Customer Reviews

Intermediate Language Lessons

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am using this for homeschooling my seven year old. She is a bit advanced with English, this is maybe at a 3rd/4th grade level book. It helps the children deduce for themselves the grammar rules using logic/reasoning based on several different sentences or passages. They read bits of literature and use these to write their own stories from different points of view. Example: Lesson 2, the story of the Stone in the Road. The children retell the story from the point of view of the stone, the king, the people, the bag of gold, etc. There is copywork, picture description (both oral and written), memorization, narration both written and oral, tenses, composition, paragraphs, later it gets into debate, discussing proverbs, and things like that. It is very thorough with the exception of homonyms and homophones. Suggest The Reading Teachers Book of Lists as a supplement. Back to basics, classical education. Wonderful.

After 18 years of homeschooling 9 children it takes a very good book to get me excited enough to review it! I love the Charlotte Mason method, but sometimes lacked the ability to keep all of the facets organized.

This book is designed for 4-6th grades with the answers written on paper. It has picture study, oral narration, excellent written narration and composition assignments, outlining, copywork, recitation of beautiful poetry, dictation, grammar and more. The illustrations are lovely. I have even used it with an older child who lacked the fundamentals.

It is challenging for kids who struggle with writing, but it's the exact right kind of challenge. Gentle, but moving them toward excellence. It's easy to modify on the fly for an advanced or struggling child, and takes no teacher preparation if you are familiar with the terms narration, dictation, picture study, etc.

I use Primary Language Lessons in 2-3rd grades first and follow up with this. I buy one for each of my children using the program because the copywork sometimes takes them awhile. A thorough program for this grade, minus all the busywork.

Even though this is suppose to be for younger kids (4th grade), I bought it for my 8th grade son and it is just right for him. The lessons include writing and speach. There is not an answer key because you don't need one you will be able to do language lessons with just this book. I would plan to take more than one year to finish it though.

I would highly recommend this book. To be fair, I have not used it yet, but have gone over it thoroughly. It is very gentle in its approach, and yet meaty at the same time. I plan on using this book for my daughter while she is in grades 4-6. It has 300 lessons that are broken into 3 sections, so 100 lessons a year. Plan on doing three lessons a week, every day. Some of the lessons take more than one day to go through them. I went through and made a schedule of the first 100 lessons and it worked out just about perfect to finish in a year. I looked at English for the Thoughtful Child and First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind. Neither of those books hold a candle to this one. I would hightly recommend it!

I bought this for use with my daughter after having completed Primary Language Lessons. The website shows the inside of the Hardback book and notes that the paperback is the same just a different cover. What was inside the book that I received was NOT what I saw on the inside view on Amazon's site. Don't buy this! Pay the extra and get the Hardcover from another location. Horrible font size, different formating and labeling, even missing spaces between many words and huge empty spaces on the top half of entire pages. There are many words and sentences missing from sections. Horrible reprinting of a great classic. Buy elsewhere.

I have both this book and the Primary Language Lessons from the same author. They are both great books! The Intermediate is wonderful! I am very picky about Language books, and this one meets all my criteria. Love it!!

This has become one I consistently and wholeheartedly recommend. I've taught English grammar and composition, and this is the book I wish I'd had then (though I'd never have been allowed to use anything considered "classic" in public school where only the latest -- and therefore untested -- will suffice). The lessons are compact and varied, and the sensibly sequential grammar and composition skills build upon one another almost seamlessly. It's both pragmatic and challenging. If you abhor the workbook approach and are innately repelled by "busy work", then this may be the one for you. I've used this with great success with my 4th/5th grader for a year. I can easily adapt the lessons to his respective skill levels, and a teacher's edition is unnecessary.

I particularly applaud the author's approach to composition. Most kids are reluctant writers, and naturally so. Writing well requires an inordinately complex set of skills (and very different from the skills needed for mastering spoken language)that are best taught in small, manageable chunks with opportunities for modeling at every juncture.

Caveat: If your children have been raised with classic literature, Serl's book will be well suited to their developing "ear" for well-written prose and poetry. Kids raised on serialized pulp may balk.

I love Emma Serl's Language Lessons books. I have used them for years and highly recommend them to others who are seeking a language arts curriculum. However, I orderd this paperback edition and the layout it terrible - very hard to read - and there are no illustrations that go with the picture studies. When I clicked "Look Inside" it took me to the hardback edition of this book so before I ordered, there was no way to see what the layout was. I trusted it was the same.
I am returning it and Amazon is telling me that I have to pay the return postage. Yikes! I will go back in and order the hardback edition that I am familiar with.

I bought this rather in a hurry and did not realise that it was created by a Read-on-Demand type robot (scanner).

For learning grammar of the English language, it would be to the student's detriment because it features no white space, tiny print, and glaring typographical errors on each page. Do not buy this poorly-made version of Emma Serl's book; purchase the original!

I homeschool my 9 year old. I was looking for a book that had more than vocabulary or spelling or comprehension. I wanted a book that would multi-task. I heard great things about this book on [...] It took me several months to obtain a copy, but I am very pleased with this purchase! I would recommend that you purchase the teacher's guide as the book does not have answers or lengthy directions. Great value!