Complicated grammar frustrates little kids (and moms). They don’t need to know about nouns and adverbs, they just need to know how to write good sentences.
That’s why I was so happy when I discovered New Language Exercises for Public Schools by C. C. Long. Here was a way I could teach my early readers to express themselves on paper and skip the tears and frustration!
I wrote about this extensively in this post:
Gentle Grammar for Young Children
I even included a free download of levels one and two, with a promise of working on levels three and four and offering them at a later date.
Well…
…that later date has arrived!
I (finally) finished these upper levels AND found the time to put them in print. Now you not only can have these books for free in printable PDF format, but you can own physical books!
And they are so adorable! My daughter took images from Graphics Fairy and created covers and little flourishes that add interest throughout each book.
If you want to find out more, be sure and watch this video:
Gentle Grammar Level One
Gentle Grammar Level Two
Gentle Grammar Level Three
Gentle Grammar Level Four
We think the workbooks will be a definite help to you and your children, but if you don’t have the cash, or you would simply like to try-before-you-buy, feel free to download the books at these links:
Oh, and don’t forget to check out The Record Book to keep track of ALL of your learning and make it count!
Thank you, Sherry. I enjoy your blog with ALL your wisdom you have collected over the years. Keep it up the great work!
Stacey B.
You are so welcome, Stacey! It gives me great pleasure to help other moms 🙂
So excited about these! I love all of your books. They are simple and straightforward yet the material is full of life. My favorite curriculums are those put together by other, experienced homeschool moms. Thanks so much for making them available.
Thank you for the kind words, Jill. I strive to keep things as straight-forward as possible because that is how I have learned to survive (and thrive). I am so glad my materials are full of life–what a high compliment 🙂
Sherry, you are a great blessing to the homeschool community. Thank you for these free, grammar book downloads. We just adore the lovely graphics, the gentleness and simplicity. My daughter started using Level 1 last year. She is 7 now, continuing with Level 1.
That is terrific to hear, Stephany! It has always been my goal to be a blessing to the homeschool community 🙂
Oh yay!! I was sooo hoping you’d do these :). I just love them! Thank you so much as always!!
And p.s. glad to see you posted-I missed you
I missed you, too, Amy. We have been going through some immense life changes and it just became so hard to find time to post–but I think I’m going to focus more on vlogging, which should free me up to be more consistent 🙂
I’m so excited to see this! Thank you for making it available in both formats. I’m going to use this fir my daughter, and I’ll be sharing this with my readers, as well!
Thanks for the share, Nicki–may they greatly bless you and your daughter 🙂
Homeschooling momma of eleven, teaching and learning along with all my kiddos for 26 year and counting. Absolutely, loving your hard work . It is fun having something fresh(but, yet so “OLD”, which makes it so, good) and exciting to do with my youngest batch. After Homeschooling for 26 years, God has granted a desire of my heart and you are part of that. Fill free to keep it coming. May God bless you and yours in many great and wonderful ways . “Happy Homeschooling year!”
Congratulations as an amazing veteran homeschooler, Patricia 🙂 It’s so fun seeing how God is using our efforts to bless others. Happy Homeschooling Year to you, too!
Thank you so much for making all of these available and for all of the materials you have posted about the McGuffey Readers. What a blessing! 🙂
You’re so welcome, Dallas! Thanks for taking the time to let me know 🙂
Thank you so much Sherry! You’re such a big help for us new homeschool moms!!!
You are so welcome–it’s makes me so happy to help other moms like me!
Thank you Lord for this wonderful resource!! Sherry, I can’t tell you how helpful this will be to me. Thank you so much for offering these workbooks as free downloads. Our budget is so tight right now; this is a HUGE blessing to our family. THANK YOU!!!
I really understand what it’s like to have a tight budget, Kendra. It tickles me to bless dear mamas like you!
Thank you so much, Sherry, for sharing these with us. And for free! What a gift! They are so beautiful and I look forward to using them in our new school year. God bless you!
You are so very welcome, Lisa, I pray they bless and bless you 🙂
I ordered Gentle Grammar Level Two for my son. You never know for sure how a curriculum will work for your child until you implement it. Well, this one exceeded my expectations. My eight-year-old is thriving in it and enjoys the creativity these books afford. We are using the McGuffey’s readers and Gentle Grammar as our language arts curriculum this year.
My older son completed Long’s Language a few years ago and now, at age twelve, excels in grammar. I wish these had been around back then. Having this updated version of such a solid grammar approach in a workbook format is a dream for this homeschool mom. Thanks again, Sherry!
You have made my day–thank you for taking the time to tell me how these have blessed you 🙂
Thank you for being such an amazing resource. I have started using Mc Guffey’s and Gentle Grammar with my 7 year old and she is loving it. I am going to start Mc Guffey’s with my 12 year old soon. I was wondering if you had any review of Lessons in English, Grammar and Composition also by C.C. Long ? I am looking for something gentle for my 12 year old. Thank you so much for helping us to simplify our homeschool.
