kitchen table math, the sequel: English Basics

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

English Basics




I stumbled across this series of what appear to be self-teaching (or nearly so) grammar books for 9-11 year olds while trying to figure out what the plural of rhonceros is. (rhinoceroses, apparently)

I like the cover so much I just may buy them.

Also, I love Cambridge Press.

English Basics 1 Practice & Revision; Table of Contents (pdf file)
English Basics 2 Practice & Revision; Table of Contents (pdf file)
English Basics 3 Practice & Revision; Table of Contents (pdf file)

3 comments:

Exo said...

looks like a decent workbook. I'll buy them.
Thanks for the tip.

Catherine Johnson said...

Exo -- Susan S likes Walberg's Steps to Good Grammar (for junior high).

Steps is a terrific book, though I haven't managed to get Christopher to use it.

I can't tell whether the form of the book has contributed to our inability to get through it. The layout and graphics are slightly off-putting to me (I get a bit confused looking at the pages). That may have been enough to wear out the tiny bit of will-power I have left at the end of the day to DEATH MARCH a middle schooler through extra work.

Cambridge books are often beautifully done....

Let me know what you think of it!

Anonymous said...

Steps to Good Grammar is just really straight-to-the-point. No dilly-dallying around. There are 23 helping verbs. Memorize them. This ain't rocket science.

Well, it doesn't say exactly that, but I would have.

I would actually type out the little beginning instructions for my kids, but with a larger font and using bold and italics on important words. We'd go through them slowly and then I'd hand them a copy to work on so that I could use the book again at a later date.

It also has diagramming for those who are interested. Little quizzes are mixed in there and all of the answers are on the opposite page.

We literally did a sheet 15-20 minutes before they went to school, a few times a week. My middle-schooler aced his grammar section this year and I know it was because of that book. Most of his classmates struggled because they just don't teach grammar in any systematic way at the grade school, so they get nailed all at once with it in middle school or high school.