Hi, My 10 year old son finished FLL4 and we are thinking about moving to R&S5 for 5th grade but I was hoping that it would not be as labor intensive for the instructor as FLL. I have a younger child I want to give more attention to. I plan to use WWE4 as well with the 10 year old and that is very hands on. Can anyone offer their opinion on how independent a 5th grader can be with R&S5?

Thanks for all these responses. Rod and Staff I know is solid, however I've done some research and this sounds like it may be a better way to go with boys. I've done First Language lessons through the years and I question the necessity of all the repetition of the same thing. Also, the research shows boys do not do well with verbal instruction alone-they need strong visuals which is why I want a grammar program that diagrams sentences. I'd love to hear from people who have used Junior AG.

Teaching math by rote will lead to math frustration later on. Children need "strategies" to understand math. Before children learn their math facts to 10 they need to learn about 5 first and how it is special. (five fingers, toes , your can see five without counting:one in the middle) Teach this song by Dr Joan Cotter (RightStart mathmatics) using your two hands to show. Yellow is the sun six is five and one why's the sky so blue seven is five and two salty is the sea eight is five and three hear the thunder roar nine is five and four ducks will swim and dive ten is five and five I would highly recommend that you purchase Dr. Cotter's abacus. The abacus has 5 blue beads and 5 yellow beads on each of the 10 rows. Children can see six is 5 and 1 because there is 5 blue and 1 yellow, seven is 5 and 2 because there is 5 blue and 2 yellow, etc. Once this is established you can now move into strategies to help your child actually understand rather than memorize the facts. 4 and 6 is 10 because when you take one from the six and give it to the 4 you have 5 and 5. 3 and 7 is 10 because you need 2 from the 7 to make a five and again 5 and 5 is 10. Using the abacus to show this gives a powerful visual as well as a highly effective manipulative to "see" the fact.

We are about half way done with level 3. We did level 2 last year with my then 3rd grade son. I have some concern as well regarding the longer dictation sentences in level 4. I hope that level 5 is complete when I need it. I certainly think an 11 year old boy who is not a good writer needs to do WWE however since you have the level 3 book, I would first make sure your 11 yoa can complete the evaluation at the end of level 3 successfully before choosing to do level 4.

I loved doing First Language Lessons but it stops after 4th grade. Anyone have any suggestions? I would love to continue the 4 strand approach and the sentence diagraming.