I do so love the McG’s! As for the older’s grammar, the next thing I introduce is Harvey’s Grammar, which is more geared for an older child since it is technical. If my child is not yet ready, I give them a year or two more in the McG’s with the narration, copywork, and dictation so that he doesn’t feel frustrated and we aren’t constantly butting heads :). Hope this helps!
Hi there. 🙂 We are finishing up our current LA program in 2 weeks and then we’re going to give Gentle Grammar Level 1 and the Eclectic First Reader a try with my 8 year old. I also have the “Parent-Teacher Guide for The Original McGuffey Readers.”
I’m going to use your free sheets “first pages.” I have a very strong reader but reluctant writer. I’m also wondering if I should plan for one Gentle Grammar level a year or just don’t worry about it and move through it as my daughter naturally progresses? What do you think about this format? (GG for Gentle Grammar and ER for Eclectic Reader)
Day 1: Read story of week from ER and read vocabulary words. Do a lesson from GG.
Day 2: Read ER story silently and copy the vocab words and draw word doodles.
Day 3: Read ER story silently and copy sentence from story. Complete narrative drawing.
Day 4: ER: Sentence dictation and a lesson from GG.
Day 5: Catch up day and another possible lesson from GG.
By the way, thank you so much for offering the Gentle Grammar and Charlotte Mason style pages for free. You have blessed us immensely!!!
That schedule sounds incredible! That is pretty much how I have broken up the different activities. For my children one reading of the story was adequate, but yours may be different.
You are very welcome–I love blessing other moms like me 🙂
Thanks for the quick reply, Sherry! 🙂 I was wondering if she’d be bored reading it so much, so maybe I’ll just have her read the story the first day and read aloud to me from her Christian Liberty Nature Readers the rest of the week. I truly appreciate your input! I’ve been browsing your website and YouTube and really enjoy it all. Thanks again.
No problem!
Hello. Do you have a list or blog post of how you break down your McGuffey Readers lessons? I’m trying to figure it out. I like how you use the readers for copywork and narration instead of read a loud books or books they read.
Also for the Grammar lessons, my boys are ten and twelve and I haven’t taught grammar yet. Would you think starting in your books is a good idea or move onto Harvey’s Grammar?
Thank you,
Michelle
These are good questions, Michelle. As for the first one, I have been thinking I should do an in-depth explanation of how to break down the lessons, although I have done a few posts, etc. on them already. As for the second question, it depends on how astute your children are. I probably wouldn’t start a 10yo in Harvey’s, so Gentle Grammar, which ever level he can handle, would be the best tack. If the 12yo can read and write decently for his age, then Harvey’s may be OK. If not, Gentle Grammar may be a great place to start, and it’s so simple he could go through it pretty quickly and be ready for Harvey’s.
Hello! How many lessons would you do a week out of this book for a 6, 8 AND 11 year old. Would you do a lesson like this on a day with writing/ composition and along side McGuffey readers?
For the six and eight year-olds, 3 lessons a week are pretty good. More, and they will burn out (and so will you), less, and they will lose momentum. The 11 yo can probably handle four a week, but more than that is probably not necessary. At those ages, just a grammar lesson and a portion of a McG’s lesson a day is more than sufficient, no separate composition necessary other than an occasional notebooking page based on whatever else you are learning in the areas of history, Bible, science, etc.
do you have any higher grades?
Actually, I suggest using something called “Harvey’s Grammar” for the upper grades. You can purchase it as a physical book online, or you can find it for free on Google Books. This is a very easy program to follow and there are even answer keys available.
Hi, I love your books. I am not a great in English grammar and was wondering if these books come with lessons plans, or answer sheets?
So sorry, but they don’t 🙁
What age range is the Gentle Grammar books? There’s a Harvey’s Elementary Grammar and a revised. Which one for upper levels? Would that be 7th grade for upper levels?
I would say the Gentle Grammar series is meant for children who are beginning to read and write, no matter what age that may be. As they become able to write good sentences and simple compositions, they can progress to more focused grammar. I am currently putting together a comprehensive blog post (Lord willing) on how to homeschool for cheap or free that will include some helpful links for grammar resources that you may find helpful.
Hi Sherry,
Could you speak to how you go about placing your children in Gentle Grammar? Would you start all young students in Book 1? Or start lower elementary students who are reading proficiently (say midway through McGuffey 2nd reader) at a higher Gentle Grammar Level?
Thanks!
I think it’s a good idea to start a child who is half way through the 2nd reader at the first book of Gentle Grammar. Of course, you are the expert on your child. You may want to look at the free pdf version and then decide for yourself. Here’s something that helps me: I try and make sure what I give my children isn’t too easy so they are bored, nor too challenging so they become frustrated and discouraged. They need to be at a level where they feel confident yet slightly uncomfortable so they feel as though they are actually learning something. Hope that helps!
