HeWillSoar Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 We started with Rod and Staff 5, and looking at the table of contents for the next couple of years, it looks like it's mostly review. How have you used it? Did you have your child go through all of the levels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinRTX Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Well we did books 6 and 7 completely (started with 7). When we got to 8, I would do several lessons at a time, orally reviewing what I knew she knew, doing some written review on what I thought she needed work on. We would do the entire lesson if the material was new. By the end of 8, I considered us done with grammar. Hope that helps. Linda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 6 and 7 are sturdy jumps in difficulty. We did every grammar lesson and most of the composition lessons. In 8 DS was getting near perfect scores and felt like he wasn't getting anywhere new. It became drudgery. I switched him to Stewart English book 2 and called grammar done. DC#2 followed a similar pattern. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clear Creek Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 5 is a review of the previous years, going a bit deeper on each topic. It focuses primarily on the 8 parts of speech and the basic sentence parts. 6&7 introduce quite a bit of new stuff (lots of types of phrases and clauses and how to diagram them); I definitely wouldn't skip those two books. They are like a whole new world of English grammar, lol, compared to the 2-5 books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Governess Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 The tables of contents look similar from year to year, but the difficulty level increases each year for sure. I wouldn't skip; it is a nice mix of review and new material that goes deeper in each topic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWillSoar Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Ok great! You've convinced me to do level 6 next year. Thanks! So thankful for all the help I get here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tess in the Burbs Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 My kids are back to back grades. So I have taught the same lesson in one book and then had to teach it in the other book. There is a build up of material from year to year. Some lessons are almost word for word except the new stuff added on in the higher book. However, the stuff added on is new and harder than the previous year. I, too, think grammar 8 is where we will finish grammar study in our home. DD is really strong in grammar and is going to skip 7 next year and try to do 8. My ds is doing 7 this year after doing 6 last year and struggling. He is not my language arts kid. I personally think there is enough new stuff each year to warrant going going in order. However, a strong kid in language arts may be able to skip. I am going to try next year but have the 7 as back up if it's too much. An example of difference....Dd had a lesson on noun clauses. DS had the same similar lesson. Then another one gerund clause. Another one on infinitive clauses. And today all of it together for noun clauses and how to test for them. The early lessons had diagramming but tomorrow is just diagramming again with everything in one lesson to make sure you really know it. Book 7 is definitely harder than book 6. Just as when I taught books 5 and 6....the 6 had a little bit more on every topic than the lower book. It does build gradually each year, and only a strong language arts kid could jump levels in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 We've done it all the way up and they need that repetition every year. Kids don't learn adjectives and then they know it. Move on! Every year is a repeat of previous years, but a bit deeper and it's good. Grammar is boring, but I do think it necessary and R&S is good because it's pretty short and to the point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embassy Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I went from 4 to another program for a year to 7 with my oldest and after he finishes 7 he will be done. He gets grammar through his foreign language too. My other son went from 2 to 4 and after that, he will do 6 and 7. We don't spent time doing grammar often enough to cover 1 book in a year. Skipping books hasn't been an issue for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWillSoar Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 It doesn't look like it's going to hurt to just get the next level up. My 11 yo, 14 yo and I do this together, and it's fairly painless. I heard something somewhere about not needing to do formal grammar every year, but I've read so much that it's all becoming a blur. I'm rereading The Well Trained Mind and finding out even more the second time around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Don't overlook the writing instruction and assignments. Also, if you look at the scope and sequence, rather than the table of contents, you will get a better idea of what is taught each year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 We skipped from Book 6 to Book 8. We are starting Chapter 4. Chapter 2 seemed hard, probably because of the jump. Then we all but skipped over the Chapter 3 (Punctuation) as there didn't seem to anything in there that he didn't already know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWillSoar Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 Don't overlook the writing instruction and assignments. Also, if you look at the scope and sequence, rather than the table of contents, you will get a better idea of what is taught each year. I will probably have the youngest do some of the writing but the oldest is doing WWS1 so it would be too much for him. If I see a really good lesson though, I'll have him do it. The youngest rotates between freewrites, which he really likes, to dictation/narration, which he hates and various writing prompts. This week I assigned an essay, and I'm helping him through that. So I'll try and do the writing when it fits. Oh, and next year the youngest will probably do Jump In or Writing Strands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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