Anyone here used and LIKED R&S phonics and reading program?

[Susie in MS]

What did you find were the pros and cons?

Did your child like it?

How long did it take each day?

Thanks muchly!

[Beth in Central TX]

Kathy (aka KIN) just posted a great review for R&S Reading/Bible program here: http://67.202.21.157/forums/showthread.php?t=14900

 

I really like the R&S Reading/Bible program from 1st to 4th grade. It builds a great foundation for phonics and reading comprehension, in addition to a thorough study of the Bible. I don't do all of the units schedule for each year because it can be a lot of work. R&S is written for a classroom setting so we don't need all of the seatwork that is scheduled.

[Closeacademy]

My youngest dd likes it. My oldest would have hated it.

 

Pros:

 

nice gentle stories

great review of phonics

gets them reading pretty quickly

 

 

Cons:

 

could be a lot of pencil work

goes fairy quickly

 

 

How we use it:

 

I generally don't schedule this out but take things as they come. She is reading lesson 6, working in the phonics workbook on lesson 5, and the reading workbook on lesson 6. I let her do a couple of activities in each workbook each day and stop when she is ready.

 

We generally spend about 10 min a day on it.:001_smile:

[Guest krokala]

The first grade phonics programs integrates a lot of sight words with the phonics. I actually prefer Abeka phonics to R & S. I felt they were reading words like everyone and night without understanding special sounds and/or sight words. However, I have triplets - 2 boys and 1 girl. My boys did fine with it. I love the fact that they are really learning the Bible. The workbooks help with knowing if they really remember the story. My daughter who has dyslexia hated it. I withdrew her from R&S in the middle of first grade and am using Dianne Craft's material for right brained children.

 

My fourth grade boys loves the Bible as well. The cons at this age is the readers use old KJV. Some of the words I don't understand since we don't talk like that anymore. He struggled with understanding why he needed to know words like hither etc.

 

My final analysis is that it has worked well for my boys but not for right brained children or ones that struggle with dyslexia.

[OneRoomHomeSchool]

What did you find were the pros and cons?

Did your child like it?

How long did it take each day?

Thanks muchly!

 

My son *hated* Rod and Staff phonics and reading. He enjoys the readers but not the workbooks.

 

The phonics portion is *true* phonics, the reading portion is what has all of the sight words (you do not have to use both components).

 

The amount of writing in both was too much, and the phonics moved very, very s-l-o-w.

 

Now our cons, may be someone else's pro's though so who knows? :D

[cin]

My daughter, who LOVES workbooks, loved them. It is alot of writing, and we did alot of it orally because she was an early reader. By the time she was halfway through the 2nd grade reader, we dropped phonics. I've also dropped the reading for a few months so we could focus on reading comprehension. Reading fast but not remembering what you read doesn't count.;)

 

I also liked it because the readers take you through the Old Testament.

[G5052]

It's a classroom-oriented program, so it moves quickly (IMHO) and has a lot of seatwork. For example, they run through the basic letter sounds in about a month and dive right into long vowels right after that. So personally, I wouldn't recommend it as a first phonics program. Both of mine started it when they were already blending 3-letter words. One had done Calvert K and the other MFW K. We used the first month as review and getting used to it, and then they were ready. I also paced it to the child, sometimes doing a particular reading and phonics lesson over two days (i.e. 1 page phonics workbook, 1 page reading workbook, read the story twice), and sometime we took a break entirely from it and drilled with Phonics Pathways, Bob Books, and re-reading the Reader stories when they were at a plateau and needed more time before they went on.

 

I personally didn't have a problem with the readers using some sight words, but some don't like that philosophically.

 

My older one did both the phonics and reading with the workbooks in their grade 1 and 2 programs. He started at the end of K and finished in early 3rd grade with pretty much year-round work. My older one did only the grade 1 program because she started reading chapter books a few months before the end of it, and so had her finish the grade 1 books and didn't do further phonics with her. She used the complete grade 1 program for K and the early part of 1st grade over about 18 months. Both of my children are very good spellers and read many grades above their ages mates.

 

So yes, it's a good program, but I'd recommend that you pace it carefully and don't go into without some phonics background.

[KIN]

I love it and reviewed it on another thread that Beth in Central TX posted. I use Spell to Write and Read for phonics/spelling. I look at R & S readers as our Bible for the early grades and for increasing reading comprehension. I love it for that!

[Susie in MS]

Thanks ladies!! This helps a lot. Especially the part about needing some sort of early phonics before hand. Thanks again!