How Do YOU Use Building Christian English (R&S)?

[SnMomof7]

I just started Rod and Staff's Building Christian English (2) with my 7-yr-old this past week. I only have the student text because I know the answers at this level ;).

 

In any case, she has really been dawdling with the lessons :glare:, and I'm wondering how much you assign and how it works for you. In all fairness she did go faster today than she has all week.

 

I've never required much written work from her, and this is about as workbooky as we've ever been. In the past she has done copywork for writing practice, but now with the R & S I'm thinking of letting this suffice for copywork as well because there is a lot of sentence copying and more writing practice than she has done in the past.

 

So, fire away! :bigear:

[boscopup]

I just started it last week with my first grader. Since he's a first grade boy with "My hand hurts!" syndrome, I wouldn't even dream of having him write all of that. :lol:

 

We do it completely orally. He doesn't write a single thing. We've done 9 lessons so far, and it's worked very well for him. For things like capitalization and punctuation, I just have him read the sentence like this:

 

hypothetical R&S sentence: the dog runs

DS's response: capital 'T' - The dog runs - period

 

I'll probably start assigning a couple sentences per lesson at some point, but not yet. We seem to have found just the right amount of writing to push him but not overburden him. And write now, that means no writing in grammar. He is writing elsewhere, of course.

 

Looking at the TM, I think I recall (and it's been 2 weeks since I read it, so I could be completely wrong) that they often recommend doing the "For You To Do" section orally, and then assign the other stuff as written work? You also don't have to assign every problem, though some of them form a story when you do each one, so that might not work for those cases.

[bnbacademy]

They each read the chapter/ unit on their own and ask questions as needed. Then we read the classroom exercises and Read and Review sections out loud, with answers done orally or on whiteboard if needed. Then they write answers in on the corresponding worksheets and tests.

[2_girls_mommy]

My 7 yr old did grade 2 completely. She wrote all of the assignments down. I didn't use the T.M. much for 2nd.

 

This year for 3rd, I occasionally only have her do half of the sentences. If it has 12 and I know she knows it, she can do the evens or something. I have her do all creative writing assignments. And I use the T.M. a lot more now than I did even at the beginning of the year. There is a lot of review and memorization now, and it is just easier to have the T.M. to remind of what to drill each day (It only takes about 5 min to drill and read the day's lesson.) HTH.

[5LittleMonkeys]

dd7 has been doing most of it orally but will occasionally ask to do some of the written work. At this age I'm only looking for exposure to basic grammar so we don't bother with the tests. I don't have the tm but my older two use R&S too and the lessons are always started with a brief oral review of previous concepts so I incorporate that into our lesson with dd7. I will just ask her to tell me about what she learned the day before. It helps me make sure she is maintaining some retention without having to add another piece of paper (the test) to the stack.

[Edwena]

We are using R & S English 2 and are loving it. We are about half way through it. We read everything together and then when it's time to do written work, I assign 1/3 to 1/2 of the written work. The rest we go over orally or on the dry erase board. This is what they suggest over at HOD and it's worked beautifully. My ds is retaining everything well.

[SnMomof7]

Thanks ladies! This is the ONLY written work she's doing so I was hoping she could do it all on paper, but we might have to cut back for a while and ease into it :).

[hmschooling]

We are in book 3 now, but this is how I've done it.

 

 

• I do the oral review with her from the TM.
  
• Present the lesson by reading through it with her.
  
• I do a couple sentences (maybe 1-2) from each section of the assigned work on the dry erase board.
  
• I do 1-2 more from each section on the board but having her give me the answers that I should write.
  
• Then she does 1 of 2 options. If there's a worksheet, she does that. If there's not, she does 1-2 sentences from each section on her own in writing. If there is a review section, I see if it's something she needs more solid review of or if we can just discuss it. She may do all, part, or none of that in writing.
  

 

This has worked wonderfully!

[Medieval Mom]

We're using R&S 2 now with ds7.

 

We do the oral section together, and any parts of the written work that ask for one or two word answers (Write the pronoun that should replace the noun in the following sentences...), orally.

 

I assign *almost all* of the written work that asks the student to write full sentences. I've noticed a huge improvement in his ability to write and spell well by doing the written work (and dictation). He's very proud of himself!

 

Now, halfway through the year, we've also added PLL. He does that program thoroughly, all the writing which is required, etc. It hasn't been a problem for us; but other than math and CLE Reading and dictation, that's all the writing he does in a day. :) HTH!