Rod and Staff English only

[Bear23]

anyone just using R&S by it self? If nowt what else are you using with your child? My DD will be in the 7th grade. We just finished up with WWE and about done with R&S 6. We are going with Sonlight and Apologia in the fall.

[redsquirrel]

I use R&S just for the grammar. I use WWS for composition. I have been very, very happy with WWS. Very.

 

I will also be using a vocabulary program. I can't remember its name.... classical roots? Clearly I need more coffee. :001_smile:

[MamaBear]

:bigear:

[HSMom2One]

I use R&S just for the grammar. I use WWS for composition. I have been very, very happy with WWS. Very.

 

I will also be using a vocabulary program. I can't remember its name.... classical roots? Clearly I need more coffee. :001_smile:

 

This is basically what we did. R&S English is wonderful for the grammar part. WWS has helped make an amazing change in my dd's writing skills. I couldn't be happier.

 

We also use Vocabulary from Classical Roots (VFCR) and it's been extremely good.

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[Donna T.]

I've often wondered about this.

 

For those of you who are using R&S with WWS... do your students do both everyday or do you alternate days? We are "behind" with R&S. We just get so bogged down with it. My 8th grader will only be in R&S 6 next year. He's used R&S 3, 4 and 5 along with other things for writing. I have usually alternated days. That's one reason it's taken us forever. I want him to go through R&S 6 at a much quicker pace, so I guess he will be doing both R&S and WSS everyday.

 

Just wondering what the rest of you are doing.

 

I've considered changing his grammar to something that has more review in the beginning so he can go in at grade level. I've looked at BJU. I talked to one of their reps. and I think it would work well to do that with it. I am pretty sure he could go into BJU English 8 with no difficulty but he likes R&S and I already have it, so I'm just not sure if we should change or not.

[redsquirrel]

I've often wondered about this.

 

For those of you who are using R&S with WWS... do your students do both everyday or do you alternate days? We are "behind" with R&S. We just get so bogged down with it. My 8th grader will only be in R&S 6 next year. He's used R&S 3, 4 and 5 along with other things for writing. I have usually alternated days. That's one reason it's taken us forever. I want him to go through R&S 6 at a much quicker pace, so I guess he will be doing both R&S and WSS everyday.

 

Just wondering what the rest of you are doing.

 

I've considered changing his grammar to something that has more review in the beginning so he can go in at grade level. I've looked at BJU. I talked to one of their reps. and I think it would work well to do that with it. I am pretty sure he could go into BJU English 8 with no difficulty but he likes R&S and I already have it, so I'm just not sure if we should change or not.

 

Well, they are just treated as separate subjects. We do grammar three times a week and WWS comes with its own 4 day a week layout.

 

This is our first year of R&S. We used FLL 1-4 and then part of GWG in 5th (I tossed it). We used the long sample of ALL until I found out it wasn't going to be continued. So, we didn't start R&S until the middle of this year, 6th grade.

 

With R&S I skip anything we have already done. For example, the next chapter is capitalization. He really, really doesn't need to study that any more except for the most perfunctory review. FLL 4 went over that very well. I will prob skip to the chapter review to make sure there aren't any problems. If he does well then we are moving on.

 

It doesn't take very long to do R&S. I would say a lesson is 20 mins. We do almost all of it orally. I always do the oral review at the beginning of each lesson. I read the lesson to him, we do some of the exercises orally and I have him to the diagramming on a white board. If R&S gives 8 sentences to diagram I have him do 4. If there are 12 questions in an exercise we do 6 orally. There is so much spiral and review that I think we do enough. Plus, he seems to be very good at retaining grammar. He always gets the review questions correct so clearly he is learning.

 

I should add that WWS1 is the thing that can take us a while. If he is getting frustrated then I let him break up an assignment over a couple of days. One week in particular took us two weeks to work through. But, then he just took off with other lessons so I am not worried.

