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I'm thinking through our methods ALOT these days. And today I have on my mind our grammar lessons.

How do you motivate your children to remember their grammar lessons? For example in Rod and Staff from time to time a new set of helping verbs or pronoouns, etc. will be introduced along with the admonition to memorize the list. How do you motivate your children to do this? And when do they devote time to this? Do you provide extra drill? Do you test? Do you simply tell your child to learn this and let you know when they've got it down?

I'm profoundly aware that what we're doing which is simply going through the lessons provides no motivation, so I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.

What works may depend on how your child(ren) learn. My oldest did R&S English in high school. He kept a section in his notebook to write new rules, words, etc. He would study them on his own, read them aloud to me when I asked, and use it as a place to quickly look up info. The repeated reading helped it stick in his head. He's a very visual learner so this worked for him.

We put them to a tune. We have done that with everything from learning our address, verses, and grammar lists. Most recently we did it with pronouns for my 7yo. If she sings thru the list and forgets a word or two she just hums in the blank a few times and usually she remembers it. My oldest still knows our very first address because he sang it when he learned it - the ones in between, not so much. He doesn't enjoy that as much anymore so copying a list or poem I want him to memorize a few times works great for him. It's great handwriting practice as well. Usually I give a deadline that I want it known by and then you can have the child recite it orally or write it down. Keep a copy in his notebook to remind him to look over it every now and then to keep it fresh.

HTH!

Florence,

With our kiddos we have come to the realization that grammar isn't neccessarily a "fun" subject but that steady progress along in the same program over the years really aids in retention. We always make sure to do the 5 oral review questions from the English Teacher's Guide at the beginning of each grammar session. This has honestly done as much for retention as anything. Then, we often read through the lesson aloud to our boys and do much of the lesson orally. Last, we assign one section to be done on paper.

The boys like the interaction with us when we do it this way, the lessons go quickly this way and are not drudgery, and my boys don't mind writing only one section as they are thrilled they didn't have to write all of it! Their retention over the long haul is really good too. One thing to note is that when you're in a half-speed grammar year (as in our guides CTC and RTR), you can expect retention to be less. However, those years are more about introducing the grammar and writing concepts, rather than mastering them. There is plenty of practice in Rod and Staff in the later years, which over time we've found really leads to retention and application of the concepts within the kiddo's writing.

Blessings,
Carrie