Middle School Grammar

Easy Grammar Plus

Homeschool Review Crew

This year I have two children in high school and two in middle school plus a variety of grades going down to ten months old.  It seems like a lot.  I was a bit overwhelmed when I started to plan out our year. And then the Homeschool Review Crew and Easy Grammar Systems came to my rescue!  We were chosen to review Easy Grammar Plus which is the perfect middle school grammar curriculum.

Easy Grammar Plus is normally used for seventh grade which works well for me.  I have one in seventh and one in eighth grade who are using this for their grammar for the year.  We’ve had some spotty grammar coverage through elementary so I’m loving this for a solid junior high and middle school experience before going into high school. 

About the Curriculum

Easy Grammar Systems has grammar programs for all grades.  This curriculum has you covered if you need grammar help.  I needed middle school grammar help so I chose the Easy Grammar Plus for this review.

Easy Grammar Plus is geared towards middle school with most using it for seventh grade.  Though it can be used for that you can also adjust it and use it where ever you need it for grades approximately 6th through adult in my opinion.  I am using it for grades 7 and 8. 

Howtolearn.com awarded the Parent and Teacher  Choice Award to Easy Grammar Systems.  Easy Grammar Systems has been around since 1985 when author Wanda C. Philips created the first Easy Grammar books.  Since then she has added lots more books and grade levels to the series and helped many children find grammar palatable if not fun while they learned!

Each book is all you need to teach and do the work.  So in each book, you will find your teaching instructions, lessons, reviews, tests, cumulative reviews, and cumulative tests.  I love this approach as it means I don’t need to buy workbooks for everyone which is always a blessing for this homeschool mama.  

Assessment tests are now included in some of their books as well.  This Easy Grammar Plus book is one that has an assessment test inside of it as are the Easy Grammar grade books. 

You can buy student workbooks to go along with the teacher’s book if you would so like.  As I mentioned above I prefer not to have to buy workbooks but I know others find them super helpful.  Also available are Daily Gram books for this age range.  Please check the main blog post linked in the learn more section to find out more about those as Crew members have also reviewed them. 

Our Thoughts

I love this program.  While I had heard of Easy Grammar before I had never used it.  Now that I’ve tried this middle school grammar book I think we shall never go back.  While I might not use it for the lower elementary grades (or maybe I will) I do see great wisdom in using this book for all middle school grades.  It teaches everything they should have learned within the elementary school years plus adds to it to make them ready for the higher level grammar studies.

It really works well.  Since it doesn’t take hours a day and isn’t drilling everything into your students so they can forget it the next day it works.  My kids may not LOVE grammar but they definitely don’t hate this curriculum.  It lets them learn what they need to without making it seriously unpleasant.  This is saying something!

As I mentioned above I love that everything is in this book.  You get everything you need for the entire year within one book.  No need to buy workbooks for each child.  This to me is an ideal curriculum because I can use it now, use it later, and then keep using it until my last child is through the program.  While I’m not a cheapskate, well at least I don’t think so, I do like to get a good deal and I love not having to buy new workbooks every time a child needs to level up or the next child comes to the level.  

Okay, so how does it work.  It works really well.  My children are learning and remembering concepts that I don’t think they even remember forgetting.  

Our Week

Our week using this program looks like us using this four to five days a week.  We start out going over the material for the lesson.  I teach it and show some examples.  Then my child does the review.  That is all in one day.  I find that doing at least one workbook type page after teaching helps to solidify that concept.

There are at least two workbook pages per concept or have been for what we’ve been learning.  The first step in learning grammar is memorizing 50 prepositions according to the book.  

For the workbook pages, the first page includes the answers and the second page is blank so you can copy it for your student.  Then boom back to the book and grade their page.  If you don’t plan on reusing the book you can cover up the teacher side with a piece of cardstock if you wanted to.  For us, I am copying the pages.  Another way to reuse would be to put a piece of wipe-off clear paper like a page protector and have your child use a dry erase marker to answer.  I don’t like doing this though as it is hard to write neat and legibly that way for my children. 

The great thing about this approach is that it only takes around 5-10 minutes a day to use this program.  That means no banging my head against the wall while we try to get a concept for hours every day.  It’s simple, concise, and to the point.  

Okay, so how do the kids like it?  How do I like it?

I really like this approach.  It’s mastery-based.  So if my child does not get the concept we don’t move on until they do get the concept.  There is an assessment at the beginning that can be taken to find out what your child does or does not know so you don’t have to redo things they know.  I chose to skip that with the two girls I’m using this with this year.  I know that we have some areas that weren’t covered but I also know that they have forgotten a lot of the grammar they’ve learned so we’re just working through the book.  

When I ask both girls how they like the program I normally am shocked with how much they like it.  Even if they struggle with a concept they still like it!  I think this is because, in the beginning, I took to heart what the author says about this is success-based.  Praise your child.  Celebrate their success!  Make this program work for you, not because it is a grammar type program that you drill into your child but because they CAN do it and they ARE a grammar success!

Clearly I am going to continue using this for middle school grammar with these two girls, but I am also going to be using this when each of the younger children hit grade 7 as well.  I’m not sure if I’ll use it as a one year program or make it a two-year program.  Right now I’m thinking this should be a one year program and then for the second year of middle school grammar I’ll use the daily grams so we’re just practicing what they learned the year prior and not losing any concepts.  

I already have the English/grammar curriculum for my younger students this year but my plan is to begin accumulating the Easy Grammar textbooks that will be needed for at least grades 3 and up.  This program works and I am impressed with it. 

My two girls using it are delayed and have some special needs.  If they can “get” the concepts as well as they have without any issues then this is a program that I can get behind.  You will find me singing the praises of Easy Grammar Plus and recommending it to other homeschool moms from now on. 

Learn More

Learn more about Easy Grammar Systems by reading all of the great reviews for different books in their curriculum on the Main Blog Post over on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.  In addition to Easy Grammar Plus, the best middle school grammar curriculum we’ve used, you’ll find Easy Grammar for grades 1 and 3, Daily Grams for grade 3 and 7, as well as the Easy Grammar Ultimate Series for grades 9 and 11, and of course you’ll find other reviews for Easy Grammar Plus.

Other spots to find Easy Grammar Systems are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  We have really enjoyed using this curriculum for middle school grammar over our review period and intend to use it as part of our school for this school year.  I’ll be posting on what curriculum I’ve chosen for all the children soon as we’re starting back to homeschool on Monday!