Fix It! Grammar Gets the Job Done! {A Grammar-in-15-Minutes-a-Day Review}

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

If you've got a student who needs to bone up on grammar, vocabulary, and writing, but is not an English aficionado, Fix It! Grammar by the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) can help.

My eldest son is not a fan of English these days and needed as pain-free a push as possible to:

• improve his grasp on grammar.
• focus on expanding his vocabulary.
• and encourage him to write legibly and well by hand.

So, when I saw an opportunity for us to review the latest edition of IEW's Fix It! Grammar, Level 5, The Frog Prince, I jumped at the chance.

In the past, an older version of Fix It! Grammar's, Robin Hood had been working well for my son until he lost his copy of the student book, got out of the habit of using the program, and threw his focus into other studies and projects. So, I knew the format of the fourth edition Fix It! Grammar books could work for us if I could just get my son to buy in to putting effort in.

Praise God! I gave enough of a carrot for my son to try The Frog Prince (telling him he could be done with grammar if he finished the book) and the ease and efficiency of the Fix It! Grammar program has been doing the rest.

This Grammar Curriculum Works for My Son!

Here is what my son had to candidly say about his experience with The Frog Prince  so far:

All high schoolers have that one subject they struggle with. For me that is English. I have tried multiple different approaches to studying the subject, few of which have been effective long-term for me. 

When my mother saw the review for IEW’s Fix It! Grammar, The Frog Prince, she decided to accept it. I had no say in the matter, which was probably for the best since I do not like English these days. 

As my mother handed me The Frog Prince, she told me to do it, and I would be done with grammar for high school. So, after some short-lived obstinance, I gave in and started working through the book. 

Even though I was not enthusiastic about working on English, I soon grew to appreciate how little effort I had to put in while still getting effective results. With just about 15 minutes a day, I was improving enough to get my mother off my back about how bad my English skills were, which was a sweet relief. In fact, I would even spend longer on some days just to get ahead. 

It has worked beautifully since Fix It! allows for self-pacing. All I had to do was complete editing a section on my own.

 

Then, during a 1:1 lesson, my mother would go through and check it. After that, I would copy the piece with correct spelling, grammar, and such. 

 

I have also learned some interesting vocabulary while using the book, which is a nice thing to be able to flex on my friends. 

Overall, I would say Fix It! Grammar has allowed me to do what I like to do: control my lessons and pace myself. It is easy to use and works well. I would definitely recommend it. 

My only complaint is that the version of The Frog Prince used is not the original, but one obviously adapted for this curriculum. You can not win them all I guess. 

Anyhow, that's all I have for today. Until the next time my mother decides to make me write a review...

As you can see, even though my son is not an English nor a review-writing enthusiast, he can see the merit of IEW's Fix It! Grammar, Level 5, The Frog Prince. What a victory!

Fix It! Grammar's 4th Edition Makes Language Arts Even Easier than Earlier Editions Did!

I like the fourth edition of Fix It! Grammar even more than I liked earlier editions of the program. The new editions have larger fonts, more white space, and more examples on the Learn It pages than prior editions Student Book pages did, which is something I always look for since my second child benefits from white space and larger fonts!

Each "day" of the lessons also has its own page now with a handy checklist at the top, a large-font passage to edit, and lines for rewriting the passage right on the page. This makes the proven method of Fix It! Grammar even more user-friendly for students. (Prior editions, as you can see in the side-by-side picture below, had passages for each day of a lesson week on the same page.)

There are also some fabulously user-friendly features in the new 205-page, lay-flat, spiral bound, softcover Student Book design which make it even better:

• an instruction page.
• a clear scope and sequence that shows which weeks introduce and reinforce specific concepts
• a vocabulary chart.
• a table of contents.
• teaching pages.
• pages where students read, maker, fix, and rewrite passages.
• an appendix with the complete story.
• appendix pages where students can collect lists of strong verbs, quality adjectives, and -ly adverbs.
  

• appendix pages to help identify and review pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, clauses, phrases, and sentence openers.

