Review: Compass Classroom's Grammar for Writers

Disclaimer: We received this product free for the purpose of reviewing it. All opinions expressed are my personal, honest opinions. This post includes affiliate links.

Homeschooling a middle or high schooler in need of a solid grammar program?

This past fall, we tested Compass Classroom’s new video-based Grammar for Writers curriculum in our homeschool and in a small group setting. I know quite a lot of homeschoolers are looking for a solid high school grammar program geared toward their older students and I wanted to give you a comprehensive overview.

What Grammar for Writers Consists Of

The details, which you can also find on the Compass Classroom site:

• 41 video lessons (6.75 hours total)

• Lecture Notes (PDF)

• Quizzes for each lesson

• Teacher Key for the quizzes

• Offers a 1/2 high school credit

• Formats: DVD, digital (streaming), or DVD & digital with PDF materials or printed (spiral-bound) materials

What You Can Expect from Grammar for Writers

Grammar for Writers is a lecture-based format. Your student will watch a lecture/lesson, and then take the accompanying quiz, which can be approached as a worksheet instead of a quiz, if that’s better for your student.

The lecturer is Jonathan Rogers, a beloved author in his own right. His novels include The Wilderking Trilogy (The Bark of the Bog Owl, The Secret of the Swamp King, and The Way of the Wilderking) and The Charlatan's Boy. He has also authored non-fiction titles The World According to Narnia, Saint Patrick, and The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O'Connor.

We found Mr. Rogers’ lecturing style to be appropriately engaging for this age group, and my students looked forward to hearing what he had to say. As an author, he has “street cred”, and I think the students can sense his first-hand experience. He’s not just teaching, he’s doing what some of our writing kids dream of. Lectures average around 8 minutes long.

Grammar for Writers is self-paced. In our home, schedule flexibility is key right now. But in other seasons of our lives (and different kids with different learning styles and personalities), self-paced can mean that a student ignores the curriculum until whoever is in charge of their education realizes that nothing has actually been accomplished. Or is that just our home? You’ll need to decide if self-paced is right for you.

Grammar for Writers can be completed in a semester. That works out to roughly three lectures/lessons per week, but of course, since it is self-paced, you can make it fit into whatever time frame you require.

We used Grammar for Writers in an online group and it was a perfect setting for discussion. My daughter is there in the upper corner listening from her bedroom :) You can use it in your group, too, as group licenses are available.

Strengths of Grammar for Writers

Grammar for Writers is a curriculum that best suits students who are strong writers or who have a substantial background in the basics of English. It will likely be best for students who aren’t put off by the intricacies and vocabulary of grammar. Prior English mechanics knowledge is helpful. For instance, Lesson 1.2, “The Main Line”, assumes your student has prior experience with diagramming sentences.

Grammar for Writers is great for group discussion but stands alone easily for a single student in a homeschool or after school setting. We used it both ways and found that the best part about the group dynamic was, of course, the discussions we were able to have after viewing the lectures.

Grammar for Writers helps the student learn to analyze their own writing, which is a tremendously helpful tool for the college-bound student or the kid who is passionately writing stories and dreams of being a professional writer. The course actually walks the student through the hows and whys of analysis, diagnostics, and best practices.

Grammar for Writers is user-friendly. There’s nothing more frustrating than a curriculum that requires multiple steps to set up. Grammar for Writers is literally a “grab and go” course that only requires a device to stream on or a student who can put a DVD in a disc drive.

View a Sample Lesson

One More Thing to Consider

Before you make a final decision about whether or not Grammar for Writers is the perfect curriculum for your students, consider:

If you are in need of a foundational grammar program for your middle or high school student, you will likely want to skip this one. As noted above, Grammar for Writers is not entry-level, and it is probably better suited for the strong English student or one who has a solid foundation with a curriculum such as IEW or Classical Conversations.

Discover 4 free Grammar for Writers lessons here.

If Grammar for Writers is just what you’ve been looking for, be sure to take advantage of Compass Classroom’s Electives Sale through January 31, 2020. Use code elective15 for 15% off any electives course, including Grammar for Writers.

