Grasping at Grammar ~ Tips for Teaching a Subject You Struggle With

Grammar is a mystery to me.  Even though I like to think of myself as a writer I struggle with teaching this subject.  Thankfully my older kids have a wonderful foundation from their private school days and Abeka curriculum.

My oldest, who is in 8th grade, is a big blessing because he really understands all of the direct objects, indirect objects, underlining the subject... he gets it.  This helps because he is actually the first person I ask when teaching his younger brother something I don't quite grasp.  I've even let him teach us direct objects because he understood it so well!  What a great confidence booster for him! 

Another thing I do is use a grammar program that gives me help as the teacher.  We currently use Easy Grammar and I like how they are set up.  Each new concept has examples to help me to teach the new material to them.  I can easily put the lesson on the whiteboard.  Then the workbook has several pages of exercises for them to cement the learning.  

Asking for help is another great resource.  Either by finding it on the internet or through a friend that has a wonderful foundation when it comes to grammar and grammatical terms/ uses.  I'm thankful that their are plenty of resources out their online to help.  When my middle son was in fifth grade he had a hard time with direct objects.  We went online and found a little quiz that really helped him learn the concept.  Now I hear him repeat, "subject+verb+who/what = direct object."

Lastly we push through.  Grammar is not my best subject and I could have easily said we won't learn that.  I could have skipped it.  They certainly learn grammar through their writing, reading and our read-alouds.  We have the organic learning down pat (and I suspect that is how I've managed to be able to write without memorizing my prepositions...).  I push though to teach us all the lesson that just because something is hard doesn't mean we skip over it.  Sometimes we need to prove to ourselves (and our kids) we can accomplish a task that is not our strong point.  Will I learn what a gerund is or be able to find the past participle?  Probably!  Will my kids learn these concepts? Absolutely! 

Thank you for joining ARupLife.com for this Crew Carnival.  You can visit the rest of the crew and see their thoughts on The Subject I Struggle Teaching Most by clicking on the graphic below!  As always comments are great appreciated!