Grammar in our Homeschool

This time of year, we spend time focusing a bit more on grammar. We have lots of free grammar worksheets here on the blog and I will link to some of those below.  In addition, I’d like to share some of the other grammar materials/resources we use in our homeschool.

In the beginning of the year, we always start off the school year with our All About Spelling (affiliate link); we love this program! We’ve used this since my oldest was in early elementary, you can find out why we love this spelling program in this post.

All About Spelling ProgramThen in the second half of the year we tend to focus more on grammar rules and practice. We have a lot of free grammar worksheets here on the blog – and I’ll link to some of those, but I thought I would also talk about the workbooks we’ve used for the past 7 years or so.

I started using the WriteSource Skillsbook (affiliate link) for grammar with LD (my oldest) when he was in first grade.  I think it was recommended in one of the groups I was in at the time.Write Source SkillsbookWhat I liked about the Grade 1 Skillsbook (affiliate link)(pictured above) was that each rule was clearly explained at the top of the page and then there was an area for him to practice that rule. It never overwhelmed him. It is a consumable book (so the kids write their answers in the book).  These are under $10 over at Amazon.

I was happy enough with that program that we’ve continued using the series. 🙂  DD, for example, is using Write Source Grade 6 SkillsBook this year and ED is using the Grade 3 SkillsBook (affiliate links) (pictured below).

Grade3-Grammar-SkillsBook

We have also used the Editor in Chief books. (affiliate link)  I’m not using them this year, but may bring them out with my youngest next year. They are published by the Critical Thinking company. These are good for finding and correcting errors in a paragraph.

Editor-in-Chief

Middle School/High School: LD is using the SkillsBook practice workbook again this year, but this year I added in a new resource which I highly recommend.  It’s called Writers Inc, A Student Handbook for Writing and Learning. (affiliate link) It is an excellent writing resource to have an hand for writing itself.

I am having my older two read through the sections on grammar, homophones, and parts of speech — pages 487 to 549.  The explanations of how to use the punctuation is excellent review for students in middle school and high school.  It’s hard to rave about grammar, but this is really is a useful resource to have on hand! (You can buy it used for under $10 over at Amazon: Writers Inc.)

Writers IncI also mentioned that I have also made the kids various practice worksheets through the years.  For those of you who might be new to our blog, let me link to the most popular sheets we have.  You can also check out our Language Arts Resource page.

The most popular grammar pages we have are the their/there/they’re and its/it’s page (Free)

TheirThereTheyreItsIts-PracticeWorksheetHere are some similar worksheet sets with homophones:

Free Grammar Practice Sheets – to/two/too, there/they’re/their AND Plurals, Adding Endings

they’re/their/there, it’s/its, you’re/your, way/weigh – and other Homophones Worksheet (free)

Free Grammar Worksheets: Homophones (words that sound the same, but are spelled differently)

Our comma rules and practice sheets also tend to have a lot of downloads each day:

CommaRules-and-Practice
Comma Rules and Practice (Free Worksheets) (pictured above)

Comma Rules and Practice Sheets (Free)

Comma Rules and Practice Pages (Free Grammar Worksheets)

Grammar Review Sheet – Capital Letters, Commas, Letters (Grade 1)

A couple years ago, I started going over the semicolon rules with my older two. This set explains the rules for using semicolons and has practice sentences.

Semicolon Rules and Practice Sheets (free)

SemicolonRules-PracticeSheetsAnd here are some of our other free grammar worksheets

CupcakeContractions-Worksheets-MatchingActivitySpelling: 

At the beginning of the post I explained that we tend to focus more on spelling at the beginning of the year using  All About Spelling program (affiliate link) We’ve used this since my oldest was in early elementary. Again, you can find out why we love this spelling program in this post.

All About Spelling ProgramWe have various spelling activities that I’ve made for the kids that go along with the spelling program we use. The kids really love when we play games in our homeschool and I’ve made various spelling sorts and board games as they’ve practiced some of the spelling words.  Here are some of the spelling packets I’ve made:

er Sound Word Sort and Game: ur, ir, er, or, ear, our Spelling Words

er Sound word sort or er ir ur ear
Long E Words e, ee, ea, e-e, ie, ei, y, ey Activities and Games

Long E-Sound Word Sort Activities and Games
Long I Word Sort – Words with y, i_e or ie

Long i words ie y i-e igh Spelling Activities
Long A Sounds /ay/ – a, ai, ay, a-e, ei, eigh, ey –Sorting Cards and Board Game!

Long A Sound Words a ai ay ei ey eigh silent e ActivitiesK-Sound Spelling Word Sort Activities: c, k, ck, ch, cc, que

k ck c ch cc que words

That’s about it. If you have any questions, be sure to drop me a note!

See you again soon here or over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page! Don’t forget to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter. You might also want to check out some of our resources pages above (such as our Science, Language Arts, or History Units Resource Pages) which have links to dozens of posts.  Don’t forget to check out Our Store as well. :) ~Liesl

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.

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