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10 Tips When Teaching Grammar to Your Homeschooled Child

March 21, 2016 | 6 Comments
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When should you start teaching grammar? How much grammar is enough or too much? What is the purpose of grammar?

When I started homeschooling, I had more questions about grammar than I got answers for when I was in school. And though I would not call myself a total grammarian, like Kelley, who feels like all writing is the beginning of a treasure hunt to unearth errors (oh the sheer delight), I do love me some grammar.

Look at these 10 tips when teaching grammar to your homeschooled child because I hope to lighten your load about the stress of teaching grammar and give you some helpful insight.

1. Grammar is not too late when you start later.

Although I started teaching grammar in third grade, quickly I learned that teaching grammar could have waited until fifth or sixth grade because it’s easier then to grasp complex issues of grammar rules.

It does not mean that the mechanics of writing like spelling and capitalization should not be immediately corrected. Modeling correct grammar is a good teacher.

2. Grammar is not really about improving ideas for writing.

Yes, I know this may sound far-fetched. You can, however, have a child that is an advanced writer but lags behind in grammar structure. A child or an adult may clearly communicate his thoughts but may not be aware of proper tenses.

Too, roles can be flipped. For example, I know people with a linguistic background who can make my writing shine in no time. Their eye to detail is unmatched and I love that about them.

However, they would also be the first one to admit that knowing technical details doesn’t always mean that you can write well or with confidence.

Creating worthy and valuable writing content is a learned skill.

I often wonder if people with a strong English background fear writing less or more than somebody that does not have a strong grammar background? It still intrigues me.

3. It is important to learn the vocabulary of grammar.

The vocabulary of grammar was something I did not learn in school. And like any language, English too has beginning vocabulary terms like is what a basic tense and advanced vocabulary terms like conditional tenses.

This brings me to my next point.

4. Advanced grammar helps with learning foreign languages.

When teaching Latin to my first son, I realized that if I had not used Memoria Press, which guided us with basic grammar tips and then connected basic information to advanced, I would have struggled notably with helping my son study a foreign language.

What I am saying is that it is hard to compare a foreign language with your native tongue if you don’t have a full scope of advanced English terms.

The beauty of learning grammar is clearly shown when you start teaching and learning a foreign language.

In helping my son study a foreign language, I learned more details about my native English language than I did in just studying it each year.

5. Writing classes can improve grammar.

Writing classes should focus primarily on content, creativity of ideas and clarity.

Applying grammar to troubled areas like their vs they’re and our vs are makes grammar a crucial part of writing. But this doesn’t mean that writing curriculum should stifle the creative writing process or overshadow it with many rules.

Is this why so many kids hate writing? Again, grammar should enhance writing and help a budding writer choose words more carefully.

6. A well-written grammar course can be completed by 10th grade or so.

Using Rod and Staff English in high school helped me to understand that studying grammar as a separate subject didn’t have to span all four years of high school.

Of course, stopping a formal study of grammar would depend on how much previous grammar instruction your child had in school.

Grammar is Alright (oh, oh, scratch that, I meant) All Right

Too, I learned that if I chose an advanced grammar course in the beginning high school years, then the next few years could be focused on helping my student find his writing voice while applying grammar as a priceless tool.

7. Attack grammar with the same powers of observations used in science.

I vividly remember a tip shared many years ago by an intuitive homeschool mom. She said studying grammar should be like a scientist examining something under a microscope.

By magnifying a feather, salt or sand, a scientist brings items up for a closer look. Zooming in on them gives them a different perspective and shows how the pieces fit the whole.

Attack the parts of grammar with the same enthusiasm that a scientist scrutinizes infinitesimal pieces under a high powered lens until you get comfortable teaching grammar.

8. Basic grammar is vital to an excellent education.

Don’t get caught up in all the hype of advanced grammar that you don’t teach your child the essentials of grammar.

Teaching concepts like the parts of speech and effective sentences and paragraphs are mainstays of grammar. From there, a child can build on it in later years.

Fearing that I would make a mistake in each sentence I wrote, I overly stressed about writing. That mindset trickled down to teaching grammar.

9. Don’t make grammar boring and blah.

When grammar is learned through games and with a group, it can be fun.

I did treasures hunts in my home for the parts of speech when the boys were little.

We still do mad libs when we have had enough of formal grammar and I buy copious amounts of grammar games at conventions when I can find them.

10. Practice good grammar every day.

Don’t let the fear of grammar hold you back from letting your writing ideas overflow or trickle. Practicing good grammar each day makes it easier to pen your thoughts to paper or to share what you know with others.

I still struggle with grammar but the basic human need to communicate is a powerful motivator to learning complex grammar concepts. Find the joy in teaching grammar because it should be exhilarating and not exhausting.

What has been your experience with teaching grammar?

Hugs and love ya,

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Narration – Telling Back or Testing? Books that Make Teaching Narration Easy Peazy.

August 27, 2015 | 10 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Gauging homeschool progress is only natural. Besides, we do need to know what our children are retaining.

Narration not only works for filling a child’s mind with useful facts, but it is a gentle way of measuring progress.

