Rod&staff English vs Abeka

[mom2agang]

Which English program is better? And why do u like it better?

[HFClassicalAcademy]

We haven't done Abeka, but I can say that I love Rod and Staff. We finished 2nd and are going into 3rd. It is rigorous and offers enough practice and review. My son actually doesn't complain about it either!! Having both oral and written problems really work for us too.

 

HTH,

Liz

[Jen S in Va]

:iagree: I used R&S exclusively with my older two from grades 2-8 (and will with my youngest, as well). When we ran out of R&S grammar in 9th grade, I switched to Abeka (and eventually BJUP) and both were like taking 5 steps backward. Thick workbook format with pages and pages of busy work, that was not up to par with R&S, imo. I like the daily oral review and oral quizzes in R&S, and the fact that we can do as much or as little of the exercises orally as we please. Cost, while not a factor for us sticking with R&S, is much more reasonable with R&S. You can almost get a hardcover student text and teacher's manual in the R&S grammar for what you pay for just the consumable student text in ABeka. The texts hold up incredibly well, so can be reused for future students or resold.

 

For my youngest I will be extending R&S through high school by taking 1.5-2 years to do grade 4 and possibly 6, so that he will finish grade 6 of R&S grammar as he finishes grade 8. We'll then use grade 7 and 8 grammar texts during his high school years, taking two years for each. Both are extremely meaty and have more than enough in them to make a 2 year course when supplemented with literature and writing.

[coffeegal]

I've never used Abeka, but I love Rod and Staff. One big seller for me is the fact that it's a textbook; we can repeat chapters as needed. The teacher's manuals included oral review and oral quizzes, as well as showing the student's page on the teacher's page. It's a lovely, easy set-up. :001_smile:

[SilverMoon]

R&S hands down.

 

R&S:

-thorough

-open and go

-to the point, you won't find busywork here

-gives you the choice to use the review that's best for you (oral, written, worksheet)

-has clear, easily understandable explanations right in the student text

-awesome TEs that will hold your hand and give you extra teaching suggestions beyond what's already in the student text

-if you find your kid at the end of the chapter without understanding as well as you'd like, you only have to flip back to the lessons they're weak on and do them again

 

Abeka:

-thorough

-open and go

-lots of busywork

-even more busywork

-the teaching section in the student text tends to read like stereo instructions and needed explained by me much more often

-the TE can't hold a candle to R&S's

-if you end up at the end of a section without a solid understanding, you'll have to make up your own extra review or find it online

[Ellie]

R&S. Equally thorough grammar instruction without the overkill factor. Much more writing, too, especially beginning with 7th grade. And all the instruction on using reference materials, poetry (which ABeka includes in its spelling series, but not as in-depth as R&S), oral communication, and more.

[Whereneverever]

Another R&S vote. We started with WWE and I vastly prefer R&S.

[Whereneverever]

Umm, WWE isn't a grammar program. Did you mean FLL?

 

Another vote for R & S. The explanations are very clear and I like the TM better.

Yes. :tongue_smilie:

[Katie.Louise]

We love R&S here. We do it all orally, except diagramming. Clean layouts are a big plus for me. They do have great explanations, like others have said.

Katie

[Tidbits of Learning]

We are switching to R&S English next year from Abeka Language. Why? My dd9 begged me to please, please, please not buy Abeka Language B after this year with Abeka Language A. That spoke volumes for me even though she did well in grammar.

I grew up doing Abeka in school and it is different in a classroom setting. It doesn't seem near as overwhelming in a classroom of other kids and doing some of it orally together. I haven't really been able to do that well with dd9 b/c of the sheer quantity of busy work and only having her answering back to me instead of a class. So orally really doesn't cut down on anything with Abeka.

I plan to do R&S some orally and some on the white board. So far looking through it, I love the TM. The TM for Abeka was hard to read through and decipher as well as the fact that they change editions every few years and the page numbers never match up with new editions so I was not going to be able to hand me down it to my younger kids. The hardback factor of R&S is much more economical and withstanding than the paper versions of Abeka and with 4 kiddos...I need the ability to re-use things.

[laurad1125]

We started 5th grade with Abeka. We switched to R&S after about 10 lessons. The R&S explanations were SO much clearer.

[smilesonly]

[quote name=Jen S in Va;1794427

 

For my youngest I will be extending R&S through high school by taking 1.5-2 years to do grade 4 and possibly 6' date=' so that he will finish grade 6 of R&S grammar as he finishes grade 8. We'll then use grade 7 and 8 grammar texts during his high school years, taking two years for each. Both are extremely meaty and have more than enough in them to make a 2 year course when supplemented with literature and writing.

 

I love this plan! Thanks for sharing it!

:001_smile:

[momtofive]

Amen to what the pp's said. :iagree: It's R&S all the way from now on! We've used Abeka up until now. My oldest just finished the Language A in Abeka and while he did well with it, he had a hard time understanding the explanations in the book. A LOT of busywork!

 

I just realized that my second child who has just finished second grade, has no idea what a noun or a verb is. Abeka doesn't start teaching that until third and fourth grade. R&S starts kids out with a firm foundation in R&S 2. We are going with HOD this year and no Abeka at all. The author of the HOD program gives a lot of great info on their boards about the R&S program. She has done a LOT of research and knows the program well. R&S offers a MUCH shorter lesson, with MUCH more "meat" to it than Abeka. You can also do the R&S lessons mostly orally which, I think, gives kids a better understanding of the material. There is a little written work at the latter part of the lesson. As the grades advance, so does the work. It is a great program and one that meets all our needs!:001_smile:

 

~momtofive