Thursday, June 11, 2009

Spelling Rules & Grammar Guides







Author: www.KidsLearningisfun.com

I’m always correcting the children’s spelling and whilst my grammar isn’t poor, I must have missed the week at school when they covered things like clauses and collocation. (Have you ever heard of that last one??)

My son, in year 6, comes home with English homework that really makes me wonder if I was even on the planet for grammar lessons. The girls, in Year 3 don’t stretch me quite so far … yet!

I was thrilled to find the website KidsLearningisfun (through the fabulous site Connect2mums) who make some tremendous little guides for parents and children to keep at home and help out when you get stuck with helping with homework. I have two guides - Spelling Rules and Grammar which are aimed at grades 1 through 7.

My son at 11 is quite capable of using the guide himself (without involving me at all – always a good thing) and I can show the girls (age 8) the more basic levels.

The guides are well designed – each page on the spiral bound book is laminated so eating afternoon tea and doing homework isn’t as damaging as it could be! The guides are colour coded for easy and quick reference.

I like the spelling rules – mentioning some of those tried and true favourite sayings to remember your spelling such as “i before e except after c” that they no longer seem to teach in schools, and going into more depth by covering less well known rules and exceptions.

The grammar book is sure to become well used. Even my son took an interest flicking through it to refresh his memory, saying “I always forget what nouns and stuff are”. Hmmm, well boys are known for their inability to express themselves!

The guides are well priced at $22.95 for the Grammar and $19.95 for the Spelling Rules. Basically if you have a child currently at primary school or starting soon, these will become an indispensable part of the homework roundabout.


3 comments:

Mark Pennington said...

Great article! I have a nice list of the spelling rules with examples and MP3s of spelling rule songs and raps to check out at Spelling Rules Songs and Raps.

The Editrix said...

Hi there!

Just thought I'd drop a quick note to say that I like your blog! Books and film adaptations of books are my passion, so I've enjoyed reading your reviews.

~Elise

PS - I also live in rural NSW. :-)

Anonymous said...

Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a great 'adult' grammar book!