Narration Telling Back or Testing. Books That MakeTeaching Narration Easy @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Instead of administering a test, try narration.

What is narration? It is simply telling back what they have read or what you have read to them. It is telling back what a child knows.

A child doesn’t really own the information until he or she can tell it back.

Gentle Art of Narration – Equals Meaningful Progress

This is a Charlotte Mason technique that has produced positive results in children of all ages and learning styles.

In addition, it can be a useful tool to use when you have recently taken your child out of public school and has test burnout.

True, it can be used a lot of times with younger children, but for children that are having trouble comprehending, it is a great tool.

Start off small with a few lines from one paragraph, move to one paragraph to two short paragraphs, to a page and eventually the whole story.

I used the The Classic Treasury of Aesop’s Fables for longer stories and then for funand to fill my boys’ mind with beautiful thoughts, I used a A Child’s Garden of Verses.When they were real young, I used a higher elementary age book like American Tall Tales and A Child’s History of the World, which was a nifty way of adding history to the day too.
Instead of dumbing down the answers by making a child choose a multiple choice question for a story, have them tell you all the details or facts.

In time, as the child grows, help them to learn techniques like summarization. For now, narration is a very useful tool to find out exactly what the child knows.

They can delight in the love of being read to or enjoy good literature without the fear of reducing it to a worksheet that is dull and boring.

The next time you are wondering if your child is understanding what you are teaching them, ask them to tell back the story to you or to a friend.

Start off small and by letting them narrate to you, they can give the whole scope of their understanding instead of being limited by a few multiple choice questions.

Have you tried narration?

Hugs and love ya,

Also, look at:

Instant Credit, Instant Baby food – Why NOT Instant Homeschool?
Controlling the Time Spent on Homeschool Subjects or Running a Homeschool Boot Camp
Biggest Challenges to Homeschooling

When Should I Start Teaching Spelling in Homeschool?

June 2, 2015 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Spelling is more than just associating letters with sounds and deciphering them. Spelling is an essential element to writing clearly and convincingly.

Although I valued the usefulness of spelling prior to teaching my sons how to spell, it wasn’t until I started actually teaching that I was able to see that learning styles affected how each of my sons learned to spell.

I couldn’t possibly understand the struggle of spelling at the beginning of my journey because Mr. Senior 2013, like me, is a visual learner. He looked at words, formed a mental map in his head, and spelling came naturally for him.

I taught him phonics and he began to write the letters he knew associated with the sounds. Pretty easy I thought. Rocking along thinking that I was actually teaching spelling, Mr. Awesome came along and everything I thought I knew about teaching spelling could fit in a button.

My second child was not a visual learner, but a hands-on learner. Laying the foundation for spelling, which is phonics instruction took longer with him.

The Difference Between Readiness and Formal Spelling Instruction

Look at these these tips that I learned and want you know when you formally start teaching spelling.

Don’t be so quick to add formal spelling to your day.

Some programs start testing children right away like at Kindergarten level.

Teaching spelling is one thing and testing spelling is quite another thing.

Before you can test output (which is making the letter or letters the sound makes) a child needs enough time for input.

We live in an educational society that is impatient on seeing results. We have instagram and instant messaging, but there is no such thing as instant education.

Children need enough time manipulating letters and sounds in the formative years or before Kindergarten.

Phonics is the springboard to spelling.

I feel you should be very selective as to when you start testing or beginning a formal program; I feel equally important that stringing letters together to form words should not wait.

Teaching phonics early even before a child can write is foundational to strong spellers later.

One thing I did right in teaching my sons how to spell was to spend a great amount of time on manipulating letters.

Look at these activities that I mean by manipulating letters:

Do not let your child’s fine motor skills hold your child back from stringing letters together to form words.

When I started teaching Mr. Senior 2013, one of the very best investments I made was to purchase Spell Time.

It was pricey but I knew that I had at least 3 kids ahead of me to teach phonics and using it with each child for several years, I got 6+ years use out of it.

A few things that I loved about it was that it was portable, had several letters of the vowels and I could grab a few letters to teach one child spelling while my oldest son could play with the letters and put them on the mat.

The mats are self-teaching meaning that on the back of the letter tiles are pegs which fit only in the correct spot on the word mat. It is self-checking because another letter won’t fit.

Bottom line, Mr. Senior 2013 could practice spelling alone while I was teaching the other boys.

Using this great teaching tool, I was able to give them a strong start to phonics before they learned how to write.

Spelling rules are just tools.

Remember too that in English the pronunciation of a word at times gives very little help as to the spelling.

Through the years, I feel I have swung like a pendulum back and forth between constant memorization of rules to very little work remembering them.

I have learned that balance is needed instead of swamping them with too many rules or not giving them any.

Your child needs to understand that though beginning phonics is easy, the English language is not predictable all the time.

Giving my middle son not only direct phonics instruction but memorization along with the rules armed him with tools he needed to encode (spell).

So it takes time for a child to understand those rules and this is best done after they have been immersed in phonics instruction.

Most spelling programs as I mentioned earlier are focused solely on the testing part of the program instead of activities like games, songs, stories, puzzle word search and fun unscrambling exercises to help a child learn through all senses.

