Grammar

Well, for anyone who has been through school, grammar is a set of rules that have been pushed down into our throats. This makes everyone of us dread about grammar classes. However, grammar is not just the set of rules. It is about discovering oneself - the framework of language within us. Take a look at this link to understand what I mean: https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/48308402369/teaching-linguistics-to-elementary-school-students I am also posting the contents of the link here - in case the link goes defunct.

Several interesting posts from Literal Minded by Neal Whitman on teaching elementary school students linguistics. Excerpt: 

“Before we start,” I said, “I need to make sure I know what language you guys speak.”
“English!” they said.
“Ah, good! That’s what I speak, too. So Mrs. K,” I said, turning to Adam’s teacher, “Do they speak English pretty well?” She said they did. “OK,” I said. “Let me try a little test. See Mrs. K. here? Could I say, ‘Mat the on Mrs. K. sitting is’?”
I called on one of Adam’s classmates. “Jenny, is that good English? ‘Mat the on Mrs. K. sitting is’?”
“No,” Jenny said.
“It’s not? Then how would you say it?”
“Mrs. K. is sitting on the mat.”
“Really? How about the rest of you? Who would say ‘Mrs. K. is sitting on the mat’?” Most of the hands went up. (Well, more accurately, most of half of the hands went up.) “And would anyone say, ‘Mat the on Mrs. K. sitting is’?” None of them would.
“What? Why not? It’s the same words!”
“It’s the wrong order!” one or two of them said.
“Who told you that? James, did Mrs. K. tell you that it’s ‘on the mat’, not ‘mat the on’? No? Carly, did your mom tell you it’s ‘is sitting’ and not ‘sitting is?’ She didn’t? Then how did you know?”
“It just sounds right,” she said.

That's how grammar starts!

Some order of words sounds right and some others don't. We derive rules based on what sounds right (for the native speaker). Consider the case where we teach children how to derive the rules and a case where we push a set of rules down their throat. Which one do you think has more value to teaching to kids? I am sure you would say the former. When we teach kids to derive the rules by themselves, they not only automatically learn grammar, but also learn the norms of scientific inquiry.

There is an excellent article by Prof. Samuel Jay Keyser on "The role of linguistics in elementary school curriculum" (I cannot find a link; you can leave your email id in the comments section if you want a pdf copy of the article) that articulates how linguistics can be used to teach kids scientific inquiry.