GrammarPlanet REVIEW

OK, so I might be a little more excited about this next review than most.  The deal is that grammar IS NOT my strong point and it is very much a struggle for my 9th grader.  I have tried many different products but I think we have found a winner for us with the comprehensive online grammar program from GrammarPlanet.  This is an online digital product.  During my review, it was in beta stage so there have been a lot of kinks worked out of it.  We started with the free version which includes ads, but have recently been scheduled to receive the ad-free paid version (mine has not been activated yet).

Sample of test time

Did you catch that?  You can get this online grammar program for FREE if you don't mind the ads.  At the time of this review, I feel that the ads are completely not annoying or invasive.  Mine come at the end of a session and it's just one quick ad (I realize that may change in the future).  For an ad-free paid version it only cost $39 for lifetime access.  How cool is that?  There are currently a total of 13 units (lessons).  You can see a list of topics covered from a PDF link on the website.

Screenshot from within student account

When you set your account up you get a parent/teacher account and a student account.  You can only access the lessons from the student account.  The parent account is to keep up with the progress of your student and to "unlock" their account when they have done poorly in a lesson and need to repeat it.  The unlock feature has been wonderful for me since I have a student that likes to try to skate through assignments and not redo or retry things he has not done well on.  From my parent dashboard, I can see the progress of each student.  You can also go in and review what they have gotten wrong.  There is an option to reset your students progress, but I have not used that so I am unsure of the result.  I imagine it is how you can go back and redo a lesson because once you have completed your lesson you can view it, but not redo it.

Parent dashboard overview (showing 2 students)
This is also where you would "unlock" your student's account

You can see what your student got wrong (from both their account and your parent dashboard)

GrammarPlanet is basically a digital version of sentence diagramming. A typical lesson begins with you printing out the PDF lesson notes and then watching a lesson video. Your student can use the notes to refer to as they watch the video lesson.  Each video so far has been around 6 minutes so they are quick and easy.  As your student progresses through the lesson video there are integrated quiz questions for them to answer.  I think this is wonderful to be sure they are understanding what they are hearing.

Sample of a portion of a note page

After the video, your student is ready to complete some practice questions (so far there have been about 12-15 questions).  Your student can and should use their "cheat sheet" notes for this section.  They may also use them during test time.  The key to this program is that your student masters the grammar concepts taught. The more repetition and practice the more natural the diagramming will become.  It really helps you to understand sentence structure.  Once the practice session is complete your student is ready to take the test.  Don't be surprised if your student sees a question repeated on a test.  Our experience has been that if they completely get a question wrong, the question comes up again.  The program is responsive in that way, it gives the student a chance to try again.  Once complete you will see your test score for the unit.

Practice questions with markups and correction

We found this program very easy to navigate.  Since we were testing a beta version there have been a lot of hiccups, but I feel they have been worth it and the corrections came quickly.  There are/were challenges with why certain words fell under certain designations, but as you proceed and learn more the reasons will become more apparent.  There is no rush to complete the course and the students can progress at their own pace.  Even repeating lessons as necessary.  Even better, there are no age restrictions (age 10 - 99 recommended) on who can use this program.  If you find yourself lacking in grammar skills, it is a perfect resource for honing your skills.  Our experience has been a good one and I give this online grammar program a thumbs up.  If you want to give it a try, you just can't go wrong for FREE!

You can connect with GrammarPlanet on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, or PINTEREST.

As always, be sure to check out what others have to say about this online grammar program by clicking on the graphic below.