Simply Grammar: An Illustrated Primer

I like the lessons in this book. They help improve handwriting (through practice), spelling, reading, and teach grammar rules. My daughter remembers every rule she learned in this book...doesn't always apply them, but she knows what rule to use to fix her mistakes. The lessons use multiple methods of teaching the rules...which is the best way to form recall.I copy the pages and we use each lesson over a week...it stays enjoyable this way. I also very much like the narration selections and pictures here...I want my children to be able to comprehend literature without hesitation over the vocabulary or structure specific to the period...I don't want them to be limited to dumbed down children's books in their ability to read, understand and use language. I like that these lessons help us reach this goal.

It is a very good, albeit old-fashioned, way to teach grammar without stress and tears. (I love grammar, but I can honestly say that I learned many things that I hadn't known or had forgotten.)It starts slowly, and builds on the lessons. It reviews quite a lot, which is nice. It also has built in reminders of what was previously learned to help with the next lesson.I find the illustrations a hoot, but I don't think that most would.I have tried many, many different ways to teach grammar, and I think this way is the easiest and best.

Easy to digest lessons. Using with my second and 7th grade kids for homeschool lessons. The younger gets a simplified lesson and the oldest uses this plus we add in montessori work. He gets a stack of sentences and a pile of colored shadows that correlate to the party of speech we are learning about. He will put the shape above that part in the strip, thus essentially diagramming his sentence without writing it out. It makes review simple since we just keep the shadows out that we've learned. I love the simple style and easy conversational approach to the lessons. I read and they plug in the answers as we go.

I bought this book and found it was not in the format I could use to educate my children. They didn't have the patience to sit and listen to me read instruction to them, then afterward get out a piece of paper to answer the questions, flipping between paper and book. The wording appears simple, but the choice of words were not helpful for us. I gave the book a fair try, but got nowhere and had to start over using another format for teaching my boys grammar at the elementary level. They preferred worksheets and I preferred a series that would progress them through middle school without boring them.Someone else may find it useful as an introductory book to grammar. It is laid out simply and clearly, and admittedly, I was impressed with it; just not fitting for fidgety little boys. Know your children's style and preferences for learning, this may be for you. Then again, if they are like mine....don't bother!

I have been looking for a grammar book that would be great for my daughter. We were given a grammar and composition book from a school teacher. It was confusing. We bought a grammar book from a bookstore. It,too, was confusing.This Simply Grammar is the type of book that you snuggle on the couch and orally do the exercises as I try to have my 12 year old narrate as much as possible. I started grammar this year as I felt she had a firm grasp of the English language. This is the first Charlotte Mason based book I have used for schoolwork and we both love it

We are using this book in our AO year 3 homeschool. Being used to public school grammar workbooks in the past I found this to be pretty simplistic with very short lessons upon my first glance. As I began my year and started to understand the Charlotte Mason approach I began to appreciate and see the effectiveness of this grammar book. I do supplement with various primers (more for fun) and it's been super. Recommended!

I have always loved Karen Andreola's method of telling us how to actually apply the Charlotte Mason teaching style to our homeschool classroom, and this book is just another great example of her ability to do that. All you do is sit down with your kid and read it and work through either orally or in written form each lesson. Very cool!

Last Spring my son, then finishing up second grade, and myself had had our fill of workbooks and decided to try a new adventure in our home schooling. We found this method and have NEVER looked back. I found that my then 8 year old could "fill in the blanks" but had a very difficult time composing his own sentences and short paragraphs. This book really helped him learn how to think out of the box...or beyond the blank space if you will...and form his OWN thoughts around a topic, using the parts of speech he needs. This is how we utilize this book:1. We do (about) 1 lesson a week also, which is about 20-30 minutes in our house.2. He reads the lesson orally, then I read it with him orally adding examples here and there as I see the question mark in his eyes!3. He retains information much better if he writes...so we do...everyday. This is usually in the form of one or more of the exercises, but sometimes we make up our own.As a side note: Something else I wanted to add...he relates well when things are color coded..so we began underlineing the different parts of speech in the book in a certain color of pen. Then when he goes to do his own examples he does the same on his paper. We also use this as part of penmanship so he really works on making his sentences neat.Hope this has helped! Oh, in response to some of the comments about the era...My son is boy..all boy..yet he was somewhat perplexed and curious by the language as well as the pictures of the time, which have led to lots of extended discussion. It is not even an issue a year later. We will take two years to complete this book as he is also taking Excellence in Writing with a co-op...so we are going through it a bit slower, repeating some lessons as I believe we need to KNOW it before we move on...This has really helped him in that class!