Go for the Gold with Olympic Games!

 Age, Bible, Elementary, Geography, Handwriting, History, History & Geography, Language Arts, Middle School, Reading, Vocabulary, Writing  No Responses »
May 072012
 

Is your family looking forward to the Olympic Games this summer? My children are already talking about which events they hope to catch on TV. (My secret hope is that the stations show more sports coverage and less chit-chat, but that’s just me.) Even if Olympics fever hasn’t yet hit your house, now is a great time for Olympic Games: A Study of the Olympic Games from Ancient Times to the Present, by Charlene Notgrass and Mary Evelyn McCurdy.

Available from home education publisher the Notgrass Company, this study provides 40 lessons on Olympic history, sports education, and notable athletes. Each lesson contains some sort of written or artistic response, including creative writing, sports vocabulary, mapwork, and puzzles. The puzzles are particularly intriguing and comprise missing letter, crossword, word search, acrostic, and word scramble varieties.

Moreover, the lessons encompass a wide variety of subjects, such as Bible study, world history, geography, and language arts. I was especially impressed with the scriptural tie-ins. For example, in the section on archery, the directions read: “The Bible often speaks of bows and arrows. One passage is Psalm 127:4. Copy it on these lines. . . . Read about King David, his friend Jonathan, and what they did with arrows in 1 Samuel 20.”

The artwork is another highlight. More than mere afterthoughts, the photographs are fascinating and pertinent to the text. Vivid color photographs of events and places of interest, as well as historical black and white photos of people and places, such as Wilma Rudolph crossing the finish line in first place, are integral to the study.

Olympic Games is officially for ages 7-14, and the activities are designed for this age group. But the subject matter, related in a well-written style, is engrossing enough for older students and even adults. I myself enjoyed reading the lessons, especially those covering an Olympic timeline.

This fun and engaging study is available as both an Ebook and a spiral-bound consumable workbook; I reviewed the latter. The high quality and reasonable price makes Olympic Games an excellent value. What’s more, it would be a fantastic accompaniment to your 2012 London Games viewing!

Written by Ellen of The Blue Stocking Belle

On the Quest for Quality Children’s Literature

 Age, Charlotte Mason, Classical, Elementary, Language Arts, Literature, Living books, Middle School, Reading  No Responses »
Apr 022012
 

Let’s be honest. In the ocean of children’s books, there’s a whole lot of flotsam and jetsam. Just because a book is popular doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile. On the flip side, just because a book is decades old doesn’t mean it’s a classic. Parents, particularly homeschooling parents, need someone whom they can trust to help them guide their children toward high-quality literature.

A superb resource that has directed me for years is Honey for a Child’s Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life, by Gladys Hunt. Familiar to many homeschooling families, this excellent book makes a strong case for a life of literature. Hunt writes:

“Children and books go together in a special way. I can’t imagine any pleasure greater than bringing to the uncluttered, supple mind of a child the delight of knowing the many rich things God has given us to enjoy. Parents have this wonderful privilege, and books are their keenest tools.”

Honey for a Child’s Heart is divided into two parts. The first part, “Using Books to Help Children Grow,” offers many good discussions and much food for thought. Hunt underscores the extreme importance of reading and offers suggestions on how to foster a literary atmosphere in our homes. She challenges us to consider who or what we allow to influence our children. Moreover, Hunt discusses aspects of good literature and how to discern the quality of books our children read.

Part two, “Best-Loved Books for Children,” is an annotated book list for children up to age 14. Hunt divides the lists into groups such as classic picture books, books for beginning readers, classic children’s novels, historical novels, and animal lovers’ books, among others. She also offers a chapter on poetry.

Hunt’s writing style is rich and vivid, and her love for literature is reflected in every chapter. Moreover, I appreciate her Christian perspective, her awe of God as Creator of all things lovely, her expansive tastes, and her cautious stance on wholesale censorship. Every time I pick up this book to read, I find myself nodding in agreement with her. Yellow highlighter glows on so many pages of my copy!

Books are a powerful medium, engaging our imaginations, emotions, spirits, and understanding. As informed parents, we want to guide our children through the murky waters of children’s literature and help them select worthwhile books instead of twaddle. With Honey for a Child’s Heart in hand, you’ll be better equipped to help your children make the best literary decisions.

Ellen stays busy home educating two middle-grade daughters, chasing two corgis, managing the family’s busy household, reading as much as she can, and writing about life at Bluestocking Belle.

