Thoughts for "Early Lessons in English Grammar"

As I republish articles of interest from The Parents' Review, which can be found at Internet Archive, I will also post my thoughts about each article here on this blog.

In "Early Lessons in English Grammar", Miss Wingate gives us almost a dozen lessons for beginning a study of English grammar, each one building from the former one. She shows parents how approaching the lessons from a sensible and child-friendly perspective makes introducing grammar easy and logical.

While most of the lessons made sense, I felt that some aspects could be confusing -especially to parents today. This was more in how the lessons were relayed than in the actual lessons themselves. In some lessons, she included Exercises, but in others she just indicated that Exercises should be done, but none were given. I made some very minor edits for material clearly outdated [changing “boys” to “children” to be more inclusive], changed British spelling for American spelling as well as a couple of other edits where confusing.

Miss Wingate very effectively relayed that lessons in English grammar do not have to be overly complicated and that they serve children better when they are not. She specifically wanted to impress the idea that the lessons should allow children to come to the “rules” of grammar for themselves as possible -rather than what was often the conventional way of asserting rules, having children read them and then see how they apply through example exercises. I appreciated that she arranged her lessons so that children could understand “why” the rules were as they were and that they made sense. She also makes the case for how these lessons segway into learning Latin grammar and how later both English grammar and Latin grammar will reinforce each other.

For the purposes of this curriculum, A Mind in the Light, grammar lessons can begin somewhere between late Year Three and Year Four, depending on the readiness of each student individually. The lessons included in this article would be a great way to ease into a study of grammar. I’ve also linked Charlotte Mason’s own grammar lessons at the website. Look under “Resources” and then “Skill Subjects and Foreign Languages”. You may also use other resources as best fits your family.

A PDF file of “Early Lessons for English Grammar” is attached below.