Review of Analytical Grammar
Analytical Grammar is our favorite program for high school English. I met the late author of the program, Robin Finley at a homeschool conference. She spent time with my oldest son and I in showing us the program and how it worked.
My son was hooked on her statement of “all you need is this program and finish it in one year and then you do not need grammar for the rest of the high school year”. Bingo! My son was sold on this!
1) Analytical Grammar is geared for high school.
We used this for freshman and sophomore in high school. For all three of my kids, it took them 1 ½ years to go through the program. You can start
Analytical Grammar anytime during high school. I prefer to start in Freshman and finish up during the sophomore year. We focus on writing the end of sophomore year till they graduate.
They do have a program for middle school years called Junior Grammar aka JAG. I never used this program but if I had known about this program before high school then yes I would have used JAG for middle school.
2) What learning styles are good for Analytical Grammar?
I have three kids and all of them have different learning styles. Oldest was a mixture of visual and audio, the middle is my audio kid, and my last is Kinesthetic and visual.
All three did this program well. Did they like it? My Kinesthetic kid didn’t but the other two did. The other two liked it because they didn’t have to do any more grammar after they got done with the program. My Kinesthetic kid was very happy when she got done with it.
Honestly, I believe its good for all learning styles as you can see my kids were a mixture of learning styles and all did well with the program.
3) Format of Analytical Grammar
Analytical Grammar comes in a consumable workbook for your student. There is a separate book for teachers/parents. You will need to get the two books but they do offer a bundle of 1 student and 1 teacher book at a small discount.
Here is what is included in the materials:
- Student notes in the workbook and teacher manual
- Exercises to practice
- Test (open book)
- Teacher manual has answer keys
- Teacher manual have notes for the teacher
Digital option
They do offer a digital download which is a lot cheaper and can be used with multiple students. You do have to print them out but you can print as many as you want.
DVD option
They offer a companion DVD to Analytical Grammar which has the late Robin Finley teaching the program. I did use the companion DVD which was my daughter’s (she is the one that is Kinesthetic) favorite way to learn the grammar in this course.
4) The schedule of Analytical Grammar
On their website, they offer suggestions on how to use this program and the timeline. We chose to go straight through the program and be done in 12 to 18 months.
They have schedules for 2 or 3 years if you chose to do this program for 3 years or 2 years. You can decide how long you want your kids to go through the program. There is no wrong way to do this.
If you chose to go through it longer then they do offer other helpful materials to use along with Analytical grammar. One is the Review and Reinforcement series which is a very small booklet to go along with the program.
5) Its a Systematic approach to grammar mastery
They teach grammar with diagramming and parsing methods. This was my favorite part of this program. I do not like the diagramming part but the parsing method is my favorite. While I like the parsing method I wanted my kids to also learn to diagram so this program was a great fit for our family.
Here is the breakdown of what they teach in Analytical Grammar:
- Parts of speech
- Parts of sentences
- Sentence diagramming
- Sentence Parsing
- Punctuation and capitalization rules
- Common usage errors
The program is broken into three parts. Here is the breakdown:
Part 1
- Parts of speech
- Parts of sentences
- Simple sentence diagramming
Part 2
- Phrases
- Clauses
Part 3
- All punctuation rules
- All usage rules
6) Couple things to consider
The homework is not short so there is a lot of busywork in this program. I modified this for my kids. In the exercises, they will have your student diagram and parse each sentence. I felt that this was overkill. There are 10 sentences in most exercises which makes 20 sentences total to diagram and parse. Also, there is a definition section in each exercise.
Here is what I told my kids to do.
I have the kids divide the sentences in half. So if there are 10 sentences then they will do 5 sentences diagramming and the other 5 sentences will be parsed. I felt this gave them enough practice without burning them out. All of us were a lot happier with this modification.
For the test I have them do half diagramming and half parsing.
They also offer other materials to supplement this program. If you are doing a timeline of two to three years then you might want to consider getting the supplement to the program.
The supplement is called Review and Reinforcement series. There are four booklets to this series which will give your students a well rounded English program.
Review and Reinforcement series are:
- American Authors
- British Authors
- World Authors
- Shakespeare’s plays
They are not in any particular order. Whatever you are reading for your literature program is the one you would use to supplement. So if you are doing British Literature this year then I would use Review and Reinforcement British Authors along with Analytical Grammar.
I was very happy with the outcome of my kid’s English knowledge. I highly recommend Analytical Grammar for your high school students.
Holly Truitt blogs at Fulltime Homeschool Mom.Fulltime Homeschool mom is about how to work a job and homeschool at the same time. Holly has been a working homeschool mom for 15 years. She graduated two boys from homeschooling and successfully got them in college. Holly is homeschooling her last child who is in high school. If you are working homeschool mom, check her blog out. Here are several links to check out. Free Resources for Curriculum 10 tips of Working and Homeschooling
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