Winston Grammar
Frequently Asked Questions

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6. INTEGRATING WINSTON GRAMMAR--READINESS CONSIDERATIONS?
Q.
My wife and I are looking at home schooling our son for the 4th grade. We plan on using Calvert's 4th grade curriculum as the core our home school. The one area I'd like to supplement is English grammar. I was just wondering if you could tell me how you think Winston's grammar course would fit in to our plans. Also, how much study time is required daily for your course.

A.
Most grammar concepts are abstract with the exception of nouns (things a child can hold in their hand), action verbs (things children do) and adjectives (descriptive words such as colors or numbers). State of being verbs, helping verbs, nouns that are concepts (such as a May 1, or love, happiness, etc), many adverbs, all the ways nouns and pronouns are used (direct and indirect objects, predicate nominatives, etc) are all quite abstract. Until a child has developed their abstract thinking skills, which usually occurs about 5th-6th grade or 10-12 years of age, trying to teach and have him/her retain abstract concepts is very difficult. My advice is to not worry much about grammar until 5th grade. If you feel a great need to do grammar, then just start with the very basic concrete nouns, action verbs, and adjectives. When a child is ready to understand and learn grammar, the Winston Grammar Program can be easily taught in 5-10 minutes a day using the suggested lesson plan outlined in the very beginning page of the Basic Teacher Manual.

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