This looks so lovely! Thank you for providing this free resource. This looks like it would be a lovely addition to help in our homeschool. 🙂
You are so welcome 🙂
Thank you for your hard work on this. I’m so excited to come across it for my daughter.
I’m a little undecided where to place her. She’ll be a young third grader next year and about mid-way through phonics and reading.
She’s done a lot of copywork and handwriting practice. She’s familiar with periods and question marks and capitalizing the first letter of a sentence, but hasn’t written her own sentences (unless she dictates to me, then copies).
Level 1 looks like she’d be comfortable reading it on her own. Some of the concepts wouldn’t be new, but creating her own sentences would be. She could do Level 2. It might require more help from me initially for reading. She hasn’t learned parts of speech yet.
Thank you,
Rita
You are so welcome! I’m currently working on something similar for arithmetic, sort of an entire elementary program based on a number of different vintage texts, just combined and modernized slightly where needed. I will probably split these up like the Gentle Grammar, and they will be available for free from this sight and as cheap as we can get them on Amazon. I’m sensing God wants me to finish this quickly as He wants to use it to bless a lot of mamas who are being so courageous and taking some great steps right now.
Oh! Such exciting news, Sherry! I will be praying for you as you complete this project. There is no curriculum like your Gentle Grammar and it has been a true blessing to our family. My son completed all four levels! There is a tremendous need for a similar math curriculum. I can’t express how excited I am about this project! God bless!
As usual, your words are a sweet balm to my soul, Jill. Thank you!
Sounds like a good plan!
Thank you!!
Hello.
I would love to try yours. My son is semi bilingual. We are looking for curriculum that can help him learn grammar. Does this workbooks have answers? I am not perfect with my English and it would be nice to have answers.
Thank you.
Tammy
I am so sorry, I don’t believe there are any answers to these books. The original books I adapted these lessons from are New Language Lessons by C. C. Long. If you want to brush up on English yourself, Harvey’s Grammar is available with answers, which may help you help your child.
What level do you start with? Is it based on grade level or age?
It is based on ability. https://momdelights.com/index.php/2016/06/01/escape-the-slavery-of-grade-levels-printable/
I was wondering, for the exercises in which the student creates his/her own sentence, if you scribe their sentence and let them copy or just have them write. My daughter is 8 and ready for Level 1 but still learning to read/spell, and I don’t know how much to push her. I like the idea of her always seeing words spelled correctly.
Thank you!
That sounds very wise, or you could also have her dictate her sentence to you and you could write it down for her, which would make her feel like she is doing the work but would reinforce the correct spelling.
I’d like to buy your books, but they will be for a child that is well advanced in some areas and is behind in others and it will be much easier for me to find those topics in the content or index and it looks like your books are images not text, so the search feature in the pdf reader does not appear. i will have to buy your books and also an ocr software to be able to transform image to text and then been able to use the search or find in the page feature. could you please post an index or content of the topics covered by each book on your webpage? i apologize if i bother you but i suppose you know this books by heart. if you do please let me know at auroone@yahoo.com
thank you, i really want to buy your books because printing and binding take more time, work, effort, ink, paper and money.
and another thing that i may suggest or recommend for parents with children with motor muscle problems is to use grid paper for writing also, it helps a lot with handwriting.
I’m sorry, but it is not possible for me to post an index or content of the lessons. I thank you for your suggesting of using grid paper–great suggestion!
First of all, I love your books. But I need help. On Level 1 Lesson 20 it is have and has. For question 3,4, and 5 I am having trouble. Number 3, Do the doors have hinges? Is it Does the door has hinges? But that don’t sound correct. Or is it Does the door have hinges and what is changed is Do to Does. And for 4, and 5 I change Does to Do and make the subject plural?
Once again, thank you for this curriculum. My son is enjoying it!!
I’m so sorry for the confusion! I am not sure what is best, but I don’t remember my girls having trouble with it (perhaps they did and didn’t tell me 😛 ). I’m sure whatever you find correct is fine.
I’m wondering if you might recommend which book to start a 14 yr old boy on who hasn’t retained any grammar? He reads and spells well, but doesn’t like writing.
That’s an interesting one! I suppose you could start with the first one (you can download and print it out for free to save money and time) and see how he does. If it is too easy, then skip ahead and keep trying until you find a place that is challenging but not frustrating. I hope this helps!
This may have already been asked but I didn’t find it in the comments so far. Is there an answer key for the books? We’ve been using them for two years now. And I am finding that some answers could be varied and just want to know if there is an actual answer key for best answer. Thanks!
I’m sorry, but I have not compiled a list of answers.