We Love the New Fix It! Grammar from IEW and You Will Too!

I’ve had a long-time love affair with the IEW curriculum. (IEW stands for Institute for Excellence in Writing.) I find it to be superior to other writing and grammar programs I’ve tried.

We have used Fix It! Grammar in our homeschool for many years. And while I like to sing its praises, there were some aspects I didn’t absolutely love. And to be honest, my kids weren’t fans of the notebook for doing vocabulary and rewriting the sentences. And they didn’t always love it as I did. In fact, for a brief period, we switched grammar curriculums. Despite this, it was still the best homeschool grammar program I knew about. And after seeing what else was out there, like the prodigal, we returned.

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by IEW. I received a free copy of Fix It! Grammar in exchange for my honest opinion. This post may contain affiliate links.

So let me tell you how thrilled I was when I received copies of the new and improved Fix It! Grammar 4th edition from IEW. They not only fixed the parts my kids didn’t love, but they made it better in ways I didn’t even know I wanted!

Overview of Fix It! Grammar from IEW

If you are unfamiliar with the Fix It! Grammar curriculum from IEW, let me give you a brief overview before we begin discussing the improvements.

IEW believes the best way to teach grammar is through exposure to it as a child would come across it in literature. When you are looking at their Fix It! Grammar books, you will notice that each one is based on a literary work: The Nose Tree, Town Mouse and Country Mouse, Robin Hood, etc.

Students search for and correct errors in daily passages that cumulatively tell a story. In every lesson, students learn a new grammar concept to apply to the knowledge they already have.

The lesson takes place at the beginning of each week and is short and concise. The student then practices the new grammar concept for the next four days. All in all, grammar takes about ten minutes a day to complete. You can include the lesson with the day one practice for a 4-day week or do it on its own day.

It’s ingenious really. Kids learn grammar and are exposed to great literature at the same time. Sometimes the reason my kids do their grammar is that they want to find out what happens next in the story. It’s a brilliant motivator.

The New & Improved Fix It! Grammar 4th Edition from IEW

There are five components to IEW’s Fix It! Grammar:

• Learn It!
• Read It!
• Mark It!
• Fix It!
• Rewrite It!

Learn It!

This is the section with the grammar lesson. The IEW grammar lessons remain short and concise introducing one new concept at a time.

In higher levels, students will review previous grammar rules learned in the beginning at a faster pace before moving on to new concepts. This means they may cover several rules at once, but ideally, it should not be the first time they are learning it. Even if it is, it’s not too difficult. Think covering adjectives along with who/which clauses and quotation marks (level 4, week 4).

This section is pretty much the same.

Read It!

Every day, students are introduced to a new vocabulary word found within the passage they are correcting. There are four new vocabulary words every week.

This section has changed!

In the past, students used to keep a notebook where they would write their vocabulary words. Now, there is a place directly on the sheet for each day’s word!

Vocabulary words are found in bold in the reading and there is white space on the page for them to define them.

I really appreciate this. Having the definition written there with the word is so much more helpful.

Mark It!

The changes in this section are the ones I’m most excited about. There is still the passage for students to mark all the grammar concepts they have learned. Only now, there is a place at the top of the page which tells them EXACTLY what they are looking for and how many of each thing there is to be found!

This change is huge!

One of my kids’ biggest frustrations was never knowing if they had found everything. This simple change fixed what my kids disliked the most. Now they no longer have to guess if they missed anything. I know right away when they ask me for help what they are still needing. Plus, it is easier to see what concepts they may be having trouble with. If they consistently need help finding a specific thing, then we can do more practice or extra lessons on it.

This change is a game-changer!

Fix It!

The Fix It! section is the part where students add missing punctuation, capitalize words, etc. This is where students practice their editing skills. Similar to the Find It! section, this now includes the type of error students should be looking for and how many of each type there are.

This is another improvement I really like.

Rewrite It!

This section is different! In the previous edition, students would have a separate spiral-bound notebook where they would do their rewrites. Now, there is a place for them to rewrite the sentence at the bottom of the page!

On the lower levels, the lines for rewriting have the top, dotted-middle, and baseline to help with handwriting.

My kids and I both love this new addition. My kids actually do the rewrite without complaint now because it feels more like a continuation of the lesson. And, nobody is unable to do their sentence rewrite because they’ve conveniently misplaced their notebook.

Fix It! Grammar Flash Cards

You can now get Fix It! Grammar flashcards to add to your study. These are great laminated note card-sized grammar facts. I like to pick four to five cards at a time for my kids to learn. Once they have mastered the grammar concept then we put it in a mastered pile and pick new ones to learn. Every so often we will review the cards they have mastered.

These cards make a great addition to your Fix It! Grammar study.

IEW’s Fix It! Grammar 4th Edition is Amazing

Sometimes when new editions come out, there are aspects from the old one I wish they had kept. I can honestly say that isn’t the case with the new Fix It! Grammar 4th edition. I love every change they made. More importantly, so do my kids.

Fix It! Grammar by IEW has long been my favorite go-to grammar program. And it still is! If you’ve been on the fence, give it a try.

If you are looking for a great, easy, and natural way to teach grammar, then this is for you.

Hate sentence diagrams? Me too! Fix It! Grammar doesn’t bother with those and kids still learn everything they need to know.

Were you using Fix It! Grammar and were unsure about the newest edition? I hope I allayed some of your concerns and you’ll love the new updates as much as I do.

Get Three Weeks of Fix It! Grammar Lessons Free!

It’s always great when you can try it before you buy. Click the link below to try three weeks of Fix It! Grammar lessons for free!