Mom0012 Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 I know not everyone feels that it is ever too much, but I suspect it will be for us. I want my son to get down all the important things, but I'm not interested in teaching him about more obscure grammar. We will be starting with level 3 of R&S this year and I just wonder if there are some people that use it for a few years and then find it gets to be too much. I have level 3 and level 4 and feel that those will be fine. What about the levels beyond that? When does it really begin to move beyond what most people would consider knowledge that the average student would need? Thanks! Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in Central TX Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 I plan to take all 3 of my boys through R&S Grammar 8. I don't find any of the information in this program obscure; in fact, I wish *I* had been taught this information in elementary and junior high school. I look back on some of the high school and college papers that I wrote, and I'm appalled at my lack of grammar knowledge (now that I've gone through R&S 3 through 7 with my oldest son). With the strong foundation provided by R&S Grammar 3 through 8, my boys will be very effective writers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThelmaLou Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 Well, we can't get enough of it over here. One of my friends had each of her kids go all the way through 8th grade. Year after year he compained, and then when he went away to college, he said, "Mom, the best thing you ever did for me was make me stick with R&S grammar." It got a little hairy for my oldest ds last year in 8th grade. We suspended his work in the 8th grade book in favor of working on some other subjects. He'll be starting it over this year as a 9th grader and completing the 8th grade book this year. I've heard of others who just keep having their kids work through that 8th grade book several times through the course of high school. The R&S English books for the older grades focus on writing. 8th grade is the last one that's so heavy on grammar. In my opinion, 4th or 5th grade is much too early to think about quitting. But then again, I was an English major, so good luck trying to convince me that everyone shouldn't love grammar.:tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 Halfway through Book 7 was our "too much." It was killing me because I love grammar (vocab, lit, diagramming, you name it!) but dd was getting bogged down. We were reaching concepts that I didn't remember from Honor's English classes. Since I didn't go to college, I had a friend of mine take a look at Book 7 at our convention. She was surprised at the grammar in Book 7. She commented that some of those concepts were not taught till late high school and she really didn't grasp them until college. We are not planning to finish Book 7. Dd will do a review year in grammar this year and then we'll concentrate solely on lit and comp. I feel almost guilty not going through the 8th grade book, but everyone's mileage is different. This is what's going to work for this dd right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmschooling Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 I hear 5 is a BIG jump and many take that one over 2 years with the goal of finishing up level 6 by grade 8, then some finishing up books 7 and 8 in high school. I want to go through book 8 as well...but I think if we do book 5 in 5th, we'll take to the end of 6th to finish...or just start it in 6th...this keeps us from getting the more heavy books too soon. Others are just fine doing one book per year on grade level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 Having a great grammar background really helps with the writing portion of the SAT (different from the essay part), so I want my dd to go all the way thru 7, at least. She didn't like 2, but I think she'll enjoy diagramming and other things in 3-7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 AND teacher. The teacher has to learn & keep up with the student in order to teach/help/explain R&S E. 6-8. They can be used one grade below grade level and be very effective. My older ds finished R&S E. 7 in grade 8. He had it all over again in grade 9 at his private high school. I'm glad he completed R&S E. 7 - some/all of that grammar can be difficult to learn quickly (as was expected at his school). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coopers4him Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 My 9 ds is working through level4 and is giving me ALL kinds of crying and complaining over the amount of handwriting. We've been doing this one over the summer to help him get up to speed with his handwriting, but I wonder if I should let him do more of it orally? Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 My 9 ds is working through level4 and is giving me ALL kinds of crying and complaining over the amount of handwriting. We've been doing this one over the summer to help him get up to speed with his handwriting, but I wonder if I should let him do more of it orally? Any thoughts? We did it all orally with my dd. The only writing we did was diagramming and the tests. Even the diagramming was done on a white board early on. "I" would cry and complain over the handwriting;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willowcreek Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 My son will do R&S 7 in eighth grade. He was in public school through 4th and had virtually no grammar till he came home. I don't worry about being a year behind. He'll complete level 8 the next year. As far as too much handwriting--it can be hard on younger ones. For my youngest, we do a lot orally. For my middle (4th last year) we did some oral and we used the worksheets. They are inexpensive booklets, and they require the child to answer in written form but in ways that aren't so writing intensive. Less time from mom (than oral exercises) but easier on the little hands of younger kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in Central TX Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 My 9 ds is working through level4 and is giving me ALL kinds of crying