Can anyone tell me about Rod & Staff's Math?

[hsmom3tn]

One of my girls has been using Saxon and is not having trouble with it, but she keeps saying that she wants to try something else. I thought if I could find something comparable, I'd let her switch and see how it goes.

 

She is one of those kids that can usually just read the lesson explanation, maybe look at a few examples, and then she's got it. I am here to help if she needs me, but she mostly teaches it to herself and seems to prefer it that way. She may miss a few problems, but it is usually just a simple mistake, and not because she doesn't understand the concepts. She checks her work, figures out why she got the problem wrong, and fixes it.

 

Her siblings did not do well with Saxon, as they learn differently, and I think she just sees them doing something different and it makes her math look really boring in comparison. I don't want to change the way she is being taught, just give her something new to look at. Does that make sense?

 

So, I'm wondering how Rod and Staff compares to Saxon... is there plenty of repitition so that she can keep practicing a concept if she needs to? Is there an overwhelming number of problems in each lesson, or is it about the same? If she's completing 5/4, what level of R&S would she be ready for? Is there another similar program that we should look into that might be better?

[Closeacademy]

Rod and Staff has simple explainations and lots of practice. With Rod and Staff 2, my dd and I went quickly through the topics, then went back and touched on most of the material leaving about 2/3 undone and now I am handing her the workbooks to finish on her own.

 

Basically, a child who does Rod and Staff will have a good solid foundation in math skills. If you assign all the work they will get burned out. Most of the time I assign 1-2 lines of problems and the review work because I use it as my back-up math. We use Singapore as our main program.:001_smile:

[AHASRADA]

R&S is a wonderful mastery-based program, but with review problems at the end of each lesson. This is really a best-of-both-worlds option for a student who prefers a mastery approach. Yes, there is plenty of review, and the lesson # that the review question is taken from is listed next to the question, so the student can easily flip back to that lesson if they don't remember how to do the problem.

 

The pages are clean and simple, with charming line drawings, similar to those in other R&S products or the Pathways readers (love them too!)

 

You can purchase the accompanying quizzes, tests and timed tests, which are very helpful.

 

If you think your dd would like to try a mastery-based program, but wants to keep some aspect of the continuous review of Saxon, I would recommend giving R&S a try.

[MIch elle]

sticking with Saxon. Saxon does a better job in middle school preparing for upper level math than R&S.

[SilverMoon]

We've had great success with R&S math. :) For the ages in your signature each lesson will begin with a teaching section right in the student textbook. That will be followed by a few "class practice" problems that can be done together to ensure comprehension, or skipped for a savvy kid. The actual work includes a set that uses the new concept, word problems, and a review section of previous concepts. They're great at bringing back old concepts to keep them fresh.

 

In the TE there are separate instructions for a "class" session to introduce the new concept. These are optional, but come in helpful at times. There's also a full size version of the students page, with answers and further teaching tips.

 

I disagree with the above comment that doing all of the sets will lead to burn out. :) We started using them in the logic stage levels, and have recently added a grade 1 book to our line up. (With more waiting in the closet for next year.) My kids do every problem in nearly all of the lessons. From what I have seen that's only given them more confidence and deeper mastery.

 

For a more mathy kid make sure you look at the samples and table of contents on www.rodandstaffbooks.com to get a good placement. My not-so-mathy kid uses these at grade level, and my more mathy kid uses them a grade or more ahead. From parents I have talked to who have used these books all the way, finishing the whole series, which ends at grade 8, will have them ready for an algebra 1 course. For my ds using these at grade level this is the perfect sequence. He won't be ready for algebra before 9th grade.

Edited May 9, 2010 by SilverMoon