If you are looking for a Grammar and Writing curriculum, then you might want to check out courses from Hake Publishing.

We were recently sent their Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing 3 Language Arts curriculum set to review in our homeschool.

Hake Publishing has had great success helping students in both homeschools and public schools with their Grammar and Writing Language Arts curriculum series.

• Grammar and Writing 3
• Grammar and Writing 4
• Grammar and Writing 5
• Grammar and Writing 6
• Grammar and Writing 7
• Grammar and Writing 8

The Grammar and Writing curriculum series is written by Mary Hake (teacher, homeschool parent of 5, and grandparent) and Dr. Christie Curtis (teacher in public schools, private schools, and universities, parent of 3, and grandparent).  Together Mrs. Hake and Mrs. Curtis have worked hand in hand with Stephan Hake who is the lead creator of the award winning Saxon Math textbooks.  Mary Hake is Stephan Hake’s wife, and together they also homeschooled five kids.  Stephan Hake is also the owner of Hake Publishing.  Stephan has extensive experience writing and publishing curriculum.  He began writing curriculum for the well known Saxon company in 1984. The Grammar and Writing curriculum is written in a similar format to Saxon Math.

Grammar and Writing is an award winning, proven curriculum series that has been used by elementary school, middle school, high school, and even college students.  It is recommended for students to complete at least two years of the program to fully master skills and be ready for college level essay writing.  This will ensure that a strong foundation of language mastery is developed which will serve students well during higher education endevours and adulthood. Grammar and Writing 3 is Hake Publishing’s newest level in this curriculum series to come to the educational market.

Grammar and Writing 3

Grammar and Writing 3

Consumable Textbook, Writing Workbook, Teacher’s Guide

English Language Arts Curriculum

Writing

Vocabulary Development

Spelling

Grammar

Retail: $87.80 on sale for $63.30

The Grammar and Writing 3 course is designed for students who are reading at a 3rd grade reading level and above.  This is an easy to use Language Arts curriculum.  This course emphasizes lots of practice to develop good writing skills, vocabulary development and mastery, rules of spelling, dictionary skills, correct word usage, and mastery of grammatical rules of the English language.

This course contains 111 lessons with daily reviews and 22 tests overall.  A test is usually completed after every 5 lessons, except the first test begins after 10 lessons and the final test is after only 1 final lesson.  Writing Workbook lessons are recommended on test days, however the Consumable Textbook grammar lessons are not suggested on test day, so this creates an opportunity to utilize all the different aspects of this curriculum.  A suggested schedule for completing the lessons and daily reviews, tests, and writing assignments is listed in the Teacher Guide.

Grammar and Writing 3 meets and/or exceeds State Standards for English Language Arts.  See the downloadable Scope and Sequence  and the Faq page for more information.   Versions of this product are sold both to public schools (Hardback cover) and to individual homeschools (Softback cover).  Homeschools can purchase the Writing and Grammar 3 curriculum through the Hake Publishing Homeschool Orders page.

Consumable Textbook:

The 488 page Consumable Textbook contains 111 lessons with daily reviews.  Each lesson and review is 2 to 5 pages long.  Lessons and daily reviews are designed to take approximately 30 to 50 minutes to complete.  The suggested schedule in the Teachers Guide recommends completing 1 lesson and review per day.  However, you can go as fast or as slow as you like, but do not skip ahead in the order of the lessons.

Each lesson follows the same format and includes information that builds upon the learning skills of the previous lesson.

Each lesson begins with a brief “Grammar Meeting” to train student’s ears to listen (in the upper levels, this step is replaced with dictation); then a brief vocabulary exploration; then a lesson instruction, and finally a daily review.

• Grammar Meeting: Speaking & Listening 2-3 minutes.
• Vocabulary Words 2-3 minutes.
• Lesson 10-15 minutes.
• Review Set 20-25 minutes.

Teacher Guide:

The Teacher Guide is 391 perforated pages.  It contains 111 complete lesson plans and a suggested schedule.

