A Truly Unique Approach to Grammar with Fix It! Grammar

Take the fear out of teaching grammar with a truly unique grammar program. Featuring quick, easy-to-teach lessons and a spiral approach to learning, Fix It! Grammar is helping our homeschool family learn grammar rules and have fun while doing it. Let me show you how this one program can be used across multiple grade levels, and why this curriculum review grammar program was added to our regular homeschool routine.

A few years ago I first came across Fix It! Grammar from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). While the program looked amazing I opted to pass. We had just completed a grammar-heavy program and everyone was ready for a change. The kids and I both needed a break from the monotony of hard and fast grammar rules.

However, I made a note to check it out in a few years.

Had I known back then what I know now about this program, I wouldn’t have waited for a review opportunity to try it out.

Mom’s Little Secret

Rarely do I sign up for a curriculum review without first checking with the kids. I like to get their feel for a product, talk with them about how we are going to use it, and see if there is even a sliver of interest.

But with a grammar review, I was concerned there wouldn’t be an interest… So instead of talking with them I quietly researched IEW and selected one single level to use with my 3rd grader, my 8th grader, and my 9th grader.

While there are six levels available in the Fix It! Grammar program, I opted to start right at the beginning with Book 1, The Nose Tree. The IEW website does offer placement tests to allow your student to start at a higher level, but they actually recommend starting with Book 1 simply because each level builds off the prior one.

And where I knew I was going to be working with the three kids at one time, I truly felt that one level for them all would be easiest.

Plus, as I said, it’s been a couple of years since we sat down for formal grammar lessons. Even if the older kids found the material ridiculously easy at first, I was confident they would learn at least a thing or two.

When the box arrived, I was super excited.

When the kids saw what it was, they were not.

Yet a quick overview of the program had them slowly warming to the idea of Fix It! Grammar.

Using One Grammar Program to Teach Three Grades

The magic of Fix It! Grammar is in its approach to teaching grammar skills. Rather than simply learning a skill, practicing it for a set amount of time, then moving on to a new skill, Fix It! Grammar uses a story-based approach – something I am a huge fan of.

I have seen the results with my own children of using real-life applications in the learning process instead of the learn, move on, learn approach that is commonly used.

With Fix It! Grammar, you and your children learn grammar skills by working on four sentences per week. Each of these sentences are part of a story that you are working on editing, learning from, and writing out through the entire book.

Armed with my teacher’s manual, one student book, and two printed PDF copies of the week one lesson, the kids and I sat down to our first lesson.

Initially, I had planned on working one-on-one with my younger student and having the older two work independently at a faster pace. However, for this first lesson, I wanted to work together with all three kids.

I wanted to see how the program worked and make sure it was going to be as easy as it looked. The teacher’s manual states that you can complete Book 1 in just 15 minutes a day over 33 weeks. For older students, you can easily have them complete two weeks’ worth of lessons per week and complete the level in half the time.

Sadly, there were no directions on how to teach students who were slightly more than apprehensive at the idea of parsing sentences again.

Luckily, this homeschool mom is used to a tough audience. 😉

Completing Week 1 In A Single Day

Now I didn’t set out to complete week 1 in just a single day. As the kids and I sat in the living room to go over the lesson on nouns, homophones, and end marks, they asked more questions than they listened.

And as I’m sure you are aware, talking mouths do not lend themselves to listening ears.

As I explained the rules (which are listed in their student books and printed copies), I encouraged them to listen and try we painfully finished the week 1, day 1 exercise.

On a good day, the Fix It! Grammar program should take just 15 minutes according to IEW. Everything you need to explain the grammar rule is right in the teacher’s book as well as the student’s. After a quick lesson, the student moves on to the five steps of reading the sentence, defining the vocabulary word, fixing and marking your sentence, discussing your answers with your teacher, and then copying your sentence into a notebook.

Sounds easy enough, right!?

I’d love to say that it was but the reality is that day 1 of week 1 took all of the patience I could muster. I was pleasantly surprised though to see my 3rd grader correctly picking out the two nouns in the first sentence. And all of the children agreed that a question mark was the correct end mark for this particular sentence. Not surprisingly, none of them were interested in the details about the history of the pilcrow.

