him copy in cursive from my copy. I wouldn't say the sentences are great literature, but we counted it as his handwriting and copywork on grammar days. By the end of the year, he really was doing much better, but we still only make it through eight weeks' worth of materials.
But that's ok. According to the IEW website, Books 1 and 2 can be used with third grade through high school. Books 3 and 4 are for sixth grade through high school; and Books 5 and 6 are only for high schoolers. So you wouldn't want to start Book 1 in third grade and go through a book a year; you'd probably end up overwhelming your student.
You don't have to start with Book 1, though it's recommended even for high school students. There is a placement test on the IEW website that includes some of the topics covered by each level.
It's been almost five years and we're still sticking with Fix It! Grammar.
I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Bookshop are affiliate links. Links to IEW are not affiliate links.