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English Literature for Boys and Girls by H.E. Marshall

 Charlotte Mason, Classical, High School, History, Junior High Language Arts, Literature, Living books, Middle School  2 Responses »
Mar 282012
 

Ambleside Online has influenced our family in many ways, not the least by introducing us to great books.  One that we’ve been using for many years is English Literature for Boys and Girls by H.E. Marshall, written in 1909.  We are blessed to have a century-old copy for our children, complete with roughly cut pages and sturdy binding.

In 85 delightful chapters, H.E. Marshall traces English literature from the ancient Irish legend “The Cattle Raid of Cooley” to Tennyson. She includes excerpts of stories and poems, summaries of larger works, and many interesting biographical and historical tidbits. She expresses strong opinions about authors and works, and occasionally makes some disparaging remarks about various branches of the Christian faith.

English Literature for Boys and Girls is a solid book, full of information.  Since history and literature are so closely entwined, it includes numerous references to kings and queens, to the changes in the English language, and to cultural innovations such as the rise of newspapers.

As a random sample, in chapters LVII and LVIII Marshall discusses Milton, “a cold and lonely man.”  She begins with his childhood, quotes 14 lines of On his being arrived to the age of twenty-three, and continues, discussing his life and his poetry as well as venturing into the conflict between Puritans and Royalists.  While Milton became more embroiled in politics, his personal life suffered. He lost his sight, his wife died, “his children ran wild,” his second wife died, and he began to write Paradise Lost.  Several pages and excerpts later, Cromwell died, Milton married again, and the blind poet wrote Samson Agonistes, the tragic story of Samson in his blindness.

Don’t let the “Boys and Girls” part of the title fool you; this is not a childish book at all and shows just how far educational standards have slipped in the last 100 years. In fact, Ambleside Online, a rigorous Charlotte Mason curriculum with classical leanings, recommends English Literature for grades 7 to 10.  The subject matter is not too easy for today’s teens, but occasionally Marshall’s intended audience causes her to write in a somewhat patronizing way.  As I’ve come to expect from old authors, the English would be considered advanced today even though it was written for boys and girls, but no well-read modern teen would have difficulty with it.

All of our teens have read significant portions of this book over the course of several years.  Each week they studied a chapter or two and I would ask for either an oral or a written narration.  They have become familiar with early English literature and I am amazed at the history they know.

English Literature for Boys and Girls is a brilliant work, ideal for introducing modern teens to both literature and history.  It is fascinating, lively, thorough, and eminently suitable for young people since no ‘adult’ topics are included as is often done nowadays.  Of course, modern literature is not covered (and Jane Austen was left out, a serious flaw in my opinion). Even so it is an excellent book for homeschooling families, especially those interested in classical education or Charlotte Mason’s methods. 

It is available online at Project Gutenberg  and The Baldwin Project.  You can also buy a book here.

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate.  You can read her other Curriculum Choice reviews here.

Disclosure:  As usual, I am not paid for my reviews and my opinions are my own.

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Daily Grammar

 Age, Charlotte Mason, Elementary, Grammar, High School, Junior High Language Arts, Language Arts, Middle School, Online  1 Response »
Mar 092012
 

Grammar is a subject near and dear to my heart. I know not everyone can (or will) admit to that, but there it is. Throughout my children’s elementary years, we explored several different grammar curricula, and all have had their good points. This year, however, I came across a FREE curriculum that is thorough and easy to use and free. (Did I mention that already? Sorry. I really like the word free.)

Daily Grammar provides 440 lessons, which cover:

  • the eight parts of speech
  • the parts of a sentence
  • grammar mechanics

Lessons are grouped by topic and include one quiz per topic. Nouns, for example, comprise five lessons and a quiz. Each lesson also contains an answer key, which is helpful if, say, predicate nominatives aren’t your thing.

Daily Grammar offers other useful features:

  • an archive page, which makes it easy to find the lessons you need
  • a glossary of grammar terms, in case you need to brush up on your grammar definitions
  • eBooks, FlipBooks, and Workbooks available for purchase, should you prefer to use these
  • the Daily Grammar Blog
  • a Facebook discussion group for questions, comments, and general grammar gab

One of the best features of Daily Grammar is its short lessons. Each lesson takes only a few minutes to complete.