After finishing the day 1 sentence I decided that we should also work on the day 2 sentence together. That one went much smoother as the kids quickly agreed on a period for the end of the sentence and the marking of just two nouns.

Wanting to end the first lesson on a good note, I decided to have the kids complete the sentences for days 3 and 4 independently. Once they were done, we could discuss them together and be sure we fully understood how to use the program.

The kids surprised themselves, and me, by completing them both quickly and accurately. All that was left to do was to write the sentences into a notebook, but we didn’t have any. Not a one. So I left myself a note to pick some up, and soon, and we ended the day on a good note.

You Can Either Laugh or Cry

After taking the weekend off the kids and I planned on starting week 2.

For our Fix It! Grammar review, it was decided that the two older kids would complete 2 weeks per week from this point forward and the younger student would do just one week at a time. All I had to do was print from the PFD and we’d be all set.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know that I was out of ink until I hit print.

Worse, we don’t live in a town where I can just go pick some up.

So I hopped online and quickly put the manufacturer’s brand of ink in my cart. But just before I submitted the order I decided to look for a cheaper option. The reviews all said this ink would work with my printer and plenty of people commented that it was so much better so I ordered the cheaper option. Now I simply had to wait for it to arrive. The kids and I decided that we would just work week 2 together at the end of the week just like we had with week 1.

Two days later, with ink in my hand, I set out to change my ink cartridge. The first thing I noticed was that it looked almost identical, but not quite.

I put it in anyway.

The printer made a strange sound as it pressurized the cartridge but printed me an alignment page. Everything seemed to be in working order so I hopped on the computer to access the digital copy of Fix It! Grammar…

That’s when my printer decided to give me a horrible lights show, flash me an error code, and insist I shut it down.

Unfortunately, no amount of shutting it down, unplugging it, or online tech support could rectify the situation. The error code I received stated the problem was with the print-head. And after an hour of attempting to fix it (pun intended), I decided to wash my hands and let my husband deal with it.

Only, he couldn’t. He tried everything he could, really. He researched and found some other ideas online. We even looked up buying a replacement part. However, with no guarantee that a replacement part would fix the printer error and a review stopped firmly in its tracks, we decided to simply replace the entire unit.

Getting Back On Track WIth our Fix It! Grammar Review

A week later, with our new printer set up and functioning perfectly, and an account with HP Instant Ink so I never have to run out of ink again, the kids and I set out to start week 2 of Fix It! Grammar.

Since we had already picked up our notebooks and wrote the four sentences from week 1 in them, we began with our lesson on articles.

And as much as I wanted to push the older kids and have them complete two weeks per week, we decided that we’d simply work together. The time frame left in the review period was running low, we were not confident enough in using the program, and I had no patience left for any more mishaps.

Week 2 we were introduced to articles, three small but important words. Just like with week 1, we completed the sentences for days 1 and 2 together. We read them, discussed the proper end marks needed as well as the highlighted vocabulary word, and then began marking the nouns and articles.

Both days went remarkably well so we jumped right into days 3 and 4. Together we read the sentences and discussed the vocab word, then each child worked independently marking the nouns and articles.

When they were done we discussed the words they marked, corrected where necessary, and again discussed the pilcrow on day 3. We also paused to discuss the idiom on day 3 because one of the kids had marked “a” and “sudden.” However, because they were part of the idiom this was marked under advanced and not necessary to mark.

I congratulated my son for a job well done though, because even if they didn’t need to be marked in this particular sentence, he was paying attention.

When It Rains It Pours

I’m pretty confident that when the expression “never a dull moment” was coined, the author was thinking of my family.

After completing our week 2 lessons, and starting to feel really good about the Fix It! Grammar program, my third-grader got sick. Not just a little cold that we could work around, but a sudden and fierce illness that hit him like a ton of bricks and mimicked the flu.

A few days later, while at rehearsal for a musical, my 8th grader broke her hand.

And slowly but surely I watched as all hope for completing our review of Fix It! Grammar… or even having the chance at using this program properly for one week… fade into the distance.

