Winston Grammar is an innovative approach to grammar—the closest thing we've seen to "grammar manipulatives." See our series description for a more thorough overview of the curriculum. The Basic Level covers nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, coordinating conjunctions, interjections, nouns of direct address, subjects, direct and indirect objects, and appositives.
This set includes a Teacher's Manual, Student Workbook, and set of color-coded cards, packaged in a Velcro-closed vinyl storage case.
For those who need more review than the sentences provided offer, you can add the Basic Supplemental Workbook, which coordinates exactly with the sequence of topics found in this level.
A Note to the Homeschooling Parent...
In general, children develop abstract thinking skills around 9-11 years old. Because grammar is composed of mostly abstract concepts, children who have not developed their abstract thinking skills will often have more difficulty with it; most parts of speech have no meaning to their world. Nouns are relatively easy because they play with toys and crayons, etc. Action verbs are not too difficult because they can relate to running and jumping. Articles are just plain easy. Adjectives also don't pose too hard a task as children can relate to something that's blue, green, big or little. So if you are teaching a third or fourth grader, expect these things to go relatively quickly. Beginning with adverbs, children often get bogged down. The natural tendency is to move ahead anyway, thinking they will have lots of practice before the end of the book. However, if a child doesn't thoroughly understand adjectives and adverbs, then when they get to prepositional phrases, they meet an impasse trying to figure out if the phrase is used as an adjective or adverb. This is also true when it comes to deciding about a word being an adjective or a predicate nominative if it follows a linking verb.
So the plan we suggest will help prevent some of these frustrations. Plan to do each worksheet over a number of days. Do 2-3 sentences each day so that the child has to review the concept several times before the worksheet is completed. This should only take 5-10 minutes to do. Then spend two or three days having your child find that part of speech in a paragraph or two of their reading. When that is easy, ask for that part of speech in their writing. No matter what they are writing, usually you could ask for five adjectives or three direct objects, etc. Have your child underline them so you know they did it purposefully and it wasn't just an accident that the part of speech got there. This is the part where the child who hasn't developed abstract thinking gets stalled. They will stare out the window or give a million excuses why they can't do this. Give them some help with it for a day or two, but before you move on to the next worksheet, they should be able to do this exercise. If a child cannot use the part of speech, then they have not fully integrated it into their thinking. Moving on will just cause bigger frustrations in future worksheets.
If you are working with a younger child, or with any child who needs more practice, consider getting the Basic Supplemental Workbook. It will give you an extra worksheet for each one in the Basic program. While this may not be the method everyone will use, it will help a number of you feel more comfortable with a plan for teaching grammar in a less stressful manner and to see that it may take more than a year to finish the book.
— From the Teacher's Manual
Placement Tests:
Pre-test
Post-test
If your student passes the post-test, you should consider the Advanced set.
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