At the beginning of each week, I print out the lessons we’ll cover that week. To keep our focus, I opt to stick with one topic per week. I’ve found that the easiest way to print the lessons is to copy and paste the text into a word processing document. I print the lessons and answer keys for myself and the lessons alone for my children.

Daily Grammar is comprehensive enough to stand alone as a complete curriculum for older elementary and middle grade students. Since each short lesson has only around five practice exercises, some children might need more reinforcement.  Daily Grammar would also serve well as a refresher course or a supplement to other grammar curricula.

And the price is right, too.

Ellen stays busy home educating two middle-grade daughters, chasing two corgis, managing the family’s busy household, reading as much as she can, and writing about life at Bluestocking Belle.

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How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doren

 Charlotte Mason, Classical, High School  3 Responses »
Aug 262011
 

So now your children know how to read.  Congratulations!  That’s a major step, but does it mean that their reading instruction finished?  Not at all, we’ve found.

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading teaches the average reader how to understand, analyze, and learn from books.  It takes students beyond the basics of reading to become scholars.  It is, I think, the foundational book in our homeschool high school, besides the Bible.

Summary

How to Read a Book discusses and explains the four levels of reading as well as different approaches to different kinds of reading material.  The book is divided into four exceedingly well-organized parts:

  • “Part 1: The Dimensions of Reading” includes information on the first level of reading, which is what we homeschool moms teach our little ones.  Then it goes on to discuss the second level, inspectional reading, occasionally called pre-reading.
  • “Part 2: The Third Level of Reading: Analytical Reading” includes topics such as pigeonholing a book, coming to terms with an author, determining an author’s message, and agreeing or disagreeing with an author.
  • “Part 3: Approaches to Different Kinds of Reading Matter” presents tips for reading both fiction and non-fiction: novels, plays, short stories, and poems, as well as history, science, math, philosophy, and social science.  It also includes an insightful section on how to read ‘canonical’ books.  For example, it explains how reading sacred writings as the revealed Word of God, rather than as mere literature, is entirely different from other kinds of reading.
  • “Part 4: The Ultimate Goals of Reading” explains the idea of syntopical reading and tells us what good books can do for us.
  • Appendices:  These include a recommended reading list as well as exercises and tests at the four levels of reading.

Throughout the book, examples and explanations are taken from the literature of ‘the great conversation’ as the greatest Western literature is sometimes called.  This adds immeasurably to the book.

How we use it

We were introduced to this book several years ago by both Ambleside Online and The Well-Trained Mind (first edition).  Both resources recommended that students work through How to Read a Book in great detail, and that is what we have been doing.  My children go through it paragraph by paragraph, for at least half the book.  Each paragraph is summarized in one or two sentences, and I check each summary.  This process teaches my teens a lot since it’s one of the few books meaty enough to make such careful attention to detail worthwhile.  (It teaches me a lot, too. )

Of course, this is a great deal of work and we spread it out over at least the four high school years.  I allowed Miss 18 to absorb the last half of How to Read a Book on her own during the last two years of high school, since she’s the kind of person who will read ahead and study independently.  Although she would have learned more if she had continued the detailed summaries, there are only 24 hours in a day; she did read it several times. Mr. 16 and Miss 13 are both doing the detailed summaries.

As mentioned, How to Read a Book uses great books as examples.  Thus my teens were exposed to much great writing in an enjoyable and inspiring way.  In fact, Miss 18 designed her Intro to Western Literature course using the reading list in Appendix A. Recently Mr. 16 chose to read and analyze Machiavelli’s The Prince because of How to Read a Book’s discussion of an intriguing statement beginning with “A prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred;…”

Although this book is challenging and uses challenging examples, the subject matter is appropriate for Christian teens.  They will need to think, true, but they will not be taught evil, immorality, modern political correctness, or revisionism.

Our family has been able to understand other books more deeply because of insights gained from How to Read a Book.  Thus studying this one book has had a huge impact on everything we learn from other books.  It both enhances the time spent reading and increases our efficiency in understanding new material.

I highly recommend How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading for all teens whose studies involve a lot of reading, and for their moms as well.

Disclosure:  I do not receive any compensation for my reviews, and my opinions are entirely my own.

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate.  You can read her other Curriculum Choice reviews here.

