First Language Lessons Level 4 Student Workbook: Student Workbook

I am a believer in a strong grammar eduction, and this course definitely provides it! I have been homeschooling for one year, and my children have learned more from "First Language Lessons" than they had learned in all their previous schooling. Some highlights: - This course covers all the parts of speech, has copious diagramming, and provides both narration and memorization practice. (The poem selections are excellent: they are poems that any classically educated child should know, like "Ozymandias".) - The course has an "open and go" design: the teacher does not need to do any prep work! Simply read what is written on the page. - It uses English the way that I learned it in a mostly-classical grammar school. Two quick examples: (1) the plural of "fish" is "fish" (not fishes), and (2) the proper way to use commas in a series (I detest the new AP style that omits the final comma before the conjunction). There is only one (relatively minor) thing that I dislike: the extremely repetitive nature of the exercises. If your child is a fairly fast learner, then this book can be a bit "drill and kill". That being said, I still love the course. I just make some small adjustments (skipping over some sections that they know solidly) so that my kids don't get too bored.

We are currently using level 3 of this series. They have learned way more then other curriculums I used in the past, it is not as much work for me, I am able to combine my 3rd and 4th grader, and it is fun. As part of the grammer my children have memorized several poems, state of being verbs, linking verbs, helping verbs, and personal pronouns. Since I never memorized these in school I have memorized them now to. There is also a lot of diagramming which the kids are walked thru at first and able to do. My oldest has come to love diagramming. When she saw level 4 and how it has longer diagrams she was thrilled and can't wait to start it. This series emparts an enthusiasm for language.

This is the second level of this we’ve tried. It is an easy to master grammar curriculum that helps teach grannar and sentence diagramming in smaller steps. Includes many property selections for memorization, as well. Short, sweet, and feels “easy@ to teach and students say to complete for learners. Effective tool.

I am teaching Language Arts in a very small, private school. I have used this text as well as the Level 3 text for 5th and 6th graders who have never had formal grammar lessons previously. I have to keep the pace moving a little bit with both of these texts, but I personally really like the auditory-based skills this series encourages. I believe "good listening skills" are a dying art, and I love that the students have definitions to memorize, and that they move on to diagramming to solidify concepts. Overall, I am very pleased with these texts in our small classroom setting (7 students, 1 teacher).

This series is well-written and thorough! Diagramming sentences seems to be a thing of the past in most public schools, but my daughter actually enjoys the diagramming lessons in this book. The only drawback to the series is that it is very scripted and repetitive which sometimes annoys my daughter. So I tweak how I present certain things and don't always do all the repetitions of rules and such. Overall, we are very pleased, and I'm relearning grammar with my daughter.

Purchased FLL series level 3 & 4 due to our positive experience with The Story of the World series by (same family as Jessie Wise) Susan Wise Bauer. Our intent was to give it a try and see how it went - we were very neutral when starting. However, with time, we have come to appreciate this series as well and find it interesting how much our children are learning with this unique and easy approach (as compared to many other different types of lessons teaching language arts/grammar/writing that seem to bounce around or skim over topics). We have since also purchased the Writing With Ease and Writing With Skill series. They offer a fun (with all the excellent selection of excerpts from dozens of stories) and different approach to learning about language arts/grammar/writing that can so often be considered boring.

This is the most thorough and effective grammar method I have used as a homeschooling parent. It can be a little tedious, but I personal love the direct instruction method. You need to have the instructor manual to pair with it. My son was way behind in grammar, and this method helped him retain the information.

My daughter is learning things never mentioned in other grade appropriate textbooks and workbooks. Better yet, things that didn't make sense before, are now making sense. She enjoys the workbook and matching textbook and enjoys the lessons. I would recommend this workbook to go along with the textbook.

This is a complete grammar curriculum. It's very thorough. The workbook is plain, no business to distract kids. I find this to be highly effective over all compared to other grammar curriculums I've used. The teacher manual is a must.

This resource could be effectivelyused to augment school curricula which no longer include formal grammar training or for the home schooling parent. As a parent of a learning disabled, dyslexic child, and as a psychiatrist interested in effective interventions for dsyslexic and gifted children I highly endorse the works of Wise and Bauer as rich resources for teaching.