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Okay, so this is driving me crazy and I have never asked before! I was wandering if you lovely ladies would please tell me what you do? We are working on the Independent science box and it is day 3 with the five questions. My question is this... Do you correct your childs mistakes in punctuation, grammar and capitalization? I have been this whole time and am not sure that I should be? Thank you so much in advance!

Oh and I am having them answer in complete answers? Do you?

Hi Brandi!

I do have my DS answer the questions in complete sentences, but I don't think it is a *HAVE*-to. I just wanted him to learn how to do it and be comfortable with it! I usually read over his answers and don't correct every.little.thing like in Dictation, but I do make sure his answers make sense and if there are any words that are misspelled constantly or that I know he knows and is just being careless, I have him correct them. HTH!

I am probably too much of a perfectionist, but I do require my dc to answer in complete sentences without grammar or spelling mistakes. So if it is lacking, I go back and add little post-its with corrections for them to fix it. As the year as progressed, they have become more careful in their work, and I'm not seeing near as many incomplete sentences or spelling errors. Sometimes I think I really am too hard on my dc because some days they end up doing quite a bit of correction on their work, but I want them to be in the habit of using complete sentences, good grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

My son writes his answers in complete sentences. That is my bias. And, I do in fact correct his grammar. I make him rewrite or add commas, etc. I figure more practice in grammar can never hurt! LOL

Jessica, Patty, and Faithful2Him,
Thank you so much for your replies!! This makes me feel a better.

Patty,
I am also using the post it notes to put their corrections on. I have them correct it as soon as I can. I LOVE to do it this way, great idea I got from someone on this board (maybe you or Julie?) !

I was wandering how would you correct the grammar? Here is an example of what I am asking about:

The question in the guide is "How can you tell which animals are mammals?"
My son answers (after I corrected spelling) "You can tell what animal is a mammal because it has fur."
I think he was in a hurry because his answers are usually better than this.... but this sentence is reeeally bothering me!

Yes, yes, and yes! We do correct everything, and we do use the post-it notes, and I do require complete sentences. I didn't require complete sentences for Wyatt back when he did PHFHG, but he was younger. For Riley, I have him fix the major errors (all spelling, the obvious grammatical ones), but I let him orally answer anything additional more fully. For example, if he's written the answer you'd shared above, I'd have him orally say what other criteria classifies a mammal, but not add it to his written work. I also (personally) expect far less at the start of the PHFHG year than I do at the end in regard to answering the 5 science questions. I want to encourage first, and then with guidance, expect growth throughout the year. I think your ds is doing just fine for the first portion of the guide. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie