Our family has loved grammar curriculum from Analytical Grammar for quite some time now. My two oldest have worked their way through the whole program, and I recently started my younger girls in it as well. We recently reviewed the Junior Analytical Grammar: Mechanics curriculum. We received the Junior Analytical Grammar: Mechanics set that includes a student workbook and teacher’s guide. This set sells for $39.95. We also received the Companion DVD set that sells for $19.95. I bought an extra student workbook because I have two girls that worked through the program. Additional student books can be purchased for $19.95. The student books are the required element in the program. It’s very, very helpful to have the teacher’s guide. With the junior level, I usually know the answers, but it is much easier to have the answers available in the teacher’s guide. The Companion DVD set is optional. It offers a way to present students with the information so that they could use the program independently.

Analytical Grammar divides learning into grammar- which covers the parts of speech and how they work together, including diagramming- and mechanics- which covers punctuation, capitalization, and word usage and agreement. The Analytical Grammar philosophy is different from that in some grammar curricula. In Analytical Grammar, students’ learning is constantly building on previous learning. In the grammar workbooks, this means that as students learn each part of speech, they continue to practice it, even as they move on to the next lesson and cover the next part of speech. In the mechanics workbooks, this means that as students learn how to use important punctuation or capitalization rules, the knowledge continually builds, and they continue to practice what they already know.

The Junior Analytical Grammar books are intended for students in 4th or 5th grade. It is intended that students complete the Junior Analytical Grammar book before completing the Junior Analytical Grammar: Mechanics book. The girls I used this program with are actually 5th and 6th graders, but because we hadn’t really done any formal grammar and punctuation before this, it was very appropriate for my 6th grader. My girls did complete the grammar portion of the program before we began mechanics.

The Junior Analytical Grammar: Mechanics book contains fifteen units. Before the first unit, some time is spent talking about comma splits. They will be revisited during each unit to come. Each unit is divided into four days’ worth of study. The unit begins with an explanation of the rule or rules learned that week. Students are given a “buzzword” to help them remember each mechanics rule. After the explanation, there are three practice lessons. Each of these provides opportunity for the student to practice the rule being learned in several ways. There are sentences to punctuate properly; there is a copy editing exercise where students use editing marks they have learned to correct a paragraph; and there is a section where students identify comma splits and then label the correct punctuation in the sentences with the appropriate buzzwords. The fourth lesson of each week is a test that is structured in the same way but can be graded for points. Each lesson is fairly short and is meant to be completed without having to spend large amounts of time each day.

As with all of the materials I’ve used so far from Analytical Grammar, I loved the Junior Analytical Grammar: Mechanics book. My girls really enjoy grammar also. I don’t think they’ve loved mechanics as much as learning parts of speech, but they certainly don’t dread grammar as my older children did when I tried other grammar curricula. Analytical Grammar makes learning grammar and punctuation painless.

I love the fact that the skills in each lesson build and are practiced over and over. As we learned a new form of punctuation, the girls continued to practice all of what they had learned- especially in the copy editing section and in the section where they continually identified comma splits as well as correct punctuation usages.

Having the buzzwords to “hold onto” really makes Junior Analytical Grammar: Mechanics unique as well. These little nuggets helped the girls to remember what we had learned by providing something their minds could use to trigger their memory. There are so many rules about capitalization and punctuation in the English language that it is easy to forget. But remembering a short word or phrase for each was easy.

We watched some of the Companion DVD set. It was the first time I had tried the DVDs. I’ve always just read through the material in each lesson with the kids myself. In the Companion DVD set, the programs authors, Robin Finley and Erin Karl, essentially read through each lesson with the students. The video shows one of them sitting at a desk and reading through that week’s unit material. They also go over some of the exercises with the students with pauses so the student can complete them.

The DVD set was the one component I wasn’t as thrilled with. I can see that it could be helpful if you need your student to work independently, but I think my girls would have enjoyed them more if it had been more of a classroom style. Perhaps with a teacher standing before a marker board, working out some of the exercises, instead of just a teacher sitting at a desk and reading.

Overall, I’m as thrilled with Junior Analytical Grammar: Mechanics as I have been with the other materials we’ve used from the company. I love the way the material is presented to the students. I love that lessons are short and easy to complete. And I love that the curriculum is detailed and complete in covering all of the important mechanics rules.

—Product review by Leah Courtney, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, June, 2016