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What to Do When You Just Can't Read Your Bible Anymore

Recently in this space, I wrote a post titled, “What to Do When You Just Can’t Do Church Anymore”. It was written for those who earnestly love the gospel of Jesus Christ but who have been so turned off in one way or another by the church, they just couldn’t bring themselves to be there anymore.

Overwhelmingly, it was helpful. I’ve had plenty of feedback from readers who have been thankful for the grace and space to breathe and a chance to heal from whatever the hurts and issues have been, and who are finding a way forward.

Also, I’ve received some hate. Blogging is an open forum to write what you believe to be a helpful, gospel-saturated piece that can then be immediately torn apart by those who believe themselves to know better. I’ve grown a thick skin over the years, but I have also been around the block for nearly half a century, which is long enough to recognize when arrogance runs the ship. Usually, when there is an immediate dismissal of a grace-laced article written with an intent to point readers back to Jesus, the antagonist has not himself been broken enough yet. When our faith is tested, we tend to have gobs of grace to let others figure things out for themselves, too.

But let’s move on to the reason I’m writing this particular post, and I’ll begin with the same caveat that I wrote in the related post about church:

I am not the Holy Spirit.

Take everything I write with that big sentence ringing in your ears.

So while I am not your Holy Spirit, I can stand here as a compassionate reminder that you can seek truth, and being one of the people who point you back to Jesus is my heart’s deep desire and the reason I write in the first place. I’m no substitute for God.

That having been established, these are the truths I know about being in an emotional space where you just can’t open your Bible anymore:

1.

You don’t have to open your Bible anymore.

Don’t write me off yet. Read the rest before you start sending comments my way.

When we left our rigid, rules-loving church community, I went through a painful time of reassessing everything I knew to be Christianity. It wasn’t just about the 10 years we spent in a culture of behavior-based religion. I had to re-examine my Evangelical upbringing, too, because while I had parents who passionately loved the gospel and earnestly believed in God, there was a lot of gobbly-gook tied in with all of the things we did.

From Sunday School to youth group to summer camp to small groups, and yes, to Bible study, my brain was busy cataloging all of the ways a good Christian woman behaves. For me, the list included everything from spiritual disciplines (fasting, prayer, Bible reading) to Western Christian cultural norms (contemporary Christian music, involvement in para-church organizations, dressing a certain “acceptable” way).

It was a lot to bear. Several years into my adult post-college life of raising and homeschooling a million kids, I remember sitting in my van one day crying out to God, “You say your yoke is easy and your burden is light, but this feels like oppression!” And it was.

But God had not burdened me with the endless list of “required” behavior. I had. At the top of that insufferable list was Bible reading. Being “in the Word”. Usually in some sort of daily “quiet time”. For me, reading my Bible was not only a checklist item, but it was also a badge of religious achievement, something I could sling around to showcase my Christian prowess. If I could start a conversation with, “I was reading in the book of Galatians today. . .” I earned gold stars or jewels in my crown or something.

So when it came time to sift through the religious chaff of my own planting, I had to shut my amply-underlined Bible. I stopped reading altogether. Until I could come to a place where reading it was driven by God’s , I just couldn’t bring myself to go through the motions. I shut up about how much I’d read, too.

And then the time came. Three years (yes, years) later, I wanted to read my Bible again. All of the Scripture I’d memorized over the course of my lifetime had served me well in the interim, but now I knew it was time to jump back in because I had a desire placed in my heart. I wanted to open it up and read with other people and discuss it and chew on it and let it change me.

If my story shares similarities with your story, let me encourage you. Stay close to Jesus and watch how he draws you back to the things that are going to continue to mold you into the likeness of Christ. It’s okay to crumple up the to-do list and train your ear to listen for him, instead. In fact, it will be better.

2.

When it’s time, you might find that approaching the Bible in a new and different way is exactly how you need to approach the Bible.

So, yes, I stopped reading my Bible. But then I discovered something surprising: If I listened to someone else read the Bible, it didn’t feel as if I were just trying to play by the rules and gain some extra Brownie points.

It may seem convoluted, but hearing the Bible every day is better for me. It reverberates in my ears and makes me think deeply. I can’t say whether or not it will be better for you, too, but it’s worth looking into.