Poetry for Young People

 Charlotte Mason, Classical, Elementary, Language Arts, Literature, Living books, Reading  2 Responses »
Aug 192011
 

“I dwell in Possibility/A fairer house than Prose,/More numerous of windows,/Superior of doors.”                                                     Emily Dickinson, “I dwell in Possibility”

Poetry is a flexible area of study.  It can be studied on its own, and for its own merit.  On the other hand, born of cultural, historical, and personal experience, poetry can enhance the study of any subject.  For me, the trouble with poetry is how to narrow it down.  There just seems to be so much of it to choose from.

The Poetry for Young People series provides an excellent introduction to a number of poets.  Each volume contains the poetry of a specific poet or area of poetry.  The poems are chosen for their suitability to a young audience, and as poetry representative of the poet’s body of work.  Illustrations accompany the poems.  A short biography, also sensitive to the needs of a young audience, opens each book.

I have found this series useful in two ways.  It has been a simple task to browse these pages to find a poem to enhance a particular study.  As the poems have been chosen because they are appropriate for children, I need only choose the poem that best suits my needs.

More often, however, I choose a poet to study for a month or six weeks.  As a family, we read several poems each week until we have finished the book.  The Poetry for Young People series makes this process very simple, as each volume contains a nice number of poems.  Each book serves as a gentle introduction to the work of a poet.

This may be the year for poetry study at your house!

Raid your local library for the Poetry for Young People series.

 

-Most days find Susan on the couch reading to her children, in the floor “playing” math, and generally in the middle of a
good-sized mess.  A love for the Lord, a love for her little ones, and a love of learning have led Susan and the  wonderful man she married to an educational philosophy that is Well-Trained Mind-inspired classical and Charlotte Mason,
with a touch of the traditional.

Rod and Staff English

 Bible, Classical, Elementary, Language Arts, Middle School, Spelling, Vocabulary, Writing  10 Responses »
May 092011
 

I was reminded again why we’ll be heading into our sixth year enjoying Rod and Staff English. Yesterday, third grader and I read…

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103

The assignment to emphasize that when we read God’s word we “should be careful to get all the good sweetness we can…

…We must not read so quickly that we miss the important truths God wants to teach us. Nor should we read so slowly that our minds wander and bits of truth slip away.”

Further on the assignment was to copy and memorize the above verse. I adore that we are using God’s word to study English.

Just the day before we read sentences, pictured above. Do you see the names of Biblical cities? Goshen. Tarshish. Some of these might be difficult for a third grader to read. But why shy away from them? Practice pronouncing them now for confidence later.

In our home, many times we do the lessons orally. The curriculum is written for a classroom, so we adapt. The children and I can read through the written exercises together. Other times I ask that they do a writing assignment. There is a nice variation of poetry, writing and good old diagramming (in older grades). We simply buy a spiral notebook to accompany the grade – so all written assignments are in one spot.

We also don’t begin grammar lessons until mid way through the second grade year. Even then we may only do a couple lessons a week. So far each of our children have enjoyed this series so much that they have each asked to do more. Now, my older three children head into their 4th, 7th and 8th grade years with Rod and Staff.

“I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.” Psalm 77:12 – from inside cover of Preparing to Build, English 2

The verse we found at the bottom of another lesson, illustrated with clouds, butterflies and mushrooms….

Whatsoever things are true,

Whatsoever things are honest,

Whatsoever things are just,

Whatsoever things are pure,

Whatsoever things are lovely,

Whatsoever things are of good report;

think on these things.

–Philippians 4:8–

For a detailed listing of specific levels available and ordering information, please see Annie Kate’s review: Rod and Staff Grammar or Kristen’s review: Rod and Staff English.

~Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. She contributes a blend of writing at parenting and homeschool sites as well as her own daily Hodgepodge.

Wordplay Cafe

 Elementary, Grammar, Hands On, Junior High Language Arts  2 Responses »
Dec 172010
 

Wordplay Café by Michael Kline is a set of grammar and vocabulary lessons disguised as a book of games.  Truth be told, there are a few lessons that cover logic and Greek and Latin in there, too.

The set up of the book itself mimics a menu at a café.  There are recipes for games, brain candy (interesting word and language facts), unfortunate cookies (made up but funny definitions for words), keyword kabobs that connect the reader to the internet, taste tests that preview word games and ideas, and Punzles© (puzzles made with puns).

There are six chapters, each named with a pun.

Chapter Won:  Word Nutrition is part history, with its discussion of the beginning of language, Greek and Latin roots, and the alphabet, and part game, proven by the inclusion of “Orange Origin Juice,” a game that asks players to create Latin-sounding words for household objects.

