On Just A Couple Acres: ~Grammar~

Grammar being a study of words and not of things, is by no means attractive to the child, nor should he be hurried into it. English grammar, again, depending as it does on the position and logical connection of words, is peculiarly hard for him to grasp.

Because English grammar is a logical study, and deals with sentences and the positions that words occupy in them, rather than with words, and what they are in their own right, it is better that the child should begin with the sentence, and not with the parts of speech; that is, that he should learn a little of what is called analysis of sentences before he leans to parse; should learn to divide simple sentences into the thing we speak of, and what we say about it? before he is lost in the fog of person, mood, and part of speech.

When it comes to grammar, I had already fallen away from rigid teaching before I knew much of Charlotte Mason. My experience with it makes her words resonate that much more with me. I tried grammar lessons with my oldest for years when he was young. At first it was a fun program, but as he advanced, it lost it's simplicity and became very intensive and methodical. He was hung up for weeks and weeks trying to memorize a particular aspect when the wisdom of Ruth Beechick freed him from the painful lesson and I put off that trouble for later years when he might pick it up more naturally. If he even will need it at all. She states-

Not only does diagramming fail to improve children's writing, but all other grammar teaching suffers similarly. We have had about one hundred years of research on teaching the old Latin grammar. We also researched the newer generative and transactional grammars, with this method and that method, with this content and that content, and all the research was disappointing. Teaching grammar does not improve children's writing. That gives the happy message that you can skip the grammar drudgery, at least through the elementary years. After children write well, sometime in their teen years, they can learn some grammar so they will be educated about it. They will not have been burned out on it, and they may actually enjoy it at that time. - Ruth Beechick

After learning to speak and then learning to write, students can begin to handle a formal study of grammar. Some verbally oriented students or those who understand abstractions will take to this more readily than others. Those who take up writing full- or part-time are likely to make this ?a lifelong study. We do them a favor by not boring them or burning them out on grammar while they are young. The schooling world and the advertising world have convinced many people that to teach language you must teach grammar, and you must begin early as though that is the route to good writing and speaking. But the real route is to use the language first, immerse children in the language, and then teach its grammar.
This delay of grammar and minimizing of grammar is not at all to minimize English teaching. Quite the opposite. If your children are not burdened with diffiuclt and ineffective grammar then they have more time for learning that counts. -?A Biblical Home Education

She points out that teaching grammar to the youngest of our children should be simple and natural "since children automatically learn the grammar of the people around them."

So dear mothers, learn to speak well yourself and your children will naturally follow!

Source: http://onjustacoupleacres.blogspot.com/2012/10/grammar.html

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