Daily Grammar Practice Bible Version is a program for teaching grammar. There are six levels. The Student Workbook and Teacher Guide that I reviewed were for Level III. Young elementary students would begin in Level I. Students who begin the program at a later age, say nine years old, would start at Level II. Both the Student Workbook and the Teacher Guide are required.

Daily Grammar Practice Bible Version was designed with the Christian homeschooler in mind. The weekly sentences are taken from the Bible. Before beginning the program, you will need to read the Teacher Guide. It is filled with information on how to use the Student Manual. The author, Dawn Burnette, compares the study of grammar to a bottle of vitamins: "Eat one a day, and they're good for you and have long-term benefits. Take the whole bottle at once, and you'll just get sick, throw up, and lose any benefits you might have otherwise received." Daily Grammar Practice Bible Version teaches a logical process that "forces grammar concepts to move to long-term memory."

Each week the student will study a sentence. On Monday the student identifies the part of speech of each word. On Tuesday the student identifies the sentence function. On Wednesday the student identifies clauses, sentence type, and sentence purpose. On Thursday the student adds punctuation and capitalization. Lastly, on Friday the student diagrams the sentence.

The daily work is short in length (with a whole week's worth of work on one page), but the grammar concepts are intense. Homeschooling parents who enjoyed diagramming sentences will enjoy this book. For those who are rusty, the author has included appendices that teach the parts of speech, sentence parts, phrases, clauses, sentences types, sentence purpose, punctuation and capitalization, and diagramming. As expected, there is also an answer key in the Teacher Guide.

I like that the Daily Grammar Practice Bible Version series uses levels rather than grades, which seems to suit the homeschooling community. I also love the typeset of the book. It is friendly and not too bold. My child appreciated that the work for one week all fits on one page. I also like that the passages are taken from the Bible and cover quite a range of topics. This may pique my child's interest in a section of the Bible not previously studied. I also liked both the simplicity and the complexity of the workbook. One sentence a week with all of the weekly assignments on one page--that feels doable for me and my child. At the same time, understanding parts of speech, their function, and diagramming seems very complex. This series has the feel of classical homeschooling in complexity, but it is accessible for nonclassical teachers or students.

I felt that the levels might be a bit advanced. I reviewed Level III with the intention of using it with my third grade child, but I found it to be more advanced than the traditional third grade textbook that we had in the house (as well as a few worktexts). I can order Level II, though. If the teacher-parent is weak on labeling parts of speech, then more study would be required.

I recommend the Daily Grammar Practice Bible Version. I will, most likely, need to study the teacher guide a bit, but by the end of the year my third grader should have a much better understanding of the English language.

Product review by: Maggi Beardsley, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, June 2008.