We’ve been using resources from the Institute for Excellence in Writing for our beginning readers (Primary Arts of Language) and for writing instruction (Student Writing Intensive). As Charlotte Mason-style learners, we don’t do much with grammar as a subject of instruction until our children are older. With three of our girls doing middle school work, it is time to bring grammar into our studies. We are so thankful to be using the recently revised Fix It! Grammar from IEW. Because this is the first formal grammar instruction for a couple of my girls, we are beginning with Book One The Nose Tree (Teacher’s Manual $19 and Student Book $15).
There is a placement guide (pdf to download) to determine just where your learner should begin. Even though our eldest daughter has had some previous grammar experience, we went with the suggestion that all students begin with Book 1. The younger girls using this currently are working at a 5th and 6th grade level and have only casual grammar experience. I knew they would begin in Book 1 based upon their limited exposure. We will be adding the next levels as they need them and not trying to keep to any schedule in completing the 6 volumes. As written, each volume is intended to take 33 weeks, or a full year. Older learners may find they can complete a level each semester – at least in the beginning.
The lessons are short and direct. There is not a lot of time (or paper) wasted in getting to the essentials. Each day is clearly marked Day 1, Day 2 etc. making it easy to schedule each lesson as needed. Utilizing one lesson per day, four days per week, there are 33 weeks as it is laid out. Each day takes about 15 minutes to complete (my slower writer takes a bit longer on rewriting). My older learner is working on two days at a time while the lessons are easier for her, cementing what she has learned and showing how the rules fit into writing. She will likely finish in half the time. I don’t expect her to keep up this pace as she progresses, just while she finds the information to be easy and mostly review. We really enjoy this flexibility. The mastery approach is one of the reasons we love using IEW products. An mp3 download of Andrew Pudewa’s talk “Mastery Learning” is included with your purchase. If you haven’t visited IEW’s website or perused their “magalog” and found the freely available talks to download, you really should. They are encouraging, eye-opening and often entertaining — and FREE!
One of my daughters has been utilizing the spiral-bound student book we were sent for this review. The other two girls are using the student pages available to print (via a link in the teacher’s manual). I love that I don’t need to purchase a separate student book. Not only will this save money in the long run, it makes sense for re-use in our bigger family. Once the girls started getting them selves set up to begin the lessons, those with the home-printed pages found they liked their set-up better.
In setting up for the lessons, the student pages are only part of what is needed. In the download and bound version, there are included a Grammar Glossary and Grammar Review cards. Additional blank pages will also be needed for rewriting the corrected passages and for vocabulary work. It has been nice to have this all in one binder with dividers for the different pages and an in-binder pouch for the review cards and a pen. We use the erasable Frixion pens and have saved tons of time keeping their pen right in the with their work.
The beginning of each week, we read together (well, I read, they follow) the “Learn It” section. Then my learners work on making the targeted corrections to that day’s passage (at this level, just a sentence). The teacher’s manual has all of the notes for correcting the corrections, the reasons, the notations and a few weeks in, a Style section. This is when the practical application of what is being learned comes in.
We love the flexibility and easy learning of Fix It! Grammar. This could be used with learners as young as 3rd grade or so. Once my son is reading and writing a bit better (hopefully next spring), I will begin using this with him. Just because the lessons are short and sweet, don’t let that fool you into thinking it is just for younger learners. If you have an older learner that needs grammar help (especially in making the grammar relevant and not a string of random sentences on worksheets) this would be an excellent choice. The grammar lessons are solid. The shorter lessons mean and older learner can move quickly, gaining quite a bit of ground – and a solid foundation. Be sure to read other reviewers’ experiences.
