Drawing Sentences: A Guide to Diagramming

I wanted to teach my middle schoolers how to diagram sentences, but I wanted something that was both thorough and incremental. I was hesitant to purchase this, since there was no "look inside" feature for me to see what it was like. In fact, initially I purchased another program (Rex Barks). When that one proved frustrating for the kids (small print, crowded pages, tight binding, uneven pacing), I decided to give Drawing Sentences a try. I'm so glad I did!Drawing Sentences has a lot going for it.- The spiral binding, which seemed an odd choice initially, made complete sense once we were using it. No need to struggle to hold the book open while diagramming on a separate sheet: the spiral binding allows each page to lie flat for ease of use.- The author utilizes one page per step, so the layout is simple and uncluttered. The explanation and sample diagrams are at the top of the page, while the bottom of the page gives sentences for diagramming practice. There's not really enough room to diagram them in the book, but having them spaced out makes it easy to refer back to them while diagramming on a separate sheet.- Each lesson builds on the one before. The author ensures that each lesson keeps you practicing what you've already learned so you don't forget one aspect of diagramming while practicing another.- There's frequent review. After every three lessons, there is a review lesson and a test. This is great for slowing the pace to be sure each step is learned and understood thoroughly before moving on.- The number of sentences decreases slightly as their complexity increases. Though the kids don't love how long it takes to diagram as the sentences get more complex, I did note that there are fewer sentences to diagram on those pages. (There are usually 10 short sentences, 8 medium sentences, and as few as 4 on some of the really long and complicated ones in the second part of the book.)- This volume includes three different books: an introduction to basic diagramming, a second book including dependent clauses, and a book of review exercises (see photos 1-4 for complete table of contents). That's a lot of book for the money!- While the first two books include only straightforward answers (just the lesson number followed by numbered diagrams), the review book is formatted differently. I don't love how the review exercises are crowded together (see second to last photo), but I do love that the answers in the review book include explanations in case you've forgotten why something needs to be diagrammed a certain way (see final photo).The only downside to this book is really the arrangement. Because it's three books back-to-back, it can be confusing to flip through. There are exercises followed by solutions followed by tests followed by test solutions...and then suddenly you have more exercises and the cycle starts again. If you continually refer back to the table of contents, though, you can easily find what you need. Oh, wait--one more. The review book is not organized in the same order as the first two books, which I find odd. I had intended to use it as reinforcement, but I quickly discovered that something that was taught in lesson 4 in the first book was lumped with lesson 6 and lesson 12 when the author made the review book. Lesson learned: Just use the review book for review, not reinforcement.I've been really pleased with this book as an intro to diagramming. My kids rarely need more explanation than is provided on the page, they can check their own work, and the lessons are taught at a pace that allows them to make continual progress without getting overwhelmed. After five weeks of struggling with Rex Barks, they were relieved to get this instead. We've been using this book for 20 weeks now and they're still content. While we could probably get through this in one year if we did a lesson each day, I've got so many different language arts materials I want to use that I'm spreading this out over two years.

I wanted to post a review before I had finished working through the entire book. I got the book today, I opened it. I looked through it. I read the preface and worked through the first unit (the first three lessons). I am VERY EXCITED to have this book for myself and for my children. This is my first year homeschooling. I have 8 kids, ages 14 on down. The "backbone" of my homeschooling philosophy is "Classical" as described by Susan Wise Bauer in her book, "The Well-Trained Mind, A guide to classical education at home." She did a great job in the book convincing me of the usefulness of learning how to diagram sentences. However, I was not pleased with the resources she listed to help teach it (I think, I don't know if she referenced this book or not.) So, I got on Amazon and searched "sentence diagramming," and bought this book and one other book (which I haven't looked at yet.)This book is THICK, 276 pages in all. It says that it was originally published as three separate books: A first and second book of diagramming, and A Workbook of Sentence Diagramming. So, this is three books in one!This book has one lesson AND practice exercises for the lesson, all on one page for each lesson. Every unit has three lessons. Each lesson covers one, simple concept. This book contains "unit tests" and answers for each test. Then at the back of the book (the work book section) there is an additional set of practice problems for every lesson, with answers to every question, in the back!This book really is your "all in one" resource for teaching sentence diagramming at home!I am excited that I can teach myself! I never learned, even though the teacher tried, in 9th grade. The concept of "sentence diagramming" seemed way too much for me to ever understand, and I gave up ever learning it. I thought I could go on living a happy life never learning how to diagram sentences! Except now I'm homeschooling 8 kids, so NOW I'm motivated to learn!I am excited that I have a wonderful tool (and cheap, too!) to teach my children how to diagram sentences, even though I'm not an expert (yet) myself.

This book has a lot of problems to do. This way, if a child needs more help in one area, you can do more in that specific section. The explanations are good, and there are answers for each sentence. I have a child that has a mathematical mind. He was not getting parts of speech, until I introduced drawing sentences. Within weeks, it all clicked for him. For us, this is the mathematical way to doing grammar. I have the edition with the 2010, 2012 copyright. I think that it would be helpful if the book had tabs for the sections, as there are multiple sections that cover the same thing. Finding the answers and the test sections is confusing, unless you do it exactly in order. But, you may not likely be able to do that, as some of the things are too advanced when you first start out. Thus, you just want more of the same. Solutions to the first part on are page 45. Then the test section is on page 59. The answers to those tests are starting on page 67. Then, if you want more of the same, go to page 185, for "Exercises". The solutions and explanation for each of those sentences is on page 195. But wait, that is not all!!! If you go to page 257, there are 30 more "Additional Sentences and Solutions", with the solutions starting on page 258. So, I made my own tabs with wide post-it flags; and names each of these areas for me to find and flip through easily. This book is well-worth it, and very well-done.

A great diagramming book for my 5th grader. The book has plenty of practice sentences to diagram.The only complaint would be the way the answer key is organized. That is, the answer key is placed after eachsection of the book instead of at the end of the book.

Outstanding reference.