GrammarPlanet (Review)

 

Today, I'll be sharing our review of GrammarPlanet.  This is an online product that can be used with those just learning the concepts of grammar through review for the older student.   The folks from Analytical Grammar are the masterminds behind this program, so you know right off the starting block that it's thorough.

For this program, you set up a master account for yourself, and then separate accounts for each child, with their own user name and password.   You also have to give their birth date, which I don't like.   Once the accounts are set up, the parent can see their progress from the main dashboard, and the parent also has the ability to erase results so a student can redo a unit if needed.   The student must log in from the main log in screen, they cannot just click on their account from the main screen.

The units consist of  printable teaching notes, (highly recommend for each lesson), video instruction with interspersed quizzing of material, followed by practice sentences and then a unit test.  The videos vary in length, but most are less than 10 minutes in duration. The student uses pop up windows to parse/label words as their part of speech.  It is recommended that students only work 10-15 minutes a day on the program.

Our review period was during the Beta Testing phase of GrammarPlanet.  If you've ever been part of a testing group, especially one that involves electronic technology,  you know that it's typically a bumpy ride.   This product was no exception, and honestly it was very frustrating at times.  Most of the things I'll mention have been addressed and fixed, but in all transparency I have to let you know that we had issues.

There were some inconsistencies that my kids and I found annoying.  For example in the unit on proper nouns the word "Sun" was taught as a proper noun because it's a specific planet name.  I'm good with that.  However, a unit or two later the word "sun" is used, in the same context and when you label it a proper noun you get it wrong...it's now just a noun.     There were times where labeling the object of the preposition was marked wrong and listed as only being a noun, not part of the prepositional phrase.

My oldest daughter is really strong in grammar, and she's also grade driven, so to get something marked wrong that was right two sentences before really just ticked her off.   She spent a lot of time talking to the computer screen saying  things like "Have you lost your mind?"

My youngest daughter is not strong in grammar. She tries, but it just is not something that seems to stick with her.  Once the inconsistencies started popping up, she started getting confused and really frustrated, so I had to pull her from this review to keep from losing ground with her.  I decided to finish her sessions myself.  I FAILED a unit, not because I was wrong, but because the system had a glitch and said I'd gotten every answer wrong.  I could see my answers, with all the little "Perfect!" comments beside it, so obviously it was another glitch.  I'm really glad I was doing the work at this point,because it would have crushed Lindsey if it told her she got every answer wrong.  If you or your student does fail a unit, the student then gets "locked out" until the parent goes in and resets, and that unit must be done over until the student passes before moving on.

The folks at GrammarPlanet have been working long and hard to get everything working properly. They've listened to the Review Team concerns and been relatively quick to make changes. I think, once the kinks are ironed out, this is going to be an amazing product that really solidifies grammar rules and applications for its users.    

A lifetime, ad-free membership is $39, so it's money well spent and you'll have access to all the new material that is added as time goes on.

To read more Crew Member reviews of this product, click here.