My favorite audio Bible app is Dwell. It will cost you some pennies, but it will be worth every single one. You can listen along to a plan or to whatever you choose. You can change the voice reading it, kind of like when you switch to a different voice announcing directions on your car’s GPS. You can change the speed (I’m a double-time girl) and choose whether or not you want background music and what exactly that will sound like.

Click the photo above or click here to see Dwell for yourself. No, this isn’t an affiliate plug. Pretty sure they don’t even know I’m here.

3.

When it’s time, you might find that approaching the Bible with a community of others is exactly how you need to approach the Bible.

It’s good to hear other people read the Bible around us. It’s encouraging to hang out with fellow skeptics, fellow wanderers, fellow believers, fellow struggling people. Sometimes we have the same questions and sometimes we just need to admit to each other that we don’t have this figured out. We are, after all, seeing all of scripture through a glass dimly.

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Sometimes it’s just good to be reminded that we don’t know it all. Out of that humanity, we can embrace discovery on God’s timetable.

To that end, I want to recommend something else that has helped me get back to regular reading. A friend told me about a podcast she’d just begun in January and I jumped in, right as they were starting Genesis. You can jump in right now or any time you want; they’ll start back over again in Genesis in January.

What’s the podcast? The Bible Recap. It has changed my year, if only by the daily reminder that, “He’s where the joy is”.

Tara Leigh Cobble is the woman who does the recap each episode, and she gets the gospel. I mean, she really gets the whole “It’s all about Jesus” thing. So for someone who may be struggling to unshackle from the bondage of really bad religion, Tara’s insights will help you remove the chains, link by link by link.

This is a safe space, my friend. You are free to admit that you just can’t read your Bible anymore. When it’s time to pick up the nourishment and encouragement and find God there once again, he will make it known to you and by whatever creative means he chooses. As my trusty Bible Recap reminds me, “He’s where the joy is.” Truly.

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God's Not Disappointed With You, Either

I write for a ministry whose byline is, “God’s not mad at you.” I think about this a lot, but as a new grandparent, I have also been thinking about the truth that he’s not disappointed with us, either.

Disappointment seems to be the universal lament of the child and the grandchild. “I can never seem to please my parents.” “I’ve stopped visiting my grandparents because all they do is harp on me.” From educational choices to jobs to where we choose to live, with whom we spend our time, how we dress, where we worship, what we do with our free time . . . many of us feel that in the midst of it all, we’ve inevitably let someone else down.

Do you follow the Humans of NY Instagram feed? I love that guy. My eyes have been opened to fascinating and compelling stories of women and men all over the world because he’s taken the time to listen to people’s stories and tell them to the rest of us.

But there’s a prosaic thread that runs through many of their narratives: we all seem to think we’re letting someone down.

Just last month one beautiful “human of New York”, created in the image of God, told Instagram that she feels like she can never measure up. “My grades suffered, and my parents were so disappointed. They wanted me to go to university and get a real job. They were Haitian. They knew poverty. And they didn’t want the same thing to happen to their kids. Now I’m working in a hotel as a cleaning lady. I feel like I’m invisible. “

Sometimes, no matter what we do, how hard we try, what obstacles we face internally or externally, we end up disappointing someone. That’s my sorry story, too. I can’t be everything and sometimes anything everyone wants me to be. Mostly, I feel like a big fat disappointment.

It’s not the truth.

In times of self-doubt and redundant internal yarn-spinning, I have to remind myself of the truth. Here it is:

He made us.

[Genesis 1:27]

He knows our frame. He understands our humanity.

[Psalm 102:14]

He doesn’t expect us to be more than Jesus.

[From Genesis to Revelation and everywhere in between]

He gave us Jesus so that we could never disappoint him again.

[1 John 2:1-2]

He kisses us on the forehead in tenderness at the end of a long string of disappointments.

[1 John 3:1-2 does not tell us that he “kisses us on the forehead”, but I think that metaphor is a beautiful way to picture how kind and tender his love is for us, even when he knows from our birth that we will not live up to his expectations.]

God’s not mad at you. He’s not disappointed with you, either. And if I were Steve Brown I’d say, “You think about that.”

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