I liked Fix It! Grammar student books before, but now am even more impressed by them!

The 4th edition Teacher Manual is also well-designed. It corresponds page-by-page, lesson-by-lessons with the Student Book and includes everything a parent - or self-correcting student - needs to correct each lesson quickly.  It also includes information for downloading other free resources and contains a full Glossary. So, whether you are an English lover or not, you can easily use the Teacher Manual with success.

In addition, you can get thirty full-color, laminated, Fix It! Grammar Cards, which we also received. These support the Student Book by highlighting key concepts and can be used by students who like flashcards for quick reference, memory, and games. A digital list of games and activities for the cards can be accessed online. 

My son chose not to use the cards, but I have looked them over and plan to use them with my middle child when she is ready for them since she tends to like flashcards and games. They will be a handy, fun tool to use with her.

What I Appreciate about Home Learning with IEW's Fix It! Grammar

IEW's Fix It! Grammar, Level 5, The Frog Prince is a clear win in my home! My son appreciates that it is self-paced, easy, effective, and - as he so bluntly put it - gets me off his back. 

I like that, as Fix It! Grammar always has, the fourth edition works as an off-screen, open-and-go, full-year grammar curriculum that can be done in about 1/4 of an hour a day. I also love the new design of the curriculum which makes it even more user-friendly than prior editions. 

IEW has most certainly taken a good thing - its FIX IT! Grammar curriculum - and made it even better with its 4th edition. Whether students re just starting out with grammar or are at higher level, I recommend Fix It! Grammar. With six levels of user-friendly options this homeschool curriculum can help students at varying levels to learn grammar in context, improve editing skills, and transfer grammar and vocabulary concepts to improve writing.

Learn More

You can find our past IEW reviews by browsing here. 

Also, be sure to click over to the Homeschool Review Crew to find links to current blog, video, and social media reviews from families that have recently been using Levels 1-5 of the six-level Fix It! Grammar program.

You might also want to connect with the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) on social media.

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Solve Mysteries While Building Vocabulary {Review + COUPON CODE!}

If you're looking to expand your children's vocabulary while challenging them to think critically, take a look at the Critical Thinking Detective - Vocabulary Book 2 by The Critical Thinking Co.

And, while you are at it, if there is anything else you see at that you like, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post to find a coupon code that you can use until the end of the year on any order for a discount and free shipping!

What Is the Critical Thinking Detective - Vocabulary Book 2?

The Critical Thinking Detective - Vocabulary Book 2 is a 38-page, softcover with perforated, reproducible pages that can be used by a single home or class - which makes it economical and handy for large homeschooling families and co-op classes!

In the book, are 12 detective cases and their solutions.

Each case begins with a description of a mystery followed by four statements from suspects. Within the text of the mystery and statements are 18-24 vocabulary words that are pivotal to solving the case correctly.

These vocabulary words are typically "$10 words" which have been gathered from a multitude of sources, including SAT/ACT word lists.

After students figure out what the words mean, they can then put their reading comprehension, analysis, deductive reasoning, and inductive reasoning skills to work in order to figure out the cases.

Then, students can move on to a second activity, which is basically a fill-in-the-blank page that encourages students to use targeted vocabulary in a new context. Some of the blanks on this page can correctly be answered by more than one target word, which highlights flexibility of language through synonyms.

Do You Need Anything Else?

The Critical Thinking Detective - Vocabulary Book 2 is designed for independent use for children in grades 5-12+ and can be used as an open-and-go, paper-and-pencil supplement for building vocabulary and critical thinking skills.

Due to the vocabulary used in each detective case, if students use the resource independently, I would definitely say a good dictionary or thesaurus would be needed.  

In our family, though, we used the resource a bit differently.

Instead of using it independently as a paper-and-pencil resource, we decided to use it for Mom-and-us studies. Doing it this way, we did not need to crack open a dictionary nor a thesaurus. (Not that doing so would be bad. We just wanted to streamline materials and highlight discussion.)

