Fun with Fix-It Grammar – An IEW Review

I am so excited to share our review of Robin Hood [Book 2], which is part of the Fix It! Grammar program from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).]

We had the opportunity to review The Nose Tree [Book 1] in the Fix It! Grammar series in the past (you can read the review here), so we were happy to have the opportunity to review the Book 2.

What’s Fix It! Grammar

Fix It! Grammar is a complete grammar program that teaches not only grammar but how it applies to writing. In 15 minute, bite-size lessons, students progress through learning and applying the rules of grammar in a fun way that sticks.

We were provided the Student Workbook and the Teacher’s Manual for the program. It is intended for…. There is a placement test available from the website, which is important because you want to make sure that the student has a good basis to begin working through the program.

The program is intended to be used 5 days a week and is laid out well in the student and teacher’s manuals on what the student is to do each day.

In Book 2, Robin Hood, the student is reading passages from the classic novel Robin Hood. Each day they have assignments in editing, vocabulary, and copywork. The back of the student workbook includes flashcards regarding the grammar rules that the student is using. These can be cut out in the beginning or cut out as needed. They are very clearly marked making it easy to determine which cards go with each lesson.

Additionally, after the lessons is read and taught, the student can work through the passage they have to edit each of the first 4 days of the week. They work through editing the passage for punctuation and grammar, rules that they learn along the way, and then mark the passage with editing markings and labeling the part of speech in the sentence.

Each day the student may right the completed sentence into a notebook in the correct format. Or the student may wait until the 5th work day of the week and then copy all 4 passages into his notebook in order to have copywork and review. There is no sentence for editing on the 5th day.

By the end of the course, the student will have an entire story to read about Robin Hood.

Basic concepts covered in the curriculum include: basic parts of speech, identifying clause and phrases, and work through punctuation rules needed in composition.

Every day the student will read the sentence and look up the words in bold in a dictionary. Once they have determined which definition best fits the meaning of the word, they will write a brief definition in their vocabulary section of their notebook. This list will be added to every day.

Day 1 the student will read the instructions for the week, marking and fixing the first passage with the assistance of the teacher. Discuss any questions and do your rewrite if you are rewriting each day.

Day 2 , 3, and 4 the student uses the abbreviations at the top of the page and the grammar flashcards to mark the passages. Student corrects the passage for each day and goes over the any missed edits in the passage.

The rewrite is suggested to be done each day and copied into a notebook. The copy is not with the markings but in the corrected format. All punctuation and end marks are emphasized.

The workbook is 33 weeks of daily lessons and includes 132 vocabulatly words. The teachers notes are clear and easy to understand, making the lessons easy to follow.

After completing of Fix It! Grammar Robin Hood [Book 2], the student will move on to Book 3, Frog Price or Just Deserts.

WHAT WE THOUGHT

Overall, we really like this product. We liked the Book 1, The Nose Tree, and were quite happy with Book 2 as well. We used it with our 9 year old son, who had completed the Book 1 previously. He had skipped a year in between using Book 1 and starting Book 2 and there were some concepts that needed to be reviewed.

Like all the Institute for Excellent in Writing (IEW) products we have used, we were pleased the quality and rigor of the program. You can read other IEW product reviews here. (Writing, poetry, and spelling.)

I liked that the program is using a classical piece that is interesting to both girls and boys to work through. The copywork is included by having the student rewrite the passage, which I like. But isn’t too laboreous because it is typically only a sentence that they copy each day.

Lastly, the review level of the materials covered before is good. Since the program builds on itself, the student has to recall the basic like capitalization and end marks, but then build on this by identifying not just nouns and verbs but who-which clauses and prepositional phrases. Concepts such as when to write out numbers and commonly confused words like they’re/their/there or to/too/two are also practiced.

In just 15 minutes a day, which is about all my son can take,
Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) Fix It! Grammar gives your student lessons chock-full of grammar and vocabulary. We just love
Fix It! Grammar and it pairs very nicely with our classical model in our homeschool.

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Check out what the rest of the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) Fix It! Grammar.