Rod and Staff users, I really need your advice!?

[LuvingLife]

Lately, I have been looking around at a lot of curriculum lately, and I think I finally found a curriculum for me. Well at least I hope I do, Rod and Staff seems like a good English program and so does their History programs, but I would like to hear from those who have used this program. Is their curriculum thorough, and easy to understand? Will colleges accept this curriculum no problem? Do I need to add anything to this program to make it complete?

 

I would really like to know as I have to start ordering curriculum soon and my mom said she would really like it if I gave R and S a try.

 

(I have used R&S before, but didn't like it for the elemtary years. I need a program that can teach me and my mom said she would help me grade and everything. Are the high school years better than the elementary years?)

 

Thank you in advance!:bigear:

[momofkhm]

I can answer in terms of my older dd. She's 16 and a junior in high school.

 

We started her with R&S grammar when she came home from Christian school. I think we started her a year behind in R&S as mentioned somewhere. So she was 7th grade, doing R&S 6. At some point, we sped it up so by 8th grade, minimum, she was doing R&S 8. We did follow through and do the 9th and 10th grade books. She did fine. She is my self starter. My great grades kid. I didn't teach her, she read the book and figured it out. I graded things that from just looking at the answers, I didn't know. (Maybe I did, but the answers didn't look like anything I remembered.) Maybe because she's been doing R&S so long it worked for her.

 

My middle also started R&S the year she came home. We worked her up to grade level. She is now in 9th grade and working on book 9. She is self teaching it as well. She is doing well, but not as well. Oldest consistently got A's. Middle has a low B average.

 

We haven't used R&S for history so I can't answer that. I also haven't had one go to college yet so I don't know how colleges look at it. The program is thorough. I do add in a writing class, so someone else will grade their writing. Writing is so not my thing! But I know that many believe that the 9th and 10th grade books are mostly writing programs. A lot of writing is included, but not papers. Mostly paragraphs or short essays. Where middle is right now is all about outlining.

[LuvingLife]

I can answer in terms of my older dd. She's 16 and a junior in high school.

 

We started her with R&S grammar when she came home from Christian school. I think we started her a year behind in R&S as mentioned somewhere. So she was 7th grade, doing R&S 6. At some point, we sped it up so by 8th grade, minimum, she was doing R&S 8. We did follow through and do the 9th and 10th grade books. She did fine. She is my self starter. My great grades kid. I didn't teach her, she read the book and figured it out. I graded things that from just looking at the answers, I didn't know. (Maybe I did, but the answers didn't look like anything I remembered.) Maybe because she's been doing R&S so long it worked for her.

 

My middle also started R&S the year she came home. We worked her up to grade level. She is now in 9th grade and working on book 9. She is self teaching it as well. She is doing well, but not as well. Oldest consistently got A's. Middle has a low B average.

 

We haven't used R&S for history so I can't answer that. I also haven't had one go to college yet so I don't know how colleges look at it. The program is thorough. I do add in a writing class, so someone else will grade their writing. Writing is so not my thing! But I know that many believe that the 9th and 10th grade books are mostly writing programs. A lot of writing is included, but not papers. Mostly paragraphs or short essays. Where middle is right now is all about outlining.

 

That's agood start for me! I will be doing a lot of papers on poems and stories like the Great gatsby and things of that sort, so I think R&S will be a good spine for me right now, and hopefully R&S History will be just as good, from what I saw it seemed pretty good, I don't mind adding my own books in. Thank you for your description, it really helped me!:)

[Rebecca VA]

I'm a huge fan of Rod & Staff for younger grades. However, as the courses get into the high school level, the material becomes more and more Mennonite-related. I imagine the history course will give a lot of attention to the history and persecutions of the Mennonite church in various parts of the world.

 

Is there a particular time period you're trying to cover in history? Maybe we could make alternative suggestions. Let us know exactly what you're looking for in a history program.

 

The Rod & Staff English program is excellent.

[mjbucks1]

I justed wanted to give another "vote" for R&S. We have used it for grades 4-8 so far (ds will be starting 9 soon). It is very thorough. My ds did very well on the ACT English section (35) and I really think it was because of R&S (and Latin). There are many questions on how to improve sentences, and R&S covers this very well! Ds and dd know their grammar thanks to R&S. The teachers manual makes grading a breeze. I know nothing about their history, so I can't help with that :D.

[LuvingLife]

I'm a huge fan of Rod & Staff for younger grades. However, as the courses get into the high school level, the material becomes more and more Mennonite-related. I imagine the history course will give a lot of attention to the history and persecutions of the Mennonite church in various parts of the world.

 

Is there a particular time period you're trying to cover in history? Maybe we could make alternative suggestions. Let us know exactly what you're looking for in a history program.

 

The Rod & Staff English program is excellent.

 

So glad to hear that their English program is so good! I will be using their English program for now, and for history, I would like to cover World History this year. So any suggestions would be wonderful!

 

I justed wanted to give another "vote" for R&S. We have used it for grades 4-8 so far (ds will be starting 9 soon). It is very thorough. My ds did very well on the ACT English section (35) and I really think it was because of R&S (and Latin). There are many questions on how to improve sentences, and R&S covers this very well! Ds and dd know their grammar thanks to R&S. The teachers manual makes grading a breeze. I know nothing about their history, so I can't help with that :D.

 

Wow that is a very good score on the ACT! And since I will be taking the ACT this year, I need all of the prepartions that I can get. And I think having a proper English program is a must anyways. Does R&S cover British Literature?

[April in CA]

 

Wow that is a very good score on the ACT! And since I will be taking the ACT this year, I need all of the prepartions that I can get. And I think having a proper English program is a must anyways. Does R&S cover British Literature?

 

Hi! I am a big fan of Rod and Staff English. It is a wonderful grammar program with solid writing instruction, especially at the paragraph and sentence levels. R&S English does not include literature unless you get the reading program, and I think that stops at grade 8. As someone else mentioned, the R&S materials become more obviously Mennonite in the upper grades, and this shows in the reading program and in the history texts. I would say absolutely do the English grammar work, but I would only use the history and reading as supplements to understand the Mennonite point of view.

 

What are you looking for in terms of literature and history? Do you want to cover world history in a year? Perhaps Spielvogel's Human Odyssey (high school level; out of print, I think, but still findable) Notgrass World History would be another single year choice. For literature, if you want to add novel studies perhaps Total Language Plus of Progeny Press. Lightning Literature gives more writing instruction and assignments. I don't have much experience with anthology-type textbooks; hopefully someone else can help out if that is what you are looking for.

 

Good luck finding the right resources!

Blessings,

April