My two kids are very similar in lots of ways but also quite different when it comes to learning. My oldest really breezes through English, she just seems to understand and grasp the varies concepts without too much fuss at all. But my youngest is the opposite, although he reads a LOT and I do mean a LOT when it come to Grammar and Spelling he really is not a happy camper. So I feel like we have really need to do more repetition to help it all sink in. And I have tried to make the repetition as fun as possible (he loves working on The Night Zookeeper site and I do think it helps with his Spelling and Grammar) but I also wanted to get some extra written activities for him. And I wanted an easy option (in other words easy for me – something with answers and something where I did not need to spend too much extra time setting it up). The intention that this would be an extra set of pages for him to practice on. Extra in that we still do our English activities together (mainly using Twinkl and Schofield and Sims books for that) but once we have finished those and he needs to revise it I wanted to have something at hand that I could just grab off the bookshelf and turn to a page and give it to him. So I went for this book KS2 English Targeted Question Book: Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling – Year 5: ideal for catch-up and learning at home (CGP KS2 English). Now in total honestly we have never used one of the CGP Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling workbooks before but we have started using a few of their Maths books this year and they have gone down well so based on that I thought I would try this workbook (plus I liked that it was geared for his academic year).

Thoughts so far? It is easy to use. The book is broken down into sections and I just look at the contents page and select the activity that I want him to practice. Plus there are answers.

We like the fact that they include a quick explanation at the top of the page and we don’t find the pages too busy or too packed.

But I don’t think you could use this as your only source. If you are home educating I don’t think this is a magic book that you could buy and then think it is only book you will use for English for the whole year. I just don’t think there are enough activities in it, for it to be your only source. I think it works well if you use to together with another source (eg The Night Zookeeper site or Twinkl website). If you are a parent and your kids attend school and this is an extra book at home for revision, well that is different to what a full-time home educator needs.

But looking at it as a book that you use with another source. Then I think it works. (To put it into context, my son uses the Night Zookeeper site, we do activities from Twinkl and activities from Schofield and Sims books as well as this book). Sorry if I am stressing this point but I have had lots of people email me lately asking for the ultimate English or Maths books that they can use in isolation, in other words one book that covers everything and that means you do not need to add any extra activities (not sure I have ever found that book).

What is covered? Like I mentioned above the book is broken down into 3 sections and it is quite easy to jump around and select the page that you need.

1. Grammar

• Word Types – Nouns, Verbs, Modal Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns, Relative Pronouns and Determiners.
• Clauses and Phrases – Clauses, Basic Relative Clauses and Trickier Relative Clauses and lastly Phrases
• Conjunctions and Prepositions – Co-ordinating conjunctions, Subordinating Co-junctions, Using conjunctions and Prepositions.
• Linking Ideas – Linking ideas in a paragraph and the linking paragraphs.
• Verb Tenses – Present tense and past tense, verbs with ing and verbs with have.
• Standard and Non-standard English.

2. Punctuation

• Sentence Punctuation – Capital letters, full stops, Question marks, exclamation marks and sentence practice.
• Commas – Commas in lists, commas to join sentences, Commas after subordinate clauses, commas after introductions, commas for extra information, practice.
• Brackets and Dashes – Brackets for extra information and dashes for extra information.
• Apostrophes – Apostrophes for missing letters, Apostrophes for single possession, Apostrophe for plural possession, Its and It’s and practice.
• Inverted Commas – Punctuation speech.
• Paragraphs and Layouts – Headings and subheadings.

3. Spelling

• Prefixes – under, over, en, em, mid, pre, fore and non and hyphenating prefixes.
• Word endings and Suffixes – Shun, shus, shul, ant, ent, ance and ancy, able, ible, ably and ibly.
• Confusing Words – ei and ie words, words with ough, words with silent letters, unstressed vowels, homophones.
• Mixed Spelling Practice.

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It is a new one for us but one that I think was worth the price that I paid and so far both my son and I are happy with it.

This is the book – KS2 English Targeted Question Book: Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling – Year 5: ideal for catch-up and learning at home (CGP KS2 English)

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