Review: Growing with Grammar

Tamela Davis’ Growing With Grammar was designed to fill a particular void in home-based formal grammar instruction. Knowing that many homeschooling families sought a complete grammar program that did not simultaneously inject specific beliefs or values into the text, Ms. Davis set out to provide just that. And with the quality and scope presented in Growing with Grammar she has most definitely fulfilled that goal.

I reviewed the Grade 3 materials and was quite pleased to note that from a design standpoint, Growing with Grammar has been wonderfully thought out. The Student Workbook is spiral bound at the top of the book, rather than on the left hand side, a feature that is very accommodating to the lefties among us (myself and son included!). Workbook pages are very uncluttered, with generous amounts of white space – useful for keeping on-task by elimination of visual distraction and also for notes or additional examples to be written in the margins. All in all, both the workbook and Student manual are very learning-friendly and typeset for easy reading.

In terms of content, Growing with Grammar succeeds in presenting a comprehensive grammar program. The five chapters in the third grade level cover everything from sentence structure to the types of words (nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc.) to basic punctuation. Students transitioning from Jessie Wise’s First Langugage Lessons (intended for first and second grades) will find the change a smooth one, although I don’t know if Growing with Grammar was written with that in mind.

Each chapter has its own review, and each lesson within the chapters has a corresponding worksheet in the workbook. This organization means scheduling is simple and, depending upon how fast the student can work, makes speeding up or slowing down easy since knowing just where one is in the program is obvious. Parents of students who want more practice on a given topic should have no problem using some of the pages’ white space to write up some additional questions using Davis’ as examples and inspiration.

The directions for the workbook exercises are direct and simple, so an independent learner will find it easy to work on his or her own and parents working with their children will encounter no ambiguous instructions to muddle the lesson. The exercises are plainly designed: X the correct answer, correct the sentences, underline appropriate words, rewrite, etc. A child with a good foundation in writing and some independent reading will find the work quite accessible.

So far, Growing with Grammar is available for third and fourth grades, with fifth grades and a primer for the combined first and second grades scheduled for availability in early 2007. If these additional titles reflect the quality of both content and production that I have seen with the third grade level, I have no reservations about recommending Growing with Grammar to any family seeking a gentle, yet systematic and thorough, introduction to English grammar.

Each chapter has its own review, and each lesson within the chapters has a corresponding worksheet in the workbook. This organization means scheduling is simple and, depending upon how fast the student can work, makes speeding up or slowing down easy since knowing just where one is in the program is obvious. Parents of students who want more practice on a given topic should have no problem using some of the pages’ white space to write up some additional questions using Davis’ as examples and inspiration.

The directions for the workbook exercises are direct and simple, so an independent learner will find it easy to work on his or her own and parents working with their children will encounter no ambiguous instructions to muddle the lesson. The exercises are plainly designed: X the correct answer, correct the sentences, underline appropriate words, rewrite, etc. A child with a good foundation in writing and some independent reading will find the work quite accessible.

So far, Growing with Grammar is available for third and fourth grades, with fifth grades and a primer for the combined first and second grades scheduled for availability in early 2007. If these additional titles reflect the quality of both content and production that I have seen with the third grade level, I have no reservations about recommending Growing with Grammar to any family seeking a gentle, yet systematic and thorough, introduction to English grammar.

Visit Growing with Grammar for more information. The ISBM number for the Student Manual is 0-9772923-0-4. Growing with Grammar is published by JacKris Publishing, LLC. The ISBM number for the Student Manual is 0-9772923-0-4. Growing with Grammar is published by JacKris Publishing, LLC.