Teaching Homeschool Grammar: A Review of Easy Grammar Curriculum
Are you a busy homeschool mom who breaks out in a cold sweat at the thought of teaching grammar? Do you find yourself tangled in the web of grammar rules, trying to figure out where to start or how to make it work for your kids? If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone!
Many homeschool parents need help finding a grammar curriculum that is both effective and easy to teach. I know that struggle all too well! If you’re trying to figure out how to start teaching homeschool grammar, this review of Easy Grammar curriculum is for you!
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Note: This is a sponsored post. I’ve used Easy Grammar curriculum for years and finally reached out to Easy Grammar Systems to propose a sponsored review. All opinions are my own!
What's Covered:
Teaching Homeschool Grammar: A Review of Easy Grammar Curriculum
While there is the occasional homeschool mom who loves teaching grammar (we can still be friends 😉), most of us would rather spend time doing something else. Turns out, most kids aren’t huge fans of grammar, either.
However, a growing understanding of grammar will help your children become more effective communicators. In this post, we’ll discuss reasons for teaching grammar, some of our own struggles tackling the subject, and an in-depth review of one of the wins we HAVE found: Easy Grammar curriculum.
The Grammar Struggle
In our homeschool, we don’t introduce a formal grammar curriculum until sometime during middle school. With 6 kids in our homeschool, we’ve had our share of grammar curriculum bombs, too, until we finally landed on a good fit for our family.
Here’s what we faced in our trial and error:
- Lessons that were too long (just get to the point!).
- Too teacher intensive (I like them to grow in independence, for their sake and mine).
- Instructions that just plain didn’t make sense (if I don’t get it, they won’t).
With all the struggles with grammar, I had to ask myself: is teaching grammar really that important, anyway? 🤔
Why Teach Grammar?
There is one aspect of grammar that is useless in and of itself: learning all the parts and terminology. (Who really cares that much about what a preposition or dangling participle is, anyway?)
However, even if my kids don’t retain the labels and parts of speech long-term, learning them now and using them to apply the skills that DO matter will help strengthen their ability to write and communicate well.
Grammar instruction will help students:
- Decipher and understand language, improving reading and comprehension.
- Organize words, phrases, and sentences to effectively communicate ideas.
- Communicate creatively, re-organizing sentences to find just the right message.
- Gain mastery and confidence in their communications, both formal and informal.
These are the reasons why we teach grammar in our homeschool. Communicating well is important for life, work, relationships, and even in sharing the gospel.
When Should Formal Grammar Instruction Start?
There is some confusion and debate about when formal grammar instruction should start. Some say it should begin as early as first grade. Others say later is better. Although I’d venture to say it can be done well either way, I lean toward the latter. Children really learn a lot of grammar through regular life experiences, and I see no need to start so early with more formal lessons.
Here is our basic approach to teaching grammar in our homeschool:
- Read, read, read! When your kids read or listen to you reading, they are learning grammar naturally! And you can start that when they’re in preschool.
- Write! And as they start writing more and more, point out grammar concepts, helping them focus on and improve one area at a time. (Basic capitalization, punctuation, and how sentence structure impacts meaning.)
- Introduce formal grammar: Sometime during middle school, we introduce a formal grammar curriculum. (For us this ranges from 4th – 8th grade.)
For perspective, Charlotte Mason recommends starting grammar instruction when written narrations become more regular, which is about the 4th-5th grade. This makes sense to me, because not only are they writing more and have more opportunities to practice grammar skills in writing, but they are older and better able to grasp the more abstract nature of grammar concepts.
Ruth Beechick, another wonderful educator and a pioneer in the homeschool movement, recommends starting later (7th or so) and stressing grammar rules even less. Clearly, there is some flexibility in this area to do what seems best for our children.
How Should Grammar be Taught?
I’m not a grammar expert, obviously, but here is the grammar curriculum strategy that seems most effective for us:
✅ Teach grammar with direct instruction – Short, simple lessons starting in middle school that teach each grammar concept and provide review. This gives them basic familiarity with the concepts.
✅ Teach grammar with in-context application – Practice observing and discussing (and perhaps re-writing) sentences pulled from various sources, such as their own writing, emails, news articles, favorite authors, etc. Writing activities that mimic an author’s style (and grammar) can also be helpful. These in-context applications can be done alongside any curriculum to help your kids actually retain and use those skills!
✅ Teach grammar as a troubleshooting tool in their communications toolbox – Establish grammar reference tools for yourself and your students that help you troubleshoot. For example, instead of saying, “that doesn’t look/sound right,” and then staring at each other blankly 😆, draw on your grammar references to do a quick review of those concepts and develop a better way to form that sentence. Ultimately, this gives them the tools and habits they can use to improve their communication skills on their own.
