Review of GrammarPlaneti

We are finally understanding sentence diagramming with this new online grammar program from GrammarPlanet.  Growing up, I was one of those unusal people who actually enjoyed sentence diagramming.  I was blessed to have teachers who demonstrated and explained sentence diagramming in a way that made sense.  So I wanted the same experience for our children.  I feel it is very important for them to have a good grasp on grammar.  This means they need to have an excellent understanding of the different parts of speech.  I felt GrammarPlanet fit the bill for our family’s needs.  It is an online product, which I find very convenient since it is self-grading for the most part.

GrammarPlanet’s creators are Erin Karl and Jerry Bailey.  GrammarPlanet is the realization of dream that has been years in the making.  It is designed to make grammar education affordable and available to anyone regardless of their background.  This program is meant for homeschoolers as well as public school students.  The program is designed for students ages 10 and up.  Even adults who wish to increase their grammar knowledge will benefit from this program.  Everyone benefits from having a strong grammar foundation.

The philosophy behind GrammarPlanet is  Erin Karl’s mother’s Analytical Grammar, which is a book-based program that has been available to homeschoolers for over two decades.  The love for grammar comes through each and every video.  While the videos are not fancy, it allows the message of the videos to take center stage.  There is little to serve as distractions for the students.

The program is made up of units that include videos, notes pages, practice problems and unit tests.  Students are able to move at their own speed.  All students need to start at the beginnin regardless of their level of grammar proficiency.  This is because the program uses a set of process steps to ensure better understanding.  The students begin by learning about nouns, proper nouns, articles and adjectives,  Each unit builds on the previous unit and requires the students to demonstrate their understanding of all material that has been covered so far.

There are two versions of GrammarPlanet available.  There is a free level that includes ads.  There is also a paid version which is ad-free.   For the purpose of this review, I decided to work through the units myself first before having our teenagers use the program.  Because it is a new program, I felt this was best.

I will say there was definitely a learning curve to using this program.  Each unit gives a list of process steps for completing the exercises.  If I went too fast or tried going out of order, I found I made more mistakes than if I took my time and worked in order.  While I was working through several of the units, my husband was in the room beside me.  He was very impressed by the program and I have a feeling he will wind up going through it at some point.  Several times, he stated he learned something he did  not know or heard terms he was not familiar with before that lesson.

I have to say I have been very satisfied with the order the parts of speech are taught.  I also love that a student can go as fast or slow as they or their parents want them to based on ability.  I also love that at the end of each practice section, the student has the option to continue or come back later.

The one thing I would caution about this program is that if a student misses too many ansywers in the practice exercises, the system will lock them out and a parent will have to unlock the lesson.  At the same time, I like that I have the ability as teacher/parent to reset progress when it is needed.  I also like how the grades display on the screen and are also emailed to me as the parent.  There is little parental involvement required. Upon reaching unit 6, sentence diagramming is introduced, initially with only prepositional phrases.  In the video, students and parents/teachers are advised students can do as little or as much diagramming as desired.  However, cautions are given that failing to do diagramming will cause problems later in the course.  I definitely agree with that caution.  So my children will be required to do sentence diagramming.

You can find GrammarPlanet on social media at:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/analyticalgrammar
Twitter: www.twitter.com/analyticalgram
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/analyticalgram

All in all, I have to say I am really pleased with this program and am glad we had the opportunity to review it.  So if you are looking for an online grammar program, check out GrammarPlanet for yourself.  If you would like to read other reviews from members of the Home School Review Crew, click here or on the graphic below.