How is R&S Phonics??

[diaperjoys]

I hear great reviews of their English, but not so much about their Phonics. I'm thinking of using their Phonics because it seems to pair nicely with their Spelling. Seems like they would reinforce each other well.

 

I've seen their samples, but I'd love to hear anyone's real life experience!

[Ellie]

The *phonics* is fine--not exciting, but it would get the job done.

 

The *reading*, OTOH, is sight reading--memorizing over 200 words and phrases...ugh. I don't recommend that at all.

 

But the phonics...yeah, that's ok.

[G5052]

If you use it with the readers, it is a mixture of phonics and sight words. I was fine not following a pure phonics approach. Most people on this board tend to advocate a pure phonics approach, but it didn't seem to hurt us to use a mixed approach. I'll note that neither of my kids have a learning disability, and both advanced with R&S just fine.

 

I paced to the child. There were times we only did one page a day, and times we took a break from it and drilled with Phonics Pathways. It can be a lot of writing for little hands. My older one seemed to do better with a written program, and it was inexpensive and easy to use. There also weren't as many options then, and I used it with my younger one as well because I was familiar with it.

[Homeschooling6]

I used R&S Phonics and Reading with my dd she is now in 4th grade. I started her using SWR and she has said that she remembers a lot of what we are learning now from R&S. She said, it helps her.

 

I used part of R&S Phonics with Josh and it was too much for him. He has always struggled with almost everything though:confused:.

[2_girls_mommy]

I heart R&S phonics. I have a 2nd grader in the 2nd grade and a Ker who just started the 1st grade phonics. I love it for both of them. Very thorough for my older child, and very sweet for my younger just starting out. I think it is a great program.

[Tree House Academy]

We are using and really enjoying the entire language arts from R&S. The phonics is solid and simple. We move through it pretty easily each day. We pair it with reading and while there are sight words listed, the TG tells you to write the words on the board and have the child pronounce them the "dictionary" way. This has helped my son tremendously! The other thing I love is that the reader is Bible stories. They are short and my son reads them aloud to me. He is never overwhelmed by the amount of reading and he does a great job answering the questions and discussing the story with me afterward.

 

We will be continuing with R&S next year for 2nd grade as well. (Phonics, Reading, Spelling, and English).

[Rebecca VA]

Using Rod & Staff Phonics with my first child is one of my fondest memories. It is an adorable program that really gets the job done well.

[crl]

My DD did not do well with Rod and Staff 1st grade phonics. Though I'll mention that she seems to learn differently than most kids. My DH is mildly dyslexic and my DD seems to learn the same way he does so Rod and Staff just wasn't a good fit for us as much as I wanted it to work.

[daybreaking]

We are using and really enjoying the entire language arts from R&S. The phonics is solid and simple. We move through it pretty easily each day. We pair it with reading and while there are sight words listed, the TG tells you to write the words on the board and have the child pronounce them the "dictionary" way. This has helped my son tremendously! The other thing I love is that the reader is Bible stories. They are short and my son reads them aloud to me. He is never overwhelmed by the amount of reading and he does a great job answering the questions and discussing the story with me afterward.

 

We will be continuing with R&S next year for 2nd grade as well. (Phonics, Reading, Spelling, and English).

 

This is our experience as well! We absolutely love R&S! We tried a year of OPGTR and although DS did okay with it, it wasn't until we switched to R&S that his reading started soaring. We use both the phonics and reading, as well as the worksheets, and find they work extremely well together. The sight words gave my son the confidence to read before he had mastered phonics. That confidence, in turn, was a great motivation for him to learn more and more phonics. The worksheets have helped solidify the skills learned in the phonics and reading workbooks, while being very enjoyable at the same time.

 

Just today, we finished the last lesson in R&S's grade 1 reading. (We have a few more to go in the phonics.) Looking back over the last year, I can say I am tremendously pleased with both the thoroughness of R&S's language arts program and the excellent progress DS has made as a result.

[MrsMe]

I love R&S Phonics. Very easy, very thorough! The ONLY reason we discontinued it, was because we were using CLE Reading and I was having a hard time meshing the two together. If the world was perfect, I'd have CLE Reading with R&S Phonics. Perfect, perfect! I also love R&S Spelling. I think it's fantastic.