Training Happy Hearts: Can You Really Teach Grammar, Vocabulary, and Writing in 15 Minutes a Day? {A Fix It! Grammar Review}

What kind of program can get a non-workbook kid happily focusing on grammar, vocabulary, and writing in an effective and engaging student book format more days than not each week?

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Fix It! Grammar by the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) - program authored by Pamela White, a traditional classroom and homeschool teacher with over three decades of experience and explained here by Andrew Pudewa:

Without question, since my son has began reviewing Fix It! Grammar Robin Hood Student Book 2 we've found it to be an easy-button for English Language Arts that pleases us both.

I appreciate that the program is off-screen, open-and-go, and truly easy and effective to use, while my son likes that it he can take 15 minutes or less a day to build his skills while also enjoying a story.

Indeed, Fix It! Grammar has proven itself to be a happy surprise in our home - drawing my son in and helping him review and build skills, little by little, in an applied grammar, spiral approach that transfers well to personal writing and editing endeavors.

Moreover, I am delighted with how easy the corresponding Teacher's Manual is.

To guide my son and help him to correct his work, I do not have to do any more prep than to open the spiral bound manual to the page that matches the work he has been doing in his Student Book, then read, check, and chat.

It's really that simple to use!

The Teacher's Manual is a 208 page, softcover, spiral bound book that includes:

an introduction to the Fix It! Grammar program

a scope and sequence

33 weeks of lesson keys, grammar lover notes, teaching tips, etc.

Bound with it is a 45 page grammar glossary and codes for accessing a free downloadable student e-book for family use and two e-adios on grammar.

Everything is right there to support you as you as guide your child in success!

The Student Book is equally easy to use. It, too, is a softcover, spiral-bound book, which means it lays flat for writing in. It contains:

33 weeks of 4-day lessons within 69 pages

5 pages of ready-to-cut grammar cards on heavier cardstock

a 45-page grammar glossary.

My son has this to say about it:

When Mom first gave me the book, I was happy because it is about Robin Hood.

I like fantasy and stories about archers, so even though Robin Hood is not exactly fantasy, the content is enjoyable for me.

I also appreciated the fact that you are editing a story and not writing boring answers to questions or paragraphs and essays.

Instead, each week, there is a page that teaches you about points about grammar, such as:

when to indent

where to capitalize

what different parts of speech are and how they are used

how to punctuate

and more

Then, each day, you are given a short part of the story that you must edit using things you have learned about.

You also have to identify parts of speech using given abbreviations, define challenging words, and, sometimes, select correct homophones.

Finally, you copy each week's passages correctly into a book, so, in the end, you will have a grammatically correct story about Robin Hood.

The program is meant to be used a little each day, but I chose to do it in shorter or longer sessions a few days a week instead. This way, I could keep up with it, but also not work on it every day.

I used the book by myself, then, about once a week, I worked with Mom to go over vocabulary orally so I would not have to write out definitions or synonyms. We also checked my work and sometimes looked over my copywork.

One time, when my mom was having a surgery, my grandmother worked on Robin Hood with me instead of my mom. It was easy for her to do so with the Teacher's Manual.

Having been working on this for a number of weeks, I think it is one of the best ways I've learned grammar. Other than actually writing a book myself and having my mom edit it with me, it is the only thing I have used so far that is story-based. I have liked learning about grammar in context, learning little by little, building on things and reviewing them.

I would highly recommend this book, and my recommendation is pretty huge, because I usually hate grammar things (besides writing and editing my own book), dislike workbooks and anything I have to handwrite, and don't like set curriculums. But I like this and plan to keep using it!

Seriously, my son has had no qualms with continuing to learn with Fix It! Grammar Robin Hood week to week and that speaks volumes!

The program has to be high-interest, low-"pain" for my son to like it, and he does! I am thrilled.He is enjoying reading, editing, and doing copywork of a version of Robin Hood while also keying into:

indentation
capitalization
articles
nouns
who-which clauses
end marks
subjects of clauses
verbs and helping verbs
coordinating conjunctions
adjectives
prepositions
main clauses
dependent clauses
clause starters
commas
quotations
homophones
vocabulary

Working with short passages, my son learns applied grammar, one small bit at a time, through a spiral approach that leads to long-term mastery and transfer to personal writing projects.

There are no fill-in-the-blank, drill-n-kill exercise and no time-draining assignments. Rather, there is an engaging story to immerse yourself in while puzzling out increasingly challenging corrections and identifications that constantly keep you learning and reviewing grammar, vocabulary, and writing.

I am so pleased to have found Fix It! Grammar through this review and already looking forward to using the next book in the series of six Fix It! Grammar books with my son.

Skills in each book build on those of the last, so you can begin with book one and head on up the series or you can go to the IEW website to find a placement test which will make it clear if you might be better off starting your child a bit later in the series.

Read all the reviews!

Whether starting with Book One, Book Two (like us), or the more challenging Books Five and Six, you are sure to find detailed, but not overwhelming lessons that flow perfectly from one to another providing ease for English Language Arts learning.

Bonus - the price is extremely affordable. The Teacher's Manual costs only $19 and includes a link for a printable student e-book. Or, you can pay $15 more for a pre-printed, spiral bound Student Book.

If you'd like to learn more about Fix It! Grammar, click on over to see what 60 Homeschool Review families think about different levels of the program.