Lesson Plans include “Teacher Scripts” (what to say to the student during the Grammar Meeting) for each lesson, a format for the lesson including a timeline for each lesson, and specific teaching tips.

The Teacher Guide also includes answer keys, student test masters, and the test answer keys, and also “More Practice” masters.

Writing Workbook:

The 92 page Writing Workbook contains 21 lessons in addition to the Textbook lessons.  These pages are perforated and hole punched for ease of use.  The workbook contains assignments for further practice and mastery of good writing skills. Each writing assignment in the Writing Workbook is approximately 4 to 6 pages and consists of a combination of fill in the blank, write the sentence, write a paragraph, or write a summary types of assignments.

Writing lessons are recommended to be completed on test day, but you have the freedom to choose to teach the Writing Lessons on days other than tests days also, use them which ever way works best for your student.  Writing Lessons should be completed in order, don’t skip ahead, and they build on skills progressively.

Video:

Check out this video to hear Stephan Hake and Dr. Christi Curtis explain the Grammar and Writing curriculum series:

Our Experience:

We received the 3 piece set of Grammar and Writing 3 to facilitate this review.  The books are very well made and contain a lot of information.  I like the way the books are laid out for both the student and parent, and the Teacher’s Guide makes this curriculum very easy for a parent to teach to their students.

This curriculum is geared for students with a 3rd grade or higher reading level, however my fourth grader felt frustrated at times as she tried to understand some of the information.  After working through the first three lessons with her, I found the curriculum to be more advanced than her reading level. She was not able to read it independently. She is currently using an online reading training program that is assisting her to be able to read proficiently at a third grade level, however she is not at this skill level yet.

After doing some research on the website, I found out this curriculum is meant for students who can read well at least at a third grade reading level or higher.   The series numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 after the title, has more to do with the level of reading proficiency (understanding of language, comprehension, and use of vocabulary) and not actually a specific grade level. So it could be used by various grades as long as they are reading at that level or above.

According to the website, even highschool students as well as college students can benefit from these books and should choose a level based on their level of reading proficiency.   The website also states that as long as you complete two years of either books 3 and 4, or 5 and 6, or 7 and 8 consecutively, that you will have covered enough grammar and writing material to benefit the student to write well.

So with that in mind, I asked my older boys if they would like to work with this curriculum.   One of the boys agreed to work through a few lessons with me to see how he liked it.

It was a great fit for him.  He felt he learned a lot in just a few lessons and stated it was just what he needed to help his grammar and writing.  He will continue to work through the rest of this course on into the new school year.  We will purchase the next level up for him as soon as he is finished with this one.   He is also currently taking a composition course that he loves and it helps him write short stories, but it doesn’t break down the structure of sentences and the roots of vocabulary.  So he is really glad to have Grammar and Writing 3 curriculum to help him understand even better.

I found the Teacher Guide to be essential for this course.  It was easy to guide my child through each question in the practice and review sections.  We did not use the optional “More Practice” worksheets, but we might at some point in the future.  It was very easy to follow the suggested schedule and lesson plans.  The lesson plan for each lesson and all of the information needed to teach that lesson fits into 1 page and is easy to view in one glance. The answers to the practice questions are listed on a corresponding page in the answer key section.  The information in the Teacher’s Guide is well organized and written in a step by step method so that it is easy for a parent to implement the lessons.

Final Thoughts:

I believe it is important to practice good grammar skills and learn to write well.  Writing is an important form of communication to convey information and ideas to others.  It is beneficial to find a Language Arts curriculum that works well for your kids to help them improve in these skills.

I am putting a list together and will be getting curriculum ready for the upcoming school year soon.  The Grammar and Writing curriculum is a good fit for our homeschool and I have decided to add it into our upcoming school year.  I will purchase additional sets for all three older boys for this coming school year and I would also like all three of my younger students to work through this curriculum too in a few years when they are ready.

I would encourage other homeschool families to check into this curriculum and see if Grammar and Writing 3 from Hake Publishing is right for their family.

Homeschool Review Crew

Be sure to check out what others on the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about using this product in their home.