Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this program in exchange for my honest review. All opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Regulations.
I have a confession that I’ve tried to hide from my kids for the eight years we’ve homeschooled. I hate teaching grammar. I know, I know. Correct grammar is very important to mastering the English language. We don’t have to be perfect at grammar, but we need grammatical proficiency. In essence, grammar is necessary for effective communication. Still, dissecting sentence structure and understanding participles and the difference between active voice and passive voice is akin to taking medicine. Medicine is essential to feeling better when you’re sick, but it tastes terrible going down! In the same way, grammar is essential to improved writing, but teaching it and learning it, can be tedious. Mary Poppins wisely sang that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down (that’s the song that comes to mind when we used to pull out the grammar books). The Institute of Excellence in Writing (IEW) Fix-It Grammar Level 5 is our spoonful of sugar for studying grammar.
My son is a kinesthetic learner who needs short lessons and the opportunity to use his hands. IEW’s Fix-It Grammar Level 5 doesn’t disappoint! The curriculum aligns with my son’s learning style and makes grammar lessons less painful for all involved.
IEW’s Fix-It Grammar is an English grammar curriculum that teaches children grammar concepts in short, 15 minutes lessons four days out of a five-day week. Grammar is taught in the context of a story which helps kids to understand the purpose of why grammar is essential to better understanding what they read. In our case, the featured story was The Frog Prince, which was conveniently located in Appendix I of the Student Workbook.
Each day kids explore a grammar concept and are led to apply what they’ve learned to an example from the story featured in the curriculum. They are given a sentence that they mark up and correct. Then, they rewrite their corrected sentence underneath in their student book. In addition, kids also add to their vocabulary through these lessons.
Grammar Lessons are Short and Sweet
Although grammar is not necessarily my favorite subject to teach or my son’s favorite subject to learn, the short 15-minute lessons that Fix-It Grammar provides help us to establish a routine that we can realistically maintain daily. Before either of us gets bogged down with grammar, we will have completed the lesson.
Story Context
It’s important for children to be able to find purpose and meaning in what they’re learning and exploring grammar within the context of a story is genius! This helps them not only retain what they learn but make connections to what they’re reading and how grammar is used in other contexts. Once these connections are made, it’s only a matter of time before they apply the grammar skills they acquire in their own writing.
Kids Learn the Process to Produce Polished Writing
One of the greatest skills IEW’s Fix-It Grammar teaches kids is how to proofread and evaluate writing. In the past, my son has been resistant to making corrections and revisions to his writing. He didn’t see the point of it and felt as though editing and revisions were a form of criticizing his writing. With this curriculum, he better understands how revisions and proofreading fit into the writing process and results in writing that is more polished.
Fix It! Grammar Cards
Fit-It Grammar Cards was an additional component of the curriculum that didn’t we didn’t utilize entirely but were still fairly useful in our lessons. These 30 full-color cards could be optionally used to play grammar games that would help to reinforce the grammar concepts. Parents can go to www.iew/fix-games for game instructions. Some of the games possible with the cards include Grammar Charades, Grammar Quick Draw, and Grammar Match. Although my son wasn’t interested in the grammar games, these cards were still helpful as a quick reference during lessons.
Embedded Vocabulary Instruction
As a professed bibliophile, I believe a rich vocabulary is built through reading books and through dynamic conversations where vocabulary is used. Long list of vocabulary words and definitions is not the best way to internalize vocabulary. Our understanding of vocabulary happens contextually, based on what we’re reading or discussing. I was impressed with how the IEW Fix-It Grammar embedded vocabulary words in their daily sentences, allowing us to discuss one new vocabulary word per day in the context of the Frog Prince story. In this way, vocabulary building seemed more relaxed and natural.
The Takeaway
IEW Fix-It Grammar Level 5 featuring The Frog Prince story has a lot of attractive features that makes it stand out as a grammar curriculum. I love that the lessons have a reasonable length that is sustainable over the course of a homeschool year. Additionally, I love that a large part of the curriculum places the student in the driver’s seat. They immediately apply what they learn by evaluating sentences from the story and making revisions. This helps them to understand the importance of the revision process of writing and how to apply these skills to their own writing and produce polished writing of their own.
