Monday, November 9, 2009

Winston Grammar

I'll admit it. This has been sitting on my school shelf for 2 years now. Yep, I'm embarrassed to say it. I was intimidated by it and every time I'd pick it up I'd return it to the shelf. All it took was seeing the word "Grammar" and I'd run. Then of course with our move, pregnancy & new baby I had no desire to add something else new to the mix. Keeping things as simple as possible was the key to my survival! After talking with some ladies at co-op I realized it was time to bite the bullet. I struggled with grammar in college. It was NOT the grammar I remembered in high school. Back then I had to ask for extra bonus work to get a decent grade. (And wouldn't you know it after I finished the course they changed the whole thing. They decided it was too confusing & the book too hard.)
I started the first lesson of our Winston Grammar with Sweet Pea. Then Boo Bear finished her chores & joined in. Soon we were working on the 2nd lesson & then the 3rd! It was .....dare I say it......FUN! The girls agreed which is why we did 3 lessons instead of only 1. We'd have done more but other things beckoned. What a fantastic surprise!

Boo taking her pre-test.
This is simply a test to help the teacher, (me), know how much the student, (Boo), knows or needs to learn. Sweet Pea took one too.


These are the parts of speech cards.

This is the first sentence the book tells you to use.
We started off slow in Lesson 1 finding the nouns & articles. We discussed what these were & hints of how to identify them.

Using the sentence above we named labeled each word in the sentence. The black cards are used for words we don't know the name of yet.

A close up of the sentence using the parts of speech cards.

Next we "labeled" them on the white board. Nouns were underlined, articles checked and the rest left alone.


So far I give this program an A+. It is easy to use, easy to understand & my girls love it. I'll be sure to update as we progress in the lessons.

P.S. I bought mine used online. I was able to buy a set which included the Teacher's Manual, 2 Student Workbooks & 2 sets of cards. Great deal!

1 comment:

Rhonda said...

I was so happy to hear that you decided to brave this subject. I love hearing about the stories of homeschool moms who find wonderful little treasures upon their bookshelves like this. Glad that the kids are enjoying it.