Easy Grammar Plus (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given their choice of 7 grammar instruction books from Easy Grammar Systems.   For our own homeschool, we opted to review Easy Grammar Plus, a middle school level book, for Ashleigh and Garrett to work thru together.  Easy Grammar Plus is written by Wanda C. Phillips, Ed.D.

Easy Grammar Plus is most often used for 7th grade students, however, it would be good for most middle school level students as well as anyone who would like to improve their understanding of grammar. 

With 694 pages and 14 sections, this book presents a very solid grammar foundation.  With easy to follow lessons and cumulative tests following each section, students won't feel overwhelmed but will still end up with a good understanding of the structure of the English language and the rules that govern it.

Covered in Easy Grammar Plus:

Prepositions
Verbs
Nouns
Interjections
Conjunctions
Adjectives
Types of Sentences
Sentences, Fragments, and Run-Ons
Phrases and Clauses
Adverbs
Pronouns
Punctuation
Capitalization
Letter Writing

Also included is an 8 page pre/post assessment test. It is requested that students take the test before beginning any lessons.  This assessment is then scored (a rubix for grading the assessment is included at the back of the book) and the student then beings the lessons.   The same assessment is then give to the student once they have completely the book.

Lessons and activities are pretty black and white, literally. But that's okay.   There's no crazy illustrations to distract, it's just the information needed in order to teach the lesson.  Example are given in the lesson, making it easy for me to write the example on our dry eraser board and have the kids walk me thru what they need to do.

The first section of this book focuses very heavily on working with prepositions.  Students are asked to be able memorize and recall from their memory a total of 53 common prepositions before beginning the activities in the book.  This took us a bit longer than I would have liked, as we spent a good three weeks going over those prepositions and writing them out.  We even posted them on our wall and I told the kids each time they walked past the sheet, they needed to stop and recite the list.   However, after three weeks, they knew them by memory.

Ashleigh was thrilled when she was able to recite her prepositions from memory. 

One the kids had memorized, we started working on the activities in the book.   I simply print out the assignments for both kids, teach the lesson included in the book, and then the kids and I would work on the assignment.   The directions for each activity is pretty clear and conscience, with examples included in the lesson so the kids aren't left trying to figure it out. 

Ignore the horrible copy - my printer cartridge was on it's last leg at the time. 

I really do like this book, and I am looking forward to using this over the next year and possibly longer.   However, I do find that the bulk of this book makes it a bit more difficult to use when making copies for both of my kids.  With so many page, the printer cannot close over the book and the weight of the book causes it to want to slide down off the printer.  Luckily, the border closest to the binding is quite expansive, so I am considering taking the book to an office supply store, have the binding trimmed off and then have holes punched in.  That way, I can put the pages in a large binder and then easily pull the desired pages out to copy when needed.  However, a digital version of this book is available, as well as a physical student workbook that can be given to the student to avoid having the print from the book. Both of these options would eliminate the need to balance the book on a copier.

For more information about Easy Grammar Systems, be sure to visit their website.  You can also find them on the following social media sites:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EasyGrammarSystems/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Easygrammar

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/easygrammarsystems/

Members of the Crew were given their choice of 7 offerings from Easy Grammar Systems, covering a wide range of Grade Levels from early elementary, middle and high school.  Click the banner below to find out an option that might work for your student's needs.