Rod and Staff 2nd Grade math and reading

[Thanksnpraises]

I'm a Rod and Staff fan and I recently picked up some used materials at the SEARCH conference in PA. My daughter did really well with R&S 1st grade math last year, and we are doing the 2nd grade math this fall. Does anyone have any experience with this and any tips. I like the idea of having the kids memorize their facts as "triplets." Did anyone make the boat and clover posters/charts?Do your kids retain the math facts?

 

Re: Reading

I liked the 1st grade reading/phonics but is did take alot of time on the part of the parent. Is the 2nd grade as time consuming (for the parent). Sometimes the reading/phonics/spelling was painfully long, my dd did learn to read very well. The phonics look like alot of review at least through unit 3. THis year we will begin spelling, which looks like a lot of phonics as well.

 

For those of you who use R&S, how much time does it typically take? Does anyone use 2nd grade R&S curriculum and like it? Why? Is there anything that I need to be mindful or careful of?

 

Thanks so much:001_smile:

[daybreaking]

I'm a Rod and Staff fan and I recently picked up some used materials at the SEARCH conference in PA. My daughter did really well with R&S 1st grade math last year, and we are doing the 2nd grade math this fall. Does anyone have any experience with this and any tips. I like the idea of having the kids memorize their facts as "triplets." Did anyone make the boat and clover posters/charts?Do your kids retain the math facts?

 

Re: Reading

I liked the 1st grade reading/phonics but is did take alot of time on the part of the parent. Is the 2nd grade as time consuming (for the parent). Sometimes the reading/phonics/spelling was painfully long, my dd did learn to read very well. The phonics look like alot of review at least through unit 3. THis year we will begin spelling, which looks like a lot of phonics as well.

 

For those of you who use R&S, how much time does it typically take? Does anyone use 2nd grade R&S curriculum and like it? Why? Is there anything that I need to be mindful or careful of?

 

Thanks so much:001_smile:

 

We're just finishing up R&S Math 2 and we loved it. Yes, it is a lot of drill, but it works! My son just took his standardized test and received a perfect score on both math computation and math concepts. I will add that we did everything as written in the TM - all the activities, the boat poster, the bee and clover posters, etc. It was definitely worth the time to do everything, as it all fits so nicely together and made a well-rounded program. My ds loves that he can quickly and easily answer any addition or subtraction fact, plus he really enjoyed the whole bee and clover theme of the 2nd grade book. I know some criticize R&S for being too drill oriented, but my dh equates it to learning the scales when playing music ...it's not the most exciting thing, but it's necessary and it gives a great foundation. I'm excited about the foundation that has been laid and plan on using R&S all the way. After the first 3 grades, the program really picks up and I'm looking forward to all that ds will learn down the road. (FWIW, I'm a former middle/high school math teacher and can vouch for the effectiveness of R&S's approach. I can't tell you the number of students who struggled because they did not have quick recall of the facts.)

 

We also are partway through unit 1 of the 2nd grade reading and phonics. I have found grade 2 to be much less teacher intensive than grade 1. The grade 2 reading does, however, have a lot of writing for the student - 4 pages vs. the 2 pages in grade 1. We've been doing 1/2 a lesson a day - the "Before You Read" section one day and reading the reader and "After You Read" section the next day. So far, that has worked well. I'm going to monitor as the year progresses as to whether we'll continue as is, or move to doing the whole lesson in one day.

 

As far as time frames, this is how it plays out for us:

 

Grade 2 math - 45 minutes for both the lesson and ds doing the assignment. (Note: at the beginning of grade 2, it took ds about 30 minutes to do a worksheet; at the end, it only took him 10-15 minutes.)

 

Grade 2 phonics - 15 minutes for both the lesson and the workbook (I expect this to lengthen to 20-30 minutes, once we get past the review.)

 

Grade 2 reading - 20 minutes for the lesson and reading the reader; 45-60 minutes for completing the workbook (Note: As mentioned above, we currently are spreading this over two days, until ds is able to complete the workbook in less time.)

 

Grade 2 spelling - I expect it to take about 15 mintues a day for everything.

