Curriculum Review: Growing with Grammar

Let me start with a funny. I’m a graphic designer as well as a homeschool mommy, and you know that saying, “Never judge a book by its cover?” Yeah, well, I almost didn’t buy this curriculum. And it was totally because of the hokey-looking graphics. I sit firmly in the camp that believes that if you have great content, you give it a house worthy of that content.

Let me tell you, Growing with Grammar is the Susan Boyle of curriculum!

Looks aside, this is one of the most successful programs I have used, to date, in our home. The book comes coil-bound with the rings on top. This matters to us! I have two left-handed sons. For many of our books, I have to pay Kinkos to cut off the binding and 3-hole punch the pages, so the binding doesn’t interfere with my sons’ writing. While GWG may not be the most aesthetic package on the shelves, I do appreciate the consideration for my lefties.

Now that we’ve covered the books’ exteriors, now comes the true shining star: Content. Tamela Davis has this part all right. The lessons are single page, front and back. They take about 15 – 20 minutes. And the pace is gentle, but persistent. My guys rarely get answers wrong – this is a great confidence builder. And I promise it’s not because they are natural grammaristas or natural spellers. It just that Ms. Davis manages to provide great examples in the Student Manual, and enough repetition in the Student Workbook to cement the concepts without drilling endlessly.

And this is the important part; my third grader can diagram sentences. Yeah, I know. For reals.

It’s not hard. And something about mapping out the English language visually like that makes them really understand it. I remember learning to diagram sentences in the seventh grade. It seemed so complicated. I was very reluctant to believe it would go over seamlessly with my 8- and 9-year-old boys. But they haven’t batted an eyelash, and I credit that completely to Ms. Davis and her clear, concise, gradually-building methodology.

And it gets better, if you follow me on twitter, you saw this tweet:

In a world where photographers still write, “photo’s” and people tweet, “hey mom’s!” it is so refreshing to know that a 9-year-old can figure it out easily enough. After that tweet, I got about a dozen direct messages or emails begging me to share the resource that helped him conquer what seems to mystify half the English-speaking world.

Currently, Growing with Grammar offers grades 1-7. Grade 8 will be available Spring 2010. We elected not to start until the third-grade workbook. It’s not necessary to have completed grades one and two to be successful with grade 3. And, to keep life simple, I opted to move both boys through Grade 3, even though one was 7 years old and one had just turned 9 years old when we started. They are officially second and fourth graders, and Grade 3 was a perfect introduction for them both. Now that we’ve nearly completed the first book, I can’t wait to see what Ms. Davis has in store for us for levels four and beyond.

If you have more than one student at the same grade level, it isn’t necessary to buy two Student Manuals. This is a non-consumable “text”. It is necessary for each child to have his own Student Workbook. Those can be purchased independently, or packaged. I will say the books are quite hefty and right now they look quite well-loved – dog earred and a bit jumbled. But admittedly, my boys aren’t called The Boybarians for nothin’. They are hard on stuff, and these books have taken quite a beating and somehow survived.

All in all, when it comes time to order the next year’s books, this is one choice that will remain steadfast. And all teasing aside, hey Growing with Grammar folks – I know a decent graphic designer.

Darcy is a homeschool mom of 3 boybarians from Iowa. She is a boy-wranglin’, coffee-drinkin’, picture-takin’, photoshoppin’, designin’ mom & trophy wife who messes up just as often as she gets it right, but wouldn’t change it for the world. She blogs at Life with my 3 Boybarians.