Homeschool Review Crew - GrammarPlanet

The phrase: Sentence diagramming and labeling parts of speech... These words either spark excitement or create dread when you hear them. For us, the latter is true, so I was excited to get a chance to review a brand new Grammar Program Online from GrammarPlanet with the anticipation that it would be presented in a fresh new way, and it was.

What is GrammarPlanet?

This is a Grammar program online for students of a wide range of ages and grammar knowledge, from knowing nothing to just needing to review. I first received a basic free subscription and the first six units to eventually be upgraded to a one-year subscription that makes it ad free. As the review progressed, more units were added. I was asked to use it with at least one student for an average of three days a week.
I received log-in information for both me and my daughter, the student. This allowed me to have access to the online units where we could watch video lessons, practice, and take unit tests.

How Did We Use It?

I logged on and set up my child as a student and then we were able to proceed to the lessons, starting with Unit 1. Each unit starts with having the student print out a sheet of notes that are very important to refer to throughout the lessons. Next, there is a video that is about 5 or 6 minutes long and not long into it, it stops for the student to take a very short quiz before continuing. The teacher then explains the lesson before the student is given a chance to practice what they learned onscreen and finally take a test. If the student passes the test, they proceed to the next unit. If not, the program locks the unit and the teacher has to unlock it for them to continue.

The program is very interactive having the student use onscreen markings (or parsing) sentences with marks such as N for Noun, PN for Pronoun, ART for articles, etc. As the units build on each other, more markings are added to be used. The units progress in difficulty as you continue, eventually showing you sentence diagrams and such.

What Did We Think?

It didn't take long to finish the first 7 units that I was provided, and then jump into the additional lessons as soon as they were added. Though, I would recommend only doing one unit a day or even each week so as not to tire your student. The short video lessons are easy to follow. There was really only a couple areas of struggle for us, in that I do wish there were not as many practice questions to complete before proceeding to the tests as sentence labeling and diagramming is not a skill my child has a history of enjoying, so this step proved to be a bit tedious at times even though it was done in one of the best interactive ways I've ever seen. Besides the numerous practice questions, the only part of the program I found frustrating was that if you get too many practice questions wrong, the program locks the unit to prevent the student from continuing until the teacher unlocks it. Having said that though, I do understand why this is built into the program - To give the teacher oversight into providing more instruction where needed before the student gets too deep into it and not really absorbing the information.

Overall, the program ran without any glitches or technical issues for us at all. I ran it on a PC laptop with a Windows 10 operating system and a Chrome browser. I like the hands-on and color-coded interaction. I appreciated that the video lessons were short and to the point and that they give the student plenty of opportunities to soak it all in before the actual tests. I also liked that the physical printouts were a part of the lessons since it gives a tangible recordkeeping item as well as a handheld lesson, which is important to my daughter that she has paper or workbooks to write on.

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Homeschool Review Crew - Silverdale Press Persuasive Writing and Classical Rhetoric Practicing The Habits of Great Writers

I was thrilled to get a chance to review Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers from Silverdale Press LLC intended for students ages 14 to 18.

Other members of the Review Crew got to review White House Holidays Unit Studies intended for ages 5-18 and given the option of an elementary or a junior/senior high school study. These Unit Studies are designed to include 3 to 5 lessons, with each lesson intended to be done in a day. There are activities geared toward K-6 as well as activities geared toward grades 7-12.  The unit studies include:

Labor Day - 3 lessons
Veterans Day - 3 lessons
Thanksgiving - 5 lessons
Christmas - 4 lessons with 6 activities per lesson
MLK - 5 lessons
Valentine's Day - 5 lessons
While others were reviewing these unit studies, I got to review a complete comprehensive curriculum on the Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers.

What is the Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers from Silverdale Press LLC?

This is intended for high school level and is a full 36-week curriculum. Students are expected to spend four days per week using it, but there are also instructions on how to use it all 5 days each week. The definition of what rhetoric is, used in this course, describes:

Rhetoric is skillful and artistic communication that aims to persuade an audience

I received this curriculum that comes in 4 parts PDF downloads:

Rhetoric Lesson Book - 235 pages
Rhetoric Reader - 111 pages
Rhetoric Workbook - 202 pages
Rhetoric Answer Book - 65 pages

The idea behind the curriculum is that:

• Writers Write
• Writers Read
• Writers Think

Start with the Lesson Book. The Lesson Book is your guide to the entire program. It will list when to go to the Workbook and when to use the Reader. Either the student or the parent/teacher can then use the Answer Book to check the work, though a lot of the writing has answers that will vary.

Each lesson is set up in the same manner that walks students through reading, thinking, and writing as well as providing pro tips from the writers of the curriculum throughout. The reading passages are in the Rhetoric Reader, and the workbook exercises are in the Rhetoric Workbook. When the students have completed the full 36 weeks, they will have written essays each week as well as completed a final essay. There is a grading rubric included to help the parent/teacher comment and grade the writing.

The only part I had to print were the workbook pages, and honestly I probably could have done these onscreen with the PDF fill-in-the-blank tools. But, I chose to print them.

The reader include excerpts like this:

The course covers excerpts of writings/speeches from:

• Patrick Henry
• John F. Kennedy
• Winston Churchill
• Wendell Berry
• Ida M. Tarbell
• John Locke
• Daniel Webster
• Alexander Hamilton
• Ronald Reagan
• Thomas Paine
• Augustine
• Thomas Clarkson
• William Wilberforce
• Jane Austin
• Dorothy Sayers
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Abraham Lincoln
• Rachel Carson
• Antonin Scalia
• William Strunk and E. B. White
• Henry Watson Fowler and Francis George Fowler
• Sarah Josepha Hale
• Benjamin Franklin
• Eleanor Roosevelt

The last few lessons cover what real writers do, such as pitching your work to an editor and moving beyond rejection.