What is Easy Grammar Curriculum?
The homeschool grammar curriculum by Easy Grammar Systems has been the most useful resource for me on this grammar-teaching journey! I highly recommend checking it out. Easy Grammar is a curriculum created by Wanda Phillips and is designed to simplify grammar instruction. (Thank goodness!) It has resources to cover grammar instruction for grades 1 through 12.
A unique aspect of Easy Grammar Systems is that it starts by teaching prepositions. In most levels, the prepositions are memorized first. (For those who struggle with memorization, find preposition songs online, or even just use the preposition list as reference.) The student learns to identify and cross out prepositional phrases in sentences and then to identify and mark up the other parts of speech. This simple hands-on approach is easy and effective!
Which Easy Grammar Curriculum is Right for You?
Easy Grammar offers several different series to accommodate various needs:
- Easy Grammar (Grades 1-6): This foundational series introduces basic grammar concepts. If you’re looking for something to use in elementary levels, this is it! Placement tests are available, but the general recommendation is to start at grade level.
- Easy Grammar Plus: This is suitable for older students who need a review of grammar basics. It is what we’ve used most often. It is perfect as a one-year curriculum for 7th–9th grade or for older students who need a crash course.
- Daily GRAMS: Provides daily review exercises to reinforce grammar skills. It’s especially useful as a daily review system alongside the equivalent level of Easy Grammar. But you can also use it with other resources.
- Easy Grammar Ultimate Series (Grades 8-12): Focuses on more advanced grammar concepts. This is kind of a mix between Easy Grammar and Daily Grams in style. It is a great review or even light instruction for these older grade levels.
- Easy Writing (Grades 1-12): This is an interesting writing curriculum that is really helpful for strengthening sentences. It comes with 2 levels built in: one for younger children and one for older. We have used it to work on specific needs we’ve pinpointed rather than going straight through it, but you can do it either way.
Choosing the right series depends on your child’s grade level, prior grammar knowledge, and specific learning needs.
Placement Tests for Easy Grammar Curriculum
Easy Grammar provides placement tests to determine the appropriate starting point They are mostly geared toward helping determine if your child needs to be advanced to the next level. Otherwise, Easy Grammar Systems generally recommends that you start your child at grade level and only put them in a lower level if they struggle.
However, I have seen homeschool moms team up their 4th and 6th graders, for example, on a level 4 in Easy Grammar, and get good results. Do what works for you and your kids!
Our Experience With Easy Grammar Curriculum
Our family has found Easy Grammar curriculum to be incredibly helpful. We all learned the list of prepositions using this song from Classical Conversations. After that, it was easier for them to move through the curriculum. Here’s what we love about Easy Grammar:
- Lessons are short and to the point
- Hands-on approach with sentence marking
- Lesson work can be done relatively independently
- The teacher manual is helpful and efficient
- No sentence diagramming 🙌
- Review is built-in
I also really like that there are various formats and levels so I can pick what suits my kids. We have yet to use the Easy Grammar elementary series, although we’ve heard good things about it and may try it for my upcoming 4th grader.
Easy Grammar Plus is a fantastic option for a focused 1-2 year course for later middle grade or early high school students who have had little or no grammar instruction. The older kids have an easier time understanding and retaining it, too! We also keep it on hand as a reference tool for troubleshooting or review.
Easy Grammar Ultimate Series was the sweet spot for one of my daughters. She is a voracious reader and a good writer but needed some basic grammar since we hadn’t really done that. Easy Grammar Plus intimidated her, however, so I reached out to Easy Grammar’s support contact (you can find the email address at the bottom of this page), and they recommended going with the Ultimate series. She did that starting in 8th grade and it’s just right: short lessons, light instruction, and daily practice. If she gets stuck on a concept, we have the Easy Grammar Plus book to dig a little deeper!
Recommendation / Bottom Line
The Easy Grammar curriculum lives up to its name by making grammar instruction straightforward and manageable. Its structured approach, effective teaching methods, and flexible options make it an excellent choice for homeschool families. Whether starting from scratch or looking to add some review, check out Easy Grammar!
Happy Homeschooling!
~ Tauna
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I have a bright 4th grader who is doing the Grade 4 workbook. I’m wondering if we can take a few years off after that, maybe do the Easy Grammar Plus in 7th or 8th grade, and probably call it good? I’m not sure I see the necessity to teach it every year. Seems like one of those “Once you know it, you know it” subjects. Thoughts on a more minimal approach like this?
Yes you can do that. It depends your child. I did that with my oldest two (actually didn’t do any formal grammar until later and they did the Easy Grammar Plus in a year instead). But a couple of my other kiddos benefit more with at least some kind of ongoing grammar done in layers.