However, after giving my 3rd grader time to feel better (it took more than a week), and my daughter time to get used to life with only one good hand, we again found ourselves around the kitchen table working on week 3.

At this point, we decided to keep our of working on days 1 and 2 together followed by days 3 and 4 independently with a group discussion and review. Following this, all three of the kids would work on adding their sentences to their notebooks where a story was beginning to take shape.

Week 3 covered quotations and surprisingly enough we were able to get to week 4 without any interruptions. Week 4 introduced pronouns and listed out 14 of the more common ones. While this was easy enough for the older two kids, my 3rd grader did struggle with this concept slightly. However, when I pointed out that the list of pronouns was on the grammar card (more information on them below) both his markings of pronouns and his confidence improved.

As we rolled into week 5 we were really enjoying this program and finally at a point where we could laugh off the disruptions to our review period. Week 5 introduced us to the concept of the “which clause,” something new for all of us.

After laying out the instructions for locating these clauses, and reviewing the day 1 sentence with all three kids an idea found its way into my mind.

You see, one of the amazing things about working a single grammar program with multiple grade levels is the opportunity to see not just what the older kids remember, but also to see how new concepts are introduced to the younger ones. It’s also interesting to watch as some get the sentence parsing correct, while others make mistakes.

And most interesting, is the opportunity to watch my children discuss their rationale for certain markings.

So with all of these interesting and amazing things happening around me, I decided to flip the page so to speak and let each of my children take a turn at leading the review and discussion of a single sentence.

With three days remaining in the week, all three of them would have the opportunity to be teacher for the day. I even allowed them to use the teacher’s book after parsing and marking their own sentences.

And let me tell you, it was amazing!

My 9th grader led the discussion for the day 2 sentences, my 8th grader took day 3, and my 3rd grader got day 4. I chimed in where necessary, but for the most part, I simply sat back and watched as my children learned and taught both together and independently.

I watched in awe as they worked diligently, especially on “their” day to ensure their markings were correct and accurate.

Saw them follow the proper order for both marking and reviewing sentences.

And marveled as they checked the teacher’s book for notes, tips, and hints (which are all throughout the book and super helpful).

After a successful end to our final week, we all took a moment to simply enjoy ending our Fix It! Grammar review on a positive note.

Additional Resources for Fix It! Grammar

As I previously mentioned, grammar cards are included in the Fix It! Grammar program and just as the name implies, they are cards with grammar rules right on them.

Small in size, they are tools to help your children remember the various rules they are learning. You can either cut them out of the student book or print them out from the PDF file and your kids can use them as they progress through the program.

A glossary is also included in the back of the student workbook and digital copy. Perfect for quickly locating additional information you may need for a particular grammar concept.

While the spiral-bound copy of the student book is a consumable product and intended to be used only by one student, the digital copy (provided with the Teacher’s Manual) is able to be printed for multiple students in your home.

The teacher’s manual also grants you access to two e-audio files titled Mastery Learning and But, but, but… What about Grammar?

Final Thoughts on Fix It! Grammar from the Institute for Excellence in Writing

I will admit that our time with Fix It! Grammar was, well, unconventional.

Our journey was fraught with bumps, detours, and unexpected events… yet, that’s truly something to be expected in homeschooling and in life. Rarely does a day go as planned and more often than not, we use curricula in ways that both utilize them but also cater to the specific needs of our families.

Thankfully, this program fits that bill perfectly and allowed us the opportunity to grow and learn together. To have fun with grammar and experience parsing in a new and different light (and so much better than a prior attempt!).

Moving forward, we are adding this program to our Language Arts program. We will continue through the remaining 28 weeks and cover concepts such as verbs, apostrophes, prepositions, adjectives and adverbs, rules for capitalization, apostrophes, and more.

We will continue parsing sentences and adding those sentences to our notebooks. And at the end, we will have completed a full story, deepened our understanding of grammar, and hopefully continued to have an enjoyable time doing so.

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Want to know more about the other levels available in Fix It! Grammar? Check out additional reviews here!