and complaining over the amount of handwriting. We've been doing this one over the summer to help him get up to speed with his handwriting, but I wonder if I should let him do more of it orally? Any thoughts? Just like Angel, we do most of R&S grammar orally or on the whiteboard. The only writing that my boys do are the corresponding lesson worksheets and tests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Wisc Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 I could not grade another year of R&S English. Book 8 was shelved--through grade 7 is going to have to be enough. I think my son could have done book 8, though. My stomach was not up to it. All I had to do was open it and start working with my son, and my stomach would churn, "I don't want to do this!!" LOL! Curriculum by stomach revolt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 This curriculum is easy for some and extremely difficult for others. My DD falls into the extremely difficult camp so we work behind grade level. I offered to switch her to Voyages in English for 7th grade, but she wanted to keep going with RS because she is used to it. She is a good composer of writing, and RS is helping me to help her with her writing more effectively. She is very slow, though, and sometimes I feel like we are spending way too much time slogging through grammer and math to be able to really cover the subject area stuff like we should. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 This curriculum is easy for some and extremely difficult for others. My DD falls into the extremely difficult camp so we work behind grade level. I offered to switch her to Voyages in English for 7th grade, but she wanted to keep going with RS because she is used to it. I have also looked at a few other curricula. She is a good composer of writing, and RS is helping me to help her with her writing more effectively. She is very slow, though, and sometimes I feel like we are spending way too much time slogging through grammer and math to be able to really cover the subject area stuff like we should. I feel concerned sometimes that DD is getting too bogged down in the minuetia (sp) of RS, and not getting an overall picture as effectively as she should. Also, she tends to look for patterns in the right answers, rather than really learning the material. I have to work with her individually to get past that, and it's very frustrating--at almost 13, I feel that she should not need this much pushing from me. Sometimes I just give her a bunch of sentences and go over them with her so that I can see whether or not she can really figure them out when they are not as carefully crafted and also tied to a specific lesson as the RS sentences are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orangearrow Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 My just-starting 6th grade daughter is finishing up R&S Grammar 5 right now. It IS a lot, but I don't have her do every single problem. We do odds on most sections, and as long as she is grasping the concept, we move along. We also do a lot of the questions orally. My just-starting 4th grade daughter is midway through Grammar 3 and it's tears, tears, tears every time I bring out the grammar books. Out of curiosity, I looked through Abeka's grammar program and actually laughed out loud. Abeka has SO many fewer questions, SO much less writing involved.... (It's all the writing that gets my dd down). So, I ordered Abeka's Grammar 3 and 4, which we'll use for this daughter. When she's completed Abeka 4, we'll look through R&S and figure out where she should be. By grade 5, I won't be as sympathetic to her "I don't want to write so much" woes. ;) DS is just starting 1st grade and we're using SWB's grammar series for him and I expect to put him in R&S 3 when we're finished. We'll see if he takes after dd#1 or dd#2 with it. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coopers4him Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 I'll have to look at the worksheets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted June 30, 2009 Author Share Posted June 30, 2009 Thanks for all the replies. I guess I'll take a wait and see approach since there seems to be a variety of opinions. At least it looks like it will probably not be a problem to get through R&S 5, at a minimum. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 My 9 ds is working through level4 and is giving me ALL kinds of crying and complaining over the amount of handwriting. We've been doing this one over the summer to help him get up to speed with his handwriting, but I wonder if I should let him do more of it orally? Any thoughts? absolutely let him do more orally. I have found the workbook very helpful. if there is a workbook page for a lesson, we only do the workbook page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I switched to ABeka !V after rod and staff7. I just couldn't stand using rod and staff any more. I was getting bogged down with all the adjective clauses and predicate nominatives. etc. I will get all the other children through to book 7 and then switch them to ABeka. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanne in MN Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 The writing is a killer-orally is the way to go. I'm sure Abeka is good, but I will say I have a dear friend that started out with Abeka and about 4th grade switched to R&S because she didn't feel they explained things very well. She's very pleased with R&S. Not saying you should stick with R&S; often when I write posts, I think of other people out there who like to glean info. from the boards and am writing to them too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 R & S 6 was too much for us. We were done, stick a fork in us, done. BUT, I can't tell you how much of a temptation it is (now, after a FULL year break) to get year 7 for our real year 8 and see how we do. Because, in the meantime I haven't found anything I LOVE to replace it. I'm trying Easy Grammar Plus this year and if I'm not fond of it, I'm back to Rod & Staff. (That said, I have ditched R&S the early years for FLL 1/2, 3, & 4.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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