Help Make Your Child's Words Sing

Many parents (and teachers) have the impression that a study of grammar will improve a person's ability to write. And so they seek to put their children through the paces of rigorous grammar study.

While there are a few basic grammatical "rules" that every student needs to know (for example, rules about the correct use of commas and periods, or the placement of capital letters at the beginning of sentences), intensive grammar study is actually more valuable in areas other than writing. Its primary benefit comes in the form of language analysis (figuring out, for example, why a sentence fails to communicate accurately) and communication about language — a most valuable asset not only when you're discussing a piece of literature or a paper you're writing, but also when you're trying to learn a foreign language.

Intensive grammar goes beyond identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. It gets into such matters as relative and subordinate clauses, predicates and participles, gerunds and infinitives.

So what does Sonlight Curriculum offer in the way of grammar instruction?

Grammar Ace Package

All the grammar your students need, in one self-paced program!

To teach every grammar rule in the English language, you'd need hundreds of lessons (and possibly a psychiatrist). Thankfully, your children don't need every rule to succeed. Just the ones in The Grammar Ace...

In building this course, Sonlight worked with Avyx (the publisher) to create a progressive journey through only the most practical grammar your children need. No dangling participles here. Just the tools to help young writers master any standardized test, and become better writers.

And it's all here — a complete grammar education, in one program. Your students set their own pace. Take the 36 lessons and do them in six months, or two years... you decide. The program is designed to serve kids in grades 4-7, and be all the grammar they will need.

More tools and help than ever for the teacher — you.

You'll never feel "stranded," trying to explain grammar to your students on your own.

Throughout the entire course, each lesson includes: a definition of the new rule being taught, a scripted teaching segment with examples and ideas, "In a Nutshell" section which distills the lesson to a brief, easy-to-grasp summary, two engaging and student-focused activity sheets, plus answers for everything but the free writing assignments!

Sonlight's Grammar Ace is a perfect supplement to the Language Arts programs. And it's designed to work just as well for new homeschoolers coming from a public school curriculum, too. The program also includes (and uses) the Grammar Rock portion of the delightful Schoolhouse Rock DVD, animated educational songs. These 46 beloved classics helped a generation remember their grammar, math, history, science and other subjects. It's a great teaching tool, and your kids will love singing along to "Conjunction Junction," "Unpack Your Adjectives," and more!

Users and experts agree: Fewer rules, more reading and writing...

"Reading, not grammar, produces good writing," says master teacher and curriculum expert, Dr. Ruth Beechick.

"Also, with frequent writing practice in a variety of styles, grammar comes naturally," she writes in her recent review of Sonlight's Language Arts programs. The basic rules are important but, according to Beechick, your students seem to learn grammar best "along the way," in context.

With Sonlight's Language Arts, your students experience plenty of practical grammar. Unlike other programs that deliver a barrage of exercises covering multiple concepts at once, Sonlight gradually introduces key writing-related grammar "gems," in the context of your children's reading and writing.

But many parents — and students — still want the more intensive coverage of grammar rules offered in previous editions of our Language Arts. Now, you can add a complete grammar education in one pace-yourself course. Order The Grammar Ace package today!

Grammar 5

Have you finished The Grammar Ace but still got the grammar blues? Bogged down in dangling participles? (Wait ... what is a participle anyway?)

Never fear: Grammar 5 is here! It's grammar practice made practical.

Students will gain mastery of grammatical concepts and build writing skills with these 72 self-directed lessons. Let the straightforward (and engaging) explanations and exercises abound.

Grammar 5 is perfect for students who are ready to put their basic grammar knowledge to use.

Grammar 6

Have you finished The Grammar Ace and Grammar 5?

Count on Grammar 6 to lead your students deeper into the wonderful intricacies of nouns and verbs, sentence structure and diction.

It really is grammar practice made practical.

Students will gain mastery of grammatical concepts and build writing skills with these 72 self-directed lessons. Let the straightforward (and engaging) explanations and exercises abound.

Grammar 6 is perfect for students who have completed Grammar 5 and are ready to strengthen their writing skills.

Learn more about Sonlight's grammar programs below:

We recommend Writer's Inc in our Language Arts from Level 3 up not only to provide additional reinforcement on issues that may require deeper study, but to enable you to pursue additional independent Language Arts study as well.

Beyond these resources, we offer several additional items.

The Winston Grammar Program

Winston Grammar Basic — scheduled as an optional part of our Language Arts "4" program — uses manipulatives-based teaching methods to cover all the parts of speech, noun functions, prepositional phrases, and principles of modification. It provides an excellent introduction to sentence diagramming.

The publishers recommend this program for use by students in fourth through ninth grades. We know people who have used it as adults. It is also good for students with learning disabilities. The student workbook is consumable and if you intend to use the program with more than one student at a time, we urge you to get the complete second student pack (workbook and cards).

The Winston Grammar Program Advanced takes up where the Core program leaves off. It reviews the basic parts of speech, noun functions, prepositional phrases, and modification. It then introduces possessives, various pronouns, verbals and clauses.

We have scheduled it for use in our Seventh Year program, but it may be used at any point once your child has successfully completed the Winston Grammar Basic program or Sonlight^® Language Arts G Activity Sheets.

Keys to Good Language

Keys to Good Language combines a wide variety of activities designed to familiarize students with the mechanics of writing, including proper capitalization, punctuation, word usage, parts of speech, and sentence and paragraph development.

We think our Instructor's Guides provide enough practice in these areas, but if your student needs some additional work, you're hardly going to go wrong here! Consumable.