S/O R&S 2 and 3 (some Abeka content too)

[TXBeth]

I was really excited about using Rod & Staff starting this year. I really like R&S overall, and I didn't realize how different 2 is from the later years I had looked at.

 

Besides the fact that it acts like using an incomplete sentence is a sin, it just moves soooo slowly. The whole first unit (5 weeks) taught 3 things: a sentence is a complete thought, sentences start with a capital letter, and sentences end with a period. Seriously? We needed 5 weeks to get that?

 

So my question is, how is R&S 3? Does it pick up the pace? Is there enough review at the beginning of 3 that we could just skim through the main concepts in 2 and then move on. DD & I are both bored out of our minds, even doing more than one lesson per day. But, if 3 is a big jump ahead without a lot of review, we'll just keep slogging away at this one for the rest of the year and hope it picks up soon.

 

She did finish Abeka Language 1 last year, and everything covered in unit 1 of R&S 2 was more than covered by that. I thought R&S was supposedly a grade or 2 ahead?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Chris in VA]

We did some of R&S 2, and you are right, it's sloooow. WTM says to pick Rod and Staff in Grade 3--now I know why! lol

 

Yes, 3 moves a little faster. 5 is meaty, and 6 is GREAT. :D

[boscopup]

R&S 3 picks up the pace quite a bit. It was very refreshing! I had the EXACT same complaints about R&S 2. :lol:

 

We did most of the first unit of R&S 3 (we've switched to FLL3 - I just like FLL better), and it was mostly different topics each day. Sometimes there would be a couple lessons that I would combine because they were pretty much the same topic and didn't require two lessons to learn, but most of them were fine, and it gets into diagramming at lesson 6, which made DS happy. :)

 

There is PLENTY of review in R&S 3. It's in the TM. Make sure you do the oral review in the TM. It does a spiral review of everything you've learned up to that point. It is very well done!

 

The "you're sinning if you use an incomplete sentence" stuff wasn't in R&S 3, thankfully. That drove me crazy in R&S 2 (we only did the first unit of that as well). I couldn't take R&S 2 anymore. I could have stuck with R&S 3 longer, but I just prefer FLL overall.

[TXBeth]

So just to clarify, those who have used both, could I drop R&S 2 after the first unit and just skip to 3 and take it nice and easy?

[KrissiK]

We're doing R & S 2 with DS2. and book 3 with DS1. They both finished FLL1/2 last year, but DS2 was absolutely not ready to go on, but DS1 was. So, instead of doing the next FLL I switched to R & S. Yes, book 3 does pick up the pace quite a bit, which is good for DS1, but DS2 seems content with book 2. He struggles, which is why I 'm glad it's slow.

[2_girls_mommy]

R&S 2 moves slowly. But for my advanced dd, when she did it in 2nd, we just had her do all of the writing each day. It served as copywork and penmanship too.

 

For my current 2nd grader, it moves just right to be honest. She can tell you that every sentence begins with a capital and that questions end with a question mark. She gets it. But give her some sentences to write or dictate and she is focusing so much on spelling or forming her letters correctly, that she forgets the other stuff. So she needs the practice day in and day out. I am glad it is there. :)

 

As for skipping to 3, I really think it would be just fine. It goes back over nouns and verbs and such in 3 in more detail. It would have been ok for my oldest child too. But I have heard about how advanced and tough the older grades are, so I decided to keep her on grade level in the English for the sake of being right on target as she grows into it later.