It has been my experience that waiting to the end of first grade or the beginning of second grade to introduce formal spelling, which requires output immediately, gives your child a lot of hands-on practice with sounds.

Natural spelling through writing and copywork were also key things I did in our day.

By delaying formal spelling until second grade, my middle son came in armed and ready to tackle the tests.

He even jumped two levels in spelling one year because we were immersed in letter fun.

Do immerse your children with the fun of sounds and don’t be so quick to add a formal spelling program if the emphasis is on constant testing.

You’ll love these other tips:

What grade do you start formal spelling?

Hugs and love ya,

Why It Is Hard to Teach Homeschooled Kids Writing But Not Impossible

April 23, 2015 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, in sharing why it is hard to teach homeschooled kids writing but not impossible I will share some background information on how to teach writing. Also, look at my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter for more tips!

First, let me tell you my story.

In public school, I had a middle school teacher that I adored.

She understood my preference of communicating orally where I could look into the eyes of the person I was talking to, give them a gentle pat or flail my arms out long when talking fast.

But she also encouraged me to give my written words the same gravity.

It wasn’t until I started teaching my boys how to write that I truly appreciated what a difficult task it is to teach my boys how to write.

Understanding the process of any skill that I am teaching has always helped me to find a solution to any problem we are experiencing.

More importantly, I have a direction to follow.

For example, it’s easy enough to understand that when teaching reading we need to start with a set of letters that express sounds.

After that, we build words, sentences and we are off to teaching our kids how to read.

Finding a starting point for writing, however, can be more elusive.

Why It is Hard to Teach Homeschooled Kids Writing But Not Impossible @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Word Writing Scramble

One reason I found writing hard to teach was that I didn’t appreciate that it is a learned art to fashion words on a page that are appealing.

It’s almost like playing word scramble or in this case sentence scramble when teaching our kids to write.

Immature readers can create awkward sounding sentences because of their lack of experience in life.

For that matter, awkward sentence that don’t flow smoothly can happen to even the most experienced writer too.

That is why it is important in the early stages of writing that children have plenty of time to mull over words, thoughts and arrangement of ideas.

Ideas like creating and writing in daily journals, playing word games and vocabulary games are important to arming children with the creativity they need to write.

When I started teaching writing, my oldest son felt almost paralyzed when I would ask him what topic he wanted to write about.

That was my first ugly encounter with writing after teaching him how to write his ABCs.

Mature Writers Born?

I taught him how to write his ABCs, how could this not be just as easy or so I thought.

My next mess up came because I was expecting maturity and experience with writing topics from a 5 year old.

Experiences and maturity come just from that, age and life experiences.

How could I equip my 5 year old with opportunities for writing experiences?

It is the same answer that equipped him at 15 years old, which is reading to the rescue.

I had heard many times that a reader is a writer and we read every day.

But other than pleasure and reading to find out what we wanted to know about, I under estimated the value of it in gaining experiences outside of what we were learning each day.

There was a connection between the books we were reading and writing topics that swirled around in my son’s mind.

I didn’t have to rush childhood, nor would I want to so that he could learn the art of self-expression.

Drawing out of him experiences that he read about either in his books and daily living were the keys to overflowing topic ideas.

Are You Making this Mistake?

There is just no rushing content, facts, ideas and details, which is the foundation of writing.

Content is the next biggie that kids are afraid of.

As if struggling with the structure of creating delightful sounding words is not enough, they have to think about content, topic sentences, details and a strong conclusion.

There is no getting around it, our kids needs our expertise when it comes to helping them with their writing.

In the early stages of writing especially, our kids need us to supply content and it is okay to do this.

We don’t want to ever put our kids in a sink or swim situation when writing.

It does absolutely no good and it can create a kid who hates writing and carries that feeling to high school.

It is important to continue these building skills through to middle school.

That is the time to continue to reinforce what was learned at the foundational level and to hone outlining and note taking skills.

Though I didn’t know as much then when I started teaching my kids to write as I know now, I did know that certain valuable skills could not be overlooked.

Look at these basic things to include in teaching everyday writing.

Copywork
Dictation
Outlining
Constantly reading back what they wrote
Journal writing to not be corrected but to use as practice for self-expression.

More Homeschool Handwriting Curriculum Tips!

Keep reading for a list of 8 handwriting curriculum and the benefits of each.

Free History Copywork – A Roundup of History Resources

March 17, 2015 | 5 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Copywork is a valuable aid in teaching visual learners.

Too, because copywork can be part of a history unit study, I have rounded up some free history copywork pages.

Free History Copywork. A roundup of history resources you'll love. Click here to download the free copywork @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Free copywork is easy to find, but I wanted to round up just those focused on history so you can pair them with your history unit studies and with the free unit studies I have here.

History copywork does not exist as plentiful as just plain copywork, so I will be adding more freebies for history copywork to match my unit studies here.

Today, I have a copywork page on the poem, Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

You can read the whole poem on the link and then also look at sparknotes for an explanation of the poem if you want to do some more copywork.