Review: The Basic Cozy Grammar Course
Reviewed in the July/August 2002 issue
It’s always a pleasure to review an excellent product. This video grammar course is creative, clear, well-organized, and above all, entertaining. Retired English teacher Marie Rackham is the star of this show. She knows her stuff and explains each point clearly and carefully, but she’s quirky enough, too, that she’s a hoot to watch. The lessons are filmed in and around her beautiful home on the beach on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Some settings are “cozy” (tea by the fireside) and others are grand (bald eagles aloft), and they’re perfect for homeschooled children who are much more at home in those places than in a classroom. Ms. Rackham–a classically trained pianist–even provides the soundtrack. The course contains 27 lessons, from the basics of identifying subjects and predicates through subordinate clauses and compound sentences. The accompanying workbook restates the basics of each lesson and gives three or four sets of exercises, plus four tests at the end. As we write this, our three oldest children are glued to the TV, laughing and learning with Ms. Rackham.
Enthusiastically recommended.