 

Disclaimer: The above times don't include dawdling time! :tongue_smilie:

 

HTH!

[Pink and Green Mom]

I have only used the R&S math, and used it a bit differently, so I wanted to share what worked for my son. He went to PS for K and 1st, and he wasn't learning any math in his math class so I started using Grade 1 at that time to teach him the math facts. We started homeschooling for second grade.

 

My son is very mathy and "gets" the concepts. So what I did was use the 2nd grade books over the summer between first and second grade. It took less than 2 weeks to teach the 11s, 12s and 13s (so 6ish weeks total), and about 1 week for each of the rest. I did every other or even every third lesson. So we finished up in about 10 weeks doing math about 4x/week. For him, this was plenty. If he had trouble with a particular triplet, we spent more time on that. He picked up the carrying and borrowing concepts easily and I made sure we were doing those exercises as they came up.

 

I made my own flashcards and used those instead of the posters. I did find that the exercises in the book that have them write all the triplets on those bee and flower pages were very helpful for repetition. For the lessons we did, I did everything "by the book" and included everything that was scheduled for that day.

 

He has retained all of those facts. Last year for second grade we did the 3rd grade book. There was lots of review of the triplets and borrowing/carrying throughout. I think the book has you review the triplet flash cards at least 2x/week throughout 3rd grade. We are starting the 4th grade book this year, and there seems to be plenty of review as well.

 

So I just wanted to share with you what worked for us. Even with the abbreviated schedule for 2nd grade he has been able to retain the facts. One thing I did have to add in though - I cannot recall there being much in terms of measuring with a ruler and thermometer. So I did add some of this into other areas of our study. For example, when we learned about weather we spent time charting the thermometer and rain gauge daily to help with the measuring and graphing. We also made graphs for geography, things like tallest mountains on each continent, longest rivers, etc.

 

Good luck!

[Thanksnpraises]

We're just finishing up R&S Math 2 and we loved it. Yes, it is a lot of drill, but it works! My son just took his standardized test and received a perfect score on both math computation and math concepts. I will add that we did everything as written in the TM - all the activities, the boat poster, the bee and clover posters, etc. It was definitely worth the time to do everything, as it all fits so nicely together and made a well-rounded program. My ds loves that he can quickly and easily answer any addition or subtraction fact, plus he really enjoyed the whole bee and clover theme of the 2nd grade book. I know some criticize R&S for being too drill oriented, but my dh equates it to learning the scales when playing music ...it's not the most exciting thing, but it's necessary and it gives a great foundation. I'm excited about the foundation that has been laid and plan on using R&S all the way. After the first 3 grades, the program really picks up and I'm looking forward to all that ds will learn down the road. (FWIW, I'm a former middle/high school math teacher and can vouch for the effectiveness of R&S's approach. I can't tell you the number of students who struggled because they did not have quick recall of the facts.)

 

We also are partway through unit 1 of the 2nd grade reading and phonics. I have found grade 2 to be much less teacher intensive than grade 1. The grade 2 reading does, however, have a lot of writing for the student - 4 pages vs. the 2 pages in grade 1. We've been doing 1/2 a lesson a day - the "Before You Read" section one day and reading the reader and "After You Read" section the next day. So far, that has worked well. I'm going to monitor as the year progresses as to whether we'll continue as is, or move to doing the whole lesson in one day.

 

As far as time frames, this is how it plays out for us:

 

Grade 2 math - 45 minutes for both the lesson and ds doing the assignment. (Note: at the beginning of grade 2, it took ds about 30 minutes to do a worksheet; at the end, it only took him 10-15 minutes.)

 

Grade 2 phonics - 15 minutes for both the lesson and the workbook (I expect this to lengthen to 20-30 minutes, once we get past the review.)

 

Grade 2 reading - 20 minutes for the lesson and reading the reader; 45-60 minutes for completing the workbook (Note: As mentioned above, we currently are spreading this over two days, until ds is able to complete the workbook in less time.)

 

Grade 2 spelling - I expect it to take about 15 mintues a day for everything.