Chapter Too:  Comfort Food contains the old standbys in language games:  anagrams, palindromes, acrostic, and such.

Chapter Free:  Dinner for One is filled with games that can have a one-player option.  Of course, more can play, too.  There is “Homonym Grits,” a game that asks players to alter a nursery rhyme using homonyms and “Spaced-Out Spread,” in which players change familiar speeches, songs, and other writings by combining all of the words into one very long word and then re-spacing the letters into different words and almost words.

Chapter Fore:  Deep-Fried Diction for Two (Or More!) has more games, but these are for a group.  “Knock, Knockwurst” asks players to write their own knock-knock jokes based on puns.  “Bizz Buzz Biscuits” mixes words and numbers as players are challenged to count, but replace multiples of 5 with the word “bizz” and multiples of seven with the word “buzz.”

Chapter 5ive:  PC Pancakes focuses on games that involve the computer.  “Typo Tea and Biscuits,” for example, leads players in scouring internet pages for errors, while “Translation Toast” uses translation software to discover odd wording resulting from repeatedly translating a selection of text.

Chapter Sicks: Put Words to Work in Your Kitchen teaches players about mnemonics and the phonetic alphabet.

Wordplay Cafe, written for kids ages ate to fore-teen, is sure to delight wordsmiths and grammar non-enthusiasts, alike.

It can be found for free in PDF format on Michael Kline’s website or you can purchase a paper copy on Amazon.

Susan S. is a homeschooling mama of three little ones who get bigger and livelier every day. They delight in living books and hands-on math, and are nurturing a love for God and the amazing world that He created.

Teaching Grammar With Playful Poems

 Elementary, Language Arts  3 Responses »
Feb 172010
 

When I taught school outside my home it was all the rage to teach grammar through writing. While grading the students papers I made notes on the grammar I thought they needed to learn and then used the grammar textbook to teach grammar in mini ten minute lessons three times a week. Overall, I didn’t feel very successful, but I kept plugging along as that was what was required of me as a public school teacher.

In homeschool I thought I found a gold mine when I discovered Ruth Beechick’s method of using passages from the children’s reading books to teach grammar. I spent quite a bit of time coming up with lessons that introduced nouns, verbs and basic punctuation to my children. I would start the year eager and enthusiastic about writing lessons for three grade levels of “Beechick Grammar” as I came to call it, but soon grew weary.

I felt guilty, I’m an English teacher who wasn’t consistently teaching grammar skills to my own children. Yikes !

I was lamenting my lack of a good Grammar to my Mom one night and she took it upon herself to send me a grammar she thought looked good by Nancy Mack. If you haven’t heard of Nancy Mack and her work you can read about her on her website here: http://www.wright.edu/%7Enancy.mack/grpoet.htm

She is an Associate Professor of English at a University in Ohio, she used to teach public school and she too was being asked by the school to teach grammar through writing. I know how that goes.

Nancy Mack, devised a system that makes perfect “fun” sense to me and my children. She teaches grammar through poetry.

In her book Teaching Grammar with Playful Poems: Engaging Lessons with Model Poems by Favorite Poets that Motivate Kids to Learn Grammar she introduces and explains to children the parts of speech using patterned poetry by favorite children’s poetry writers like: Kalli Dakos, Bruce Lansky, Lilian Moore, Colin McNaughton, Jack Prelutsky, Karla Kuskin and Shel Silverstein.

Children give a dramatic reading of the sample poem, write a group poem, learn a grammar topic through a mini lesson and write and illustrate their own poems and more.

Children write before they learn the grammar topic. Students are encouraged to “not skip the art part” ! Mack believes writers do need grammar instruction, she believes the parts of speech do not need to be mastered before writing begins and skill based grammar instruction like underline the subject once and the verb twice does not improve writing. She’s clearly my kind of gal!

She also uses the word joyful to describe her lessons. I’m sold! And after trying it out for over a year so are my children!

In case you want to know to more, the lessons also include thought teaser extension activities, grammar reinforcement activities and suggestions for writing about literature in a way that relates to the grammar topic.

Teaching Grammar With Playful Poems has ten chapters.

Each chapter takes our family about a month to work through as Ms. Mack includes not only grammar extension activities but topic variation suggestions and writing about literature prompts that connect the topics studied in the chapter to well known literature.

