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LLMom
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| Posted: March 08 2007 at 9:23pm | IP Logged
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Who is right, IYHO? Many proponents (including Catholic schools in the recent past)begin grammar in 1st or 2nd grade and have produced very good writers. Others say that formal grammar is best held off until the can analyze around 6th grade age. They too produce good writers. I also have seen kids who have had hardly any formal grammar that do well with writing. So, does it really matter?
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Lisa
For veteran & former homeschool moms
homeschooling ideas
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Karen E.
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| Posted: March 09 2007 at 8:07am | IP Logged
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Lisa,
Hmmm ... I wonder if you may have answered your own question.  This is one of those issues that doesn't have a hard and fast answer, in my opinion.
If early grammar and late grammar both produce good writers, "does it really matter?"
I have a couple of reactions:
1. It doesn't matter
2. It matters, depending on the child
It's a bit like reading instruction. We can teach children to read at a very early age, but "does it matter?" It all seems to balance out later. My first and second children were, respectively, an early reader and a "late" reader, but they are both beautiful readers now, at ages 13 and 10.
So, does it matter?
On to "depends on the child." Some children are chomping at the bit to read at age 3 or 4. To hold them back would be almost cruel. Why not go ahead and teach, at a gentle pace, what they want to know? For other children, it's torture to sit and even look at a book.
In the same way, some children may have a natural affinity for the workings of language and the mechanics of writing, and they may actually enjoy all that goes with teaching grammar at an early age. There's nothing wrong with teaching it early.
I may sound wishy-washy here, but I really think this is an area where a parent's choice, assessment of her children, and personal homeschooling style all come into play.
Places or situations where it may "matter" do exist -- if you have homeschooled, and must later place your children in a school system, it may matter in terms of whether or not they are "caught up." But, at the same time, just because school systems deem it important to teach certain things at early ages, doesn't make it a universal truth.
In our homeschool, I've done very little formal grammar in the early years. I'm just starting to do a bit more with my 13 yo, but her writing is quite good at this point. It's amazing what reading good literature in formative years can do!
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Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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Willa
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| Posted: March 09 2007 at 10:28am | IP Logged
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I think Karen's right.
I don't think that formal grammar teaching and writing skill really correlate much at all.
I held off teaching my older kids grammar until they were in middle school, but started my next two kids earlier just so that they were already familiar with the terminology (because I found it helpful for them to know the terminology when they started studying a foreign language).
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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Cathmomof8
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| Posted: March 16 2007 at 1:30pm | IP Logged
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I really feel that there is a lot better way to use our children's time and our own energy when they are younger and their analytical skills are not really formed. That said, I like to introduce some of the terms in 3rd, while doing dictation, copywork or with the LLATL book. I no longer feel the need to 'do grammar' every year either. I like Julie Bogart's thoughts on working on grammar once in elementary, once in junior high and once in highschool. And in the elementary years I really wouldn't have them dissecting sentences.
My 3rd son is 14yo. I tried grammar several times in the past years and he just couldn't 'get it'. I'd start, try to give it a few weeks and then realized we could just put it away and come back to it some other time. This year he is doing Easy Grammar Plus in 8th gr. He 'gets it' now but still struggles with remembering it all. I see now that he seems to have difficulty with long term memory in general - it shows in his math and all subjects really. I'm digressing here. I could write a whole other post about him..... He's just so different than my other children.
Theresia
mom of 8
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: early grammar, late grammar?
