The need for separate grammar?

[smillard00]

I'd love to hear some thoughts on grammar. This year, I've been working through First Form Latin with my 5th grader. I haven't been using a separate grammar program for her, but have just been covering grammar as it comes up in the Latin lessons. I've found that with the diagramming and discussions of Latin grammar, we've had plenty of opportunities to talk about English grammar too.

Currently, I'm looking at the booklists for the complete program for 6th grade next year and I'm debating on the Rod & Staff grammar books. Do we need a separate English grammar course? I know I could keep going as I am, discussing English grammar as we work through Second Form Latin next year. But then I also thought--if there is a particular grade level of Rod & Staff grammar that would give a good, comprehensive overview of English grammar, then we might take one year and do a separate grammar course to just seal in everything we have covered naturally along the way.

I remember when I was in school, we always had a grammar class, but when I was in 11th grade, we had an intensive semester of advanced grammar that just solidified everything for us. That's kind of what I'm thinking about here.

So I'd love to hear thoughts on this and I would especially be interested to hear--is there one particular year of Rod & Staff that would be a good one to use if one was only going to do one year of grammar.

Thanks!
Samantha

[tanya]

Hi, Samantha.

Your thoughts are the same as ours. We also feel that we can do less English grammar since Latin is taking care of so much of it. So, our idea is to cut way back! We have already cut our work in the Rod & Staff 6th grade grammar book, and I can send you a list of the lessons we are going to be doing if you want to email me. I do think that this 6th grade book is a good overall grammar book, but if you already have the 5th grade book, that would be enough also. The Rod & Staff books are really good about reviewing and building on the same concepts year after year, so I've been telling people that if they get the 6th grade book, they can use it for several years, just doing the exercises that are on their students' levels.

Regards,

Tanya Charlton