Daily Grams is a grammar review curriculum consisting of 180 short daily worksheets designed to reinforce grammar concepts through consistent, spiraling practice in about 10 minutes per day.
What is Daily Grams?
Daily Grams (Guided Review Aiding Mastery Skills) provides 180 daily worksheets focused on grammar review rather than initial instruction. Created by Wanda C. Phillips and published by Easy Grammar Systems, each lesson follows a predictable format covering capitalization, punctuation, parts of speech, and sentence combining. The key word is review: Daily Grams assumes students have already learned basic grammar concepts and need consistent practice to retain them. Most families use it alongside a teaching grammar curriculum or after completing initial grammar instruction.
Key Takeaways
- Takes approximately 5-10 minutes per day to complete
- Available for grades 3-7 plus a Junior/Senior High level
- Uses a spiraling approach that continuously reviews previous concepts
- Designed to supplement a teaching grammar curriculum, not replace it
- Teacher text includes reproducible student pages and answer keys
How Daily Grams Works
Each daily review follows the same format: one capitalization question, one punctuation question, two grammar concept questions, a spelling-related question, and a sentence combining exercise. This consistency makes the program nearly self-teaching after the first few lessons. Concepts cycle back every 25-30 days, ensuring students retain material covered earlier in the year. The simplicity is intentional: no illustrations, no elaborate explanations, just focused practice in a black-and-white workbook format.
The Prepositional Approach
Both Daily Grams and its companion curriculum Easy Grammar use a distinctive teaching method. Students first memorize prepositions and learn to identify prepositional phrases in sentences. Then they delete those phrases before identifying other parts of speech. This differs from the traditional "find the subject and verb first" approach most grammar programs use. Once students grasp this technique, grammar analysis becomes more systematic and less confusing, particularly for students who've struggled with traditional methods.
Daily Grams vs. Easy Grammar
Easy Grammar teaches grammar concepts; Daily Grams reviews them. Most families start with Easy Grammar at the appropriate grade level, then continue with Daily Grams for maintenance in subsequent years. You can also use Daily Grams alongside any other grammar curriculum as supplemental review. Some families alternate years: teach with Easy Grammar one year, review with Daily Grams the next. Either approach works as long as students have some foundation before starting Daily Grams.
The Bottom Line
Daily Grams excels at one thing: keeping grammar skills sharp through brief, consistent practice. It won't teach grammar from scratch, but it prevents the common problem of students forgetting earlier concepts as the year progresses. For families who want grammar handled in 10 minutes without elaborate lesson prep, Daily Grams delivers. Pair it with a teaching curriculum for initial instruction, and your grammar bases are covered with minimal daily time investment.