 

Disclaimer: The above times don't include dawdling time! :tongue_smilie:

 

Thank you so much! You really confirmed my thoughts. I love the thoroughness of the teacher's manuals. We did all the activities in the 1st grd math and most in the reading/phonics. I also love that we're doing Bible and reading together. Did you find it necessary to use the the math worksheets or was the workbooks enough? Thanks for the time estimates. Do you do everything straight through or have breaks. Do you do it all before lunch? I would like to do that before lunch and history, science, art etc. after lunch? What else (if anything) to you do for your 2nd grader?

[daybreaking]

Thank you so much! You really confirmed my thoughts. I love the thoroughness of the teacher's manuals. We did all the activities in the 1st grd math and most in the reading/phonics. I also love that we're doing Bible and reading together. Did you find it necessary to use the the math worksheets or was the workbooks enough? Thanks for the time estimates. Do you do everything straight through or have breaks. Do you do it all before lunch? I would like to do that before lunch and history, science, art etc. after lunch? What else (if anything) to you do for your 2nd grader?

 

I'm glad I could help! :001_smile:

 

For 1st grade, we did do many of the worksheets, but for 2nd grade, I've found the 4 pages in the workbook seem to be just the right amount for ds. I have, on occasion, pulled out a worksheet if I felt he needed some extra practice, but it's been rare for the 2nd grade math. My original plan was to finish 2nd grade math in May, and then use some of the worksheets over the summer for review, but it's July and we're just finishing the last workbook, so I'm just going to give ds a few weeks off and start up the grade 3 book in mid-August.

 

We, too, love the combination of Bible and reading. My dh has been impressed at all the Bible knowledge our ds has been gleaning. It's one of the factors that keeps us returning to R&S.

 

I've tried a variety of schedules, some more successful than others. :tongue_smilie: Last school year, we did reading, phonics & handwriting in the morning and math (as well as science & history) after lunch, when my dd napped, since it gave me some undivided time to teach ds. This upcoming school year, I'm hoping to do reading, phonics, English, spelling, handwriting and math in the morning and then history, science & geography in the afternoon. Now that dd is older, I think it will be doable.

 

I find my ds does need breaks. Last year, his limit was about an hour and then we had to shift gears. By the end of the year, he was able to go two hours, as long as there was a "Go run up and down the stairs 10 times." quick break in between! :001_smile:. Most recently, I've broken things up so that we do two, one hour blocks, each with a 1/2 hour of 1:1, followed by a 1/2 hour of independent work and then we do "Morning Gathering," where my dc have a snack & I read aloud to them, followed by some active play. (It's during ds's independent work that I work with dd.) After Morning Gathering, we do another block of 1:1/independent work and then my ds practices his violin. The children have an hour break for lunch to give time for eating, "Teatime Studies" (composer, artist & hymn study, poetry, memory work, etc.) and outdoor playtime. After this, dd naps and ds takes a quiet time, during which he listens to books on tape. Following quiet time, we have "Exploring Time," where we do history, geography and science, along with art projects and literature read alouds. Since we school some during the summer, we're able to have lighter Fridays, so that's when I do Artpacs and R&S's music, as well as extra activities, such as science experiments and field trips.

 

I’ve recently been acquainted with Heart of Dakota and love what they have to offer. I'm very committed to R&S, so what I've been doing is integrating HOD into our day, as I can. I use their "Scheduled Books for Emerging Readers" with ds, to give him extra practice reading, I will be using their history, Bible study (which is really a devotional), science & geography as part of our "Exploring Time" and I use their literature suggestions in our read aloud time. Their recommended English is R&S, so that fits right in and though they recommend Singapore math, they advocate parents using the math program that works for their child, so using R&S works well. (By the way, in case you noticed in my signature, I do supplement with Singapore math, but only because ds is very mathy and begs to do it! It's fun for him and if we can fit it in, we do; however, R&S is our core program.) I did purchase R&S's science, history and health workbooks, but I'm thinking of using them just for extra reading/discussion for ds, in the same way we use A Beka's history, although I'm still in the planning process.

 

I hope I'm not overwhelming you with too much information! I just thought I'd share what has worked for us, in case any of it is helpful for you.