Tagged: Grammar

How to teach grammar: is it relevant to diagram?

Teaching Grammar: To Diagram or Not to Diagram?

  When I teach essay writing for high school or college exams, I encourage students to beware of using absolutes such as “always” or “never,” because these are rarely true — there are exceptions to almost everything, and those absolutes...

Connie Schenkelberg

Connie Schenkelberg, my friend and colleague, stepped from this life to the next on Sunday morning (12/1/13), and I will miss her. I first met Connie at an HEAV homeschool conference in the 1990s. Her table was tucked into a...

A Piqued Plea for Correctly Peeking at the Peak

How to use the correct word when peeking at a peak.

Happy National Grammar Day and Words Matter Week

I love wordy holidays. We spend time teaching our children that words matter, and how to read, write, and speak correctly (or at least I hope we do), and I think those home lessons are reinforced by national holidays that...

Five stages of language arts learning.

The Stages of Learning Language Arts

There are five stages in learning language arts, and each stage has a different focus. This graphic will help you remember what to do when.

Grammar Made Easy- New Question Answered-Gerunds & Verb Phrases

As I post the books we offer, I try to answer all the questions I can think of. Inevitably, others think of questions that would never cross my mind, and I try to add them to the FAQ page to...

Celebrate National Punctuation Day!

Okay, students, put on your party hats! It’s time to celebrate the not-so-lowly punctuation mark. We’re a little late to join the baking contest planned as part of the celebration, but there nothing stopping us from using commas, periods, apostrophes,...

FAQ about using Excellence in Literature in a co-op or classroom.

Questions about using Excellence In Literature in a co-op

I received an e-mail this morning from a co-op leader, inquiring about the Excellence in Literature (EIL) curriculum. When I receive detailed questions like these, I know that others are probably wondering some of the same of the same things,...

How Many Years of Grammar Do You Need?

As I talk to homeschool parents at conventions and via e-mail, I am often asked, “How many years of grammar should I be requiring of my student?” or “Does the Grammar Made Easy: Writing a Step Above (sadly, this excellent book...

The peril of perfectly parsed piffle can challenge a writing evaluator.

Perfectly Parsed Piffle- The Writing Evaluator’s Dilemma

As parent-teachers, we’ve all seen boring writing assignments — a grammatically-correct report that simply paraphrases an encyclopedia entry or a five-paragraph essay that piles one trite cliche on another, and concludes without a glimmer of an original thought. If you’re anything like...