E-book Category: Education
E-book Title: Grammar Made Easy: Writing a Step Above
Author: Connie Schenkelberg
Book Description: Friendly Grammar for the Whole Family!
For several years, I have been recommending Connie Schenkelberg's Grammar Made Easy: Writing a Step Above grammar program as a home school grammar resource. I bought it years ago, and used it with my boys, and found it simple, intuitive, and streamlined. Grammar Made Easy is actually more than just a simple grammar book-- it's a strategy for improving a student's reading, writing, and listening skills.
People to whom I recommended it weren't so happy, though, because it was very hard to find. Finally, I tracked down Connie-- she was busy teaching and writing in northern Virginia, and she has agreed to let the Made Easy Books division of Everyday Education publish Writing a Step Above as Grammar Made Easy: Writing a Step Above!
If you know all about GME, and are ready to order, just click below. If you want to know more, read on! Why Do I Like Grammar Made Easy: Writing a Step Above? What I liked about this resource was its practicality. I used it with all my boys at once (their ages span about 6 years). We'd sit around the dining room table and go through the scripted lesson, then practice the different sentence forms. I couldn't believe that we were diagramming from the very first lesson! If your grammar education was as sketchy as mine was, you'll be very pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to start with Connie's gentle approach.
Busy home school moms will appreciate the fact that they can just pick up the book and start the lesson. There is no separate teacher's manual that you'll have to spend hours reading-- the book starts with easy grammar exericises, including sentence diagramming. Skills build one on the other, so that you make steady progress without being overwhelmed with busywork. Answers to each exercise are found in the back of the book so that you can provide instant feedback on your student's exercises.
Lessons are brief enough to be memorable (Charlotte Mason would definitely approve!), and my boys thought the cryptic chapter headings -- things like "N/V" or "Aj N V" -- were pretty cool. I liked the fact that we didn't have to spend grueling hours at it, and by the time we worked through the book at a leisurely pace, the guys knew what they needed to know, and that was all the grammar study we ever had to do!
When Should You Use Grammar Made Easy? I think that middle school is the best time to use this book, but when we used it, I had one boy in elementary school, one in high school, and two in middle school (all homeschool, of course). It worked just fine for all of them. We went through it together, and did grammar lessons only 2-3 days per week. That way, I was able to keep track of whether they were all learning what they needed to know.
The Name Grammar Made Easy: Writing a Step Above was originally published in 1996 as Writing a Step Above: A Strategy for Improving Reading, Writing, and Listening Skills, because it provided such a strong, structural foundation for writing, but over the years, Connie discovered that many people didn't realize that it was actually a grammar course. So when we published it as a "Made Easy Book" it made sense to add Grammar Made Easy to the title. We think the new title and subtitle say it all, and we hope you like it too!
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