How Did We Use It?

When I saw this was coming up for review, I knew I had at least one daughter for whom this would fit within their level, but honestly, I was most interested in it for me. I write online, and I am always hungry for refreshers. So, when I got it, I had a choice to make as to who would use it and decided before sharing it with my high schooler, I would dive into it myself.

What Did We Think?

I found this curriculum to be nothing short of amazing! It is extremely comprehensive, including everything you need. It is complete and very easy to follow. I was very impressed at how much thought and work went into putting this curriculum together.

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Homeschool Review Crew - Memoria Press Classical Composition Narrative Set

I was thrilled to get a chance to review the Classical Composition II: Narrative Set from Memoria Press.

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew had the opportunity to review some additional products from Memoria Press, so please be sure to click on the banner at the end of this review to see what they thought of these products as well:

New American Cursive
New American Cursive 1
New American Cursive 2 (Scripture)
New American Cursive 2 (Famous Americans)
New American Cursive 3 (Famous Quotes)

Traditional Logic

Traditional Logic I Complete Set
Traditional Logic II Complete Set


Classical Composition:

Classical Composition I: Fable Set

What is Classical Composition II: Narrative Set?

First, it's important to point out that Memoria Press is based on the Trivium model of learning which takes three basic stages:

Grammar
Logic
Rhetoric

This narrative set is directed toward more of the logic, dialectic, stage which, very oversimplified summed up, is based on a model of Plato and is the stage where logic and analyzing begins to form through asking questions, though it seems to me there is a bit of the Grammar stage still involved as well as introducing some of the rhetoric stage, so in my opinion,  it is a nice course to bridge the three stages together. This Classical Composition II: Narrative Set picks up where the Classical Composition I: Fable Set leaves off, and this is the natural progression to follow.

The idea behind this program is to create ideas for composition, teaching skills one at a time to build upon the other. The goal throughout is to accomplish mastery instead of guessing what the right answer is, teaching through a modeling style as well as repetition with the hope that writing skills will become second nature to the student. It emphasizes that the student is writing to an audience and not just learning useless informational knowledge.

We received a nice packet that contained a DVD filled with the instructional videos, along with two spiral-bound books - a teacher guide and a student book. The set is recommended for Grades 5-12 and is the second part of the Classical Composition two-part set, with the first one being Classical Composition I: Fable Set, with the Fable Set ideally beginning in 4th Grade, and this Narrative one following in 5th Grade. Though, the Fable and Narrative sets together are a great starting point regardless of what grade your student begins.

Progymnasmata is the big long word that is behind this approach of teaching writing that was used by great ancient communicators, Cicero and Quintilian, and it is the foundation that Jim Selby uses to teach the art of communicating in this course. This is usually associated more with the rhetoric stage, but the instructor on the DVDs presents this "progymnasmata" approach in short lessons followed by student book hands-on work.

While the Classical Composition I: Fable Set laid the groundwork for writing in a style that engages the reader, this Classical Composition II: Narrative Set helps the student to learn how to communicate the same idea using different words, sentence structures, and perspectives.

The book contains 20 lessons presented in a fashion that builds from the most basic to the more complex, using well-chosen words, structuring the sentences, and presenting perspectives that build invention skills of originating narratives while engaging the imagination of the reader by creating recognition using well-worded descriptions.

The Teacher Guide also includes grading rubrics and a couple more goodies.

I really loved how when I opened up the Teacher Guide, I saw an entire explanation about the importance of keeping God in learning:

With the instruction DVD, I really didn't find a lot of need for intense lesson planning, but the Teacher Guide is set up in a way that practically does it all for you. All you have to do is follow it step by step, though the DVD is very helpful.

How Did We Use It?

My soon-to-be 7th grader and I sat down to explore this curriculum. It comes with a Teacher's Guide, but honestly, with the instructional DVDs and the student book, at this stage, I found that it required very little teacher prep on my part. Still, the Teacher Guide is nice to have to follow along and make sure your student is on track. It also has grading rubrics which make a nice guide.

What Did We Think?

I'm always excited when I get a chance to review anything from Memoria Press, and this set is no exception. As I have come to expect from the company, this curriculum is solid and presents information in a way that propels students into diving deep into learning.

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Five new words on Friday

So, I decided to try to see how far this goes with a Friday thing - I'm pulling five random words to explore. If you like it, comment to let me know so I know whether or not to continue each week.

For this week - the five words are:

Eschew (Verb)
Esoteric (Adjective)
Torpor (Noun)
Transitory (Adjective)
Monastic (Adjective)

Three adjectives and a noun and a verb this week.

So, what does it all mean?

1 - Eschew

To eschew something is to shun or avoid it.
...The child eschewed candy even though he longed to eat it.

Synonyms include: avoid, bilk, elude, escape, evade, shun, and shy

2 - Esoteric

Esoteric means known or understood only by a few.
...Only some understood the esoteric world of astrophysics.

Synonyms include: obscure, abstruse, or arcane

3 - Torpor

Torpor means extreme mental and physical sluggishness.
...When I tried to wake him, his torpor lasted a few minutes.

Synonyms include: languor or apathy

4 - Transitory

Transitory means something that is temporary or lasting only a brief time.
...As a Christian, our earthly lives are only transitory.

Synonyms include momentary, ephemeral, evanescent, fleeting, or impermanent.

5 - Monastic

Extremely plain or secluded, such as in a monastery.
...Many crazy days of motherhood, I longed for a monastic place to find peace for just a moment.

Synonyms include: self-abnegating, austere, contemplative, displined, or regimented.


If you enjoyed this, feel free to print the following flash cards: