A Homeschool Grammar Curriculum from IEW

This article is in collaboration with Institute for Excellence in Writing.

For many homeschool families, Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) is a familiar name for meeting their children’s language art needs. Most may be familiar with their writing program, Structure, and Style, but they also have a homeschool grammar curriculum. Recently IEW updated their grammar program, Fix It! Grammar and the Homeschool Review Crew has been reviewing it for several weeks. So for those looking for a grammar program to teach grammar in 15 minutes a day, Fix It! Grammar may be the answer.

What is Fix-It Grammar

The members of the Homeschool Review Crew each received one level of Fix-it! Grammar along with the add-on Fix It! Grammar Cards. Crew members used Levels 1-5 in their homes for several weeks. The levels are broken down as follows:

Elementary-

·        Level 1- Nose Tree

·        Level 2- Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

Middle School–

·        Level 3- Robin Hood

·        Level 4- Mowgli and Shere Khan

High School–

·        Level 5- Frog Prince

·        Level 6- Little Mermaid (Currently not available, so the Crew did not review this)

Each level is named after a story because Fix It! Grammar teaches grammar using authentic pieces of literature! Students fix a passage each day from the story working on specific grammatical errors. By the time kids finish all 30 weeks of this homeschool grammar curriculum, they will have worked their way through the whole story, learning grammar. To help with placement, IEW provides sample pages for the first five levels. IEW also offers FREE lessons to try for those looking for more information.

Inside Fix It! Grammar

Fix It! Grammar is an “open and go” program. The lessons are broken down into a four-day a week schedule. Fix It! Grammar lays out everything for the teaching parent. The Teacher Manual states what needs to teach for each lesson. Plus, the answers and explanations are in the book. The Student Book is identical to the Teacher Manual minus the answers. In this way, parents and students can work seamlessly together.

Each weekly lesson is set up as follows:

·        Learn It!

·        Read It!

·        Mark It!

·        Fix It!

·        Rewrite It!

In Learn It, students will learn a new grammar concept or concepts at the beginning of the week. The lessons have detailed information and examples so parents can feel confident in teaching. Then, students can follow along in their book for better understanding.

Once students learn the new topic, they go through the following steps Read It, Mark It, and Fix It! Here, students will read the passage and mark and fix the mistakes they find. Fix It! Grammar provides the key for marking the daily selection.

Finally, the last step is Rewrite It! Now that the sentence is complete, it is time to rewrite it correctly.

Follow these steps, and parent and child can complete grammar lessons in 15 minutes a day!

Homeschool Grammar Fix It! Grammar Cards

The Review Crew also received the add-on Fix It! Grammar Cards. These cards fit in with this homeschool grammar curriculum. The pack contains thirty cards aligned with the key grammar concepts taught in the Fix It! Grammar program.

The full-colored cards can be used for teaching or grammar review. However, the website also provides games and activities for using the cards for practice and study. There are activities and games for easy, moderate, and hard levels. It has something for everyone.

The Institute for Excellence in Writing has a complete grammar curriculum for your homeschool with Fix It! Grammar. In a few minutes a day, busy homeschool families can complete grammar and be on their way.

A special thank you to Sharon from The Secret Life of Homeschoolers for this introductory article.

Check out the Homeschool Review Crew reviews by clicking on the links below.