  1. Chapter one is called grammar instruction myths, this chapter includes a discussion of the challenging assumptions about language learning. Here you can read about Ms. Mack’s philosophy of teaching grammar. If you are like me you will find yourself nodding in agreement as she explains how to teach grammar through poetry in a purposeful fun way.
  2. Chapter two is called verbs and features cures for a boring day poems. This chapter has lessons on action verbs, verb tenses, irregular verbs, predicates and imperative sentences.
  3. Chapter three is on nouns and in it students write lost and found poems. Concepts taught are common nouns, singular and plural nouns, capitalization and article-noun agreement.
  4. Chapter four or pronouns encourages children to write encounter poems. Lessons taught are on personal pronouns, subject and object pronouns,  and possessive pronouns.
  5. Chapter five focuses on adjectives using synonym poems. Adjective usage, synonyms, adjective-forming suffixes and serial commas are reviewed.
  6. Chapter six is about adverbs and poetry in motion poems. Adverb usage, comparative and superlative adverbs and sentence structure are taught.
  7. Chapter seven is prepositional phrases where students write dream poems. Prepositional phrases, and objects of prepositions are reviewed.
  8. Chapter eight is conjunctions and the writing of pair poems. Lessons are on coordinating conjunctions, parallel structure and compound sentences.
  9. Chapter nine is on interjections. Students write extraordinary experience poems. Interjection usage and punctuation is featured.
  10. And finally chapter ten is on taking the next step, or supporting grammar lessons beyond the book.

Teaching Grammar With Playful Poems is not a complete grammar, but rather a way to review and reinforce grammar already introduced, taught and practiced. The book is recommended for grades 3-5, though in my opinion, easily adaptable for older students. Some of the suggestions; write a poem on the overhead, trade and edit papers with other students or write a peer group poem are probably not suited to all homeschools. Though, to  my surprise, my children did like writing a family group poem before trying their own and they do enjoy editing each others work.

Finally, if you are thinking grammar through writing poetry sounds fun, but you are not sure how you are going to fit it in with the current grammar you are using, might I suggest, using these activities as a break week. This is what I did at first, I took a week off our traditional grammar and did instead an activity in Ms. Mack’s book. I have also used the poems for copywork and have discovered my children writing poems unprompted in the format of the poem we learned in Teaching Grammar With Playful Poems. I will end today’s review with a promise to review, very soon, another of Ms. Mack’s books Teaching Grammar with Perfect Poems for Middle School.

Susan, who lives in the heart of Dixie with her husband and three school age children, blogs about quilting and homeschooling at Stitchin’ Life.

Editor in Chief

 Junior High Language Arts, Language Arts, Writing  1 Response »
Feb 112010
 

My last review I shared about my search for a grammar text that would finish our study of grammar. I found Our Mother Tongue, and I am pleased with the way it teaches grammar. But, it doesn’t include sentence mechanics. (There is an appendix for the topic, but I don’t find it adequate.) It doesn’t address topics such as where to put commas, semi-colons, and quotation marks; or how to correct sentence fragments and run-on sentences. I realized that I wanted something extra that would provide review for those English topics.

I decided to try Editor in Chief by The Critical Thinking Company. This turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. Each lesson consists of a short passage. The student must read through the passage, find the specified number of errors, and make the necessary corrections. (Sample page)

It has turned out to be a great fit for my almost 12 year old son. He’s at the age where he’s always finding mistakes anyway, so I’m finding this is a great way to put this (often annoying) tendency to good use. Good editing skills are vital to good writing, and I like the way this requires more thought than an assignment that simply instructs the student to put the commas in the correct place or to capitalize all the necessary words. In editing, the student has to find the mistake and figure out why it is wrong in order to correct it.

I would NOT recommend this product for a student that did not already have a good understanding of the concepts. As I mentioned in my previous review, my son was demonstrating that he did understand grammar and sentence mechanics. Editor in Chief provides a way to test if a student can apply his knowledge at a higher level, while reviewing important concepts. This would not be the way I would recommend learning new material. I think that a student should spend time initially in studying correctly written sentences.

The only negative about this product is the price. My son will complete both of the B level workbooks this year. At $17 each, that’s pretty expensive for a supplement. But I was encouraged to see my son enjoying his work for a change, and decided that it was worth the extra expense to us.

Written by Kristen, Neo-classical mom of 4. Kristen blogs at A Day in the Life.

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