I’m still loving the workboxes. They are helping me to remember to use some of our long-forgotten resources…including things for grammar.
Please know that I do not think you need to do any kind of grammar with a young student. You don’t. I have a kid who wants to learn about grammar thanks to some books he found on the bookcase– Words are CATegorical books so cleverly written by Brian P. Cleary. These books aren’t super intellectual, but they are super fun–"Hill is a noun. Mill is a noun. Even Uncle Phil is a noun. Gown is a noun. Crown is a noun. In fact, our whole hometown is a noun."
Cleary’s website has all kinds of fun printable things to go with the books, too! We are putting some of these things in our Grammar (parts of speech) notebook.
The Parts of Speech notebook was inspired by Schoolhouse Rocks. This was another resource that inspired Elijah to learn more about the parts of speech. We are slowly working our way through the parts of speech songs and adding mini-books to a notebook as we go. This will probably take us 3-4 more months to complete.
Today, I put something new in a workbox, and Elijah really enjoyed the hands-on aspect of this. These are Reading Rods. We used a different set when Elijah was first learning to read (a few years ago). My friend, Celia, sent these to me, and I actually forgot I had them until I started using the workboxes! Today’s assignment was to make trains of nouns. You can see the three "trains" below.
Another grammar resource we use is Mad Libs Jr. These also reinforce parts of speech. It’s also a good way for me to sneak in a little handwriting! I found a few books for $1 each at Books-a-Million. I wish now I would’ve snapped up all the different books, but I didn’t know how much he would enjoy these.
Short recap on the resources we use
1. Words are CATegorical Books
2. Words are CATegorical Website
3. Grammar Rocks! (Schoolhouse Rocks songs)
4. Reading Rods- Simple Sentences Kit
5. Mad Libs Jr.
6. We compile all our written work in our Parts of Speech notebook
Grammar can be fun and painless; it’s all about presentation!
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