Our Family Approach

Using this resource as a family study, to start a case, one of us - typically me - would read it aloud along with the suspect statements.  Then, we'd discuss what each unfamiliar word might mean, having everyone make guesses based on prior knowledge, context, word roots, word use, etc, before I would consult the answer key to give a synonym to help the kids see if the meanings they had guessed were correct.

Once we had the vocabulary figured out, we would reread parts of the case, and each of us would conjecture about which suspect was at fault and why we thought so. Then, we'd check our answers.

After that, we would typically do the second exercise aloud as well, although, sometimes, I would take advantage of the generous reproducible permissions and have my oldest complete a photocopied sheet.

This approach allowed us all to enjoy building vocabulary and using our noggins for critical thinking without being impeded by things that sometimes cause learning to drag here - troubles with dyslexia, balking about having to write, etc. It worked well for us, and we'd recommend our approach to others who want to use this resource without worrying about writing or reading issues.  

Also, of course, we'd recommend the resource to others who like independent work and want to enjoy puzzles and improving vocabulary.

What We Thought

My 13-year-old said:

This book was interesting, because it taught me new vocabulary while also helping me augment my critical thinking skills. The vocabulary is definitely the harder part of the cases. The cases themselves were slightly too easy in my opinion. It was the vocabulary that made them challenging.

I would recommend this resource to those who need to expand and not be bored out of their minds doing so.

My 8-year-old said:

I like this book because of the way they do critical thinking with robbers and other criminals that they have pictures of.  I like the pictures because you can read the case and, then, see what they look like. The vocabulary is advanced. We had to look them up. I would not recommend this book to other kids my age unless they have amazing vocabulary or get help like me. I would recommend it to older kids.

 

My 11-year old said:

This book is fun to do with my siblings and my mom. The cases are hard just because of the vocabulary, but, once you know the vocabulary, they are fairly simple. 

I like to solve the cases together, so we can see which of us is right and wrong. 

I would recommend this to kids my age who like critical thinking but are lacking in vocabulary, because this resource makes it not so boring to learn vocabulary.

Overall, I thought that the mysteries were fun, but not too challenging.  In fact, once my children had worked through the vocabulary for each case, they typically solved it in short order.

The way the cases were written, of course, were a bit stilted - with so many $10 words so close together, but this worked for purpose of the puzzles and also opened the door for me to talk to my children about how, typically, a $10 word here and there can be powerful, but only in a special case like this resource, would an author want to string so many of them together so closely.  For, while active adjectives, vivid verbs, precise nouns, etc. all make for interesting writing, too many uncommon words in one piece can make it inaccessible, sesquipedalian, and unenjoyable.

That said, the author of Critical Thinking Detective - Vocabulary Book 2 did a fine job choosing vocabulary to make the detective cases work.

In our family of book and audiobook lovers, we found some vocabulary was already familiar to us while other words serendipitously came up, prompting us to comment, "Hey, that is the same word that was in the case the other day!" 

This drove home for us the fact that the author of  Critical Thinking Detective - Vocabulary Book 2 did not just choose any old obscure words to focus upon, but, rather, selected ones that students may actually run into in regular life and study. 

Learn More

Seventy-five Homeschool Crew Review families selected one of the following products to try out:

• Pattern Explorer Beginning (Grades 3-4)
• Elementary Math Games (Grades 3-5) 
• Critical Thinking Detective - Vocabulary Book 2 (Grades 5-12+)
• Dare to Compare: Math Level 2 (Grades 6-7)
• Middle School Math Games (Grades 6-8)
• Building Writing Skills - Essential Tips & Techniques (Grades 6-12+)  This title is ONLY available as digital.
• Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT-SAT Book 1 (Grades 8-12+)
• Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT-SAT Book 2 (Grades 8-12+)

  Read all our reviews.

If you're thinking of stocking up on helpful resources, now is the time.  Through 12/31/2019, use the coupon code TOSCREW19 for 15% off any order, plus free shipping.

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