 

For my kid, taking where he is in his education into account, I am feeling like grammar is something we study but don't linger. Writing is where we need to dig in. That is going to be different for different students.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

We use R&S with Classical Writing.

[Bear23]

I saw IEW had a writing program with an American themed to it. It's $50. Wondered if that would go with our American history with Sonlight.

[Cosmos]

It doesn't take very long to do R&S. I would say a lesson is 20 mins. We do almost all of it orally. I always do the oral review at the beginning of each lesson. I read the lesson to him, we do some of the exercises orally and I have him to the diagramming on a white board. If R&S gives 8 sentences to diagram I have him do 4. If there are 12 questions in an exercise we do 6 orally. There is so much spiral and review that I think we do enough. Plus, he seems to be very good at retaining grammar. He always gets the review questions correct so clearly he is learning.

 

I'm impressed you can do it that fast. It takes us more like 30-35 minutes just to do the oral review, read the chapter, and do the class practice orally. That's before he even starts any written work. Add that in and it's close to an hour total.

 

We're doing Grade 7. I'm not really sure why it's taking so long. He understands it fine and enjoys learning new topics in grammar. He is pretty talkative, though, and likes to add lots of commentary to everything. Maybe that's where our time is going. I already feel like I'm constantly rushing him along and cutting him off, though. I'm not really sure how to make it faster.

[redsquirrel]

Well, grammar is one of our last subjects of the day, so he is highly motivated to get 'er done. :001_smile:

 

Like I said, we are only doing half of any set of exercises so that cuts down on the time. The only thing I make him write are the diagrams. Everything else is done orally. I also skip some exercise sections if they are simply a repeat of one that has already been done in that same lesson. I see no reason to go over and over a topic. However, if he gets any wrong we do more. Like I said, my son likes grammar and does well with it. He considers it one of his 'easy' subjects. That will prob change as we move along with R&S.

[Cosmos]

Well, grammar is one of our last subjects of the day, so he is highly motivated to get 'er done. :001_smile:

 

My son doesn't have a bone of get 'er done in him. I keep trying to find it, but I don't think it's in there. :lol:

 

ETA: It's already taking us significantly longer than your 20 minutes before we even *start* the exercises.

[Bear23]

English is blocked out for one hour. The school here does A and B days so I follow their scheduling because DD attends. So some weeks she goes twice a week and others 3 times a week. We easily do English the full hour with doing all the review questions, exercises and worksheets if there is one. Some times it's 30 minutes but rarely.

 

So anyone used IEW?

[Scuff]

We spend About 20-30 minutes on English. We read the lesson together and do the Oral/Class practice and review section together. I then select what of the written exercises I want them to do. A lot of the written work is a repete of the oral and not necessary. This year I have one in 3, 4 & 6. It really does repeat each uear, so I'm not that concerned with mastery early on as long as they get the concepts. DS is in 6 this year and it's the first time he's really had to "study". (He writes the info on an index card and reads through it before we start for the day.)

 

Next year we'll start WWS. We do English 4 days a week (skipping writing lessons) and will do WWS 4 days also, treating them as seperate subjects. When we did the R&S writing is was a bore and held us back in English. SWB's method to writing makes a lot of sense to me. I just wish I'd have found it sooner!

Edited June 10, 2012 by Scuff

[SFossum]

I'm curious as to why you're going to continue in R&S 6 if your son's already done 3, 4, and 5? It looked to me like 6 is a repeat of 5? My dd did well in 5 and I'm thinking of skipping 6.

 

I've often wondered about this.

 

For those of you who are using R&S with WWS... do your students do both everyday or do you alternate days? We are "behind" with R&S. We just get so bogged down with it. My 8th grader will only be in R&S 6 next year. He's used R&S 3, 4 and 5 along with other things for writing. I have usually alternated days. That's one reason it's taken us forever. I want him to go through R&S 6 at a much quicker pace, so I guess he will be doing both R&S and WSS everyday.

 

Just wondering what the rest of you are doing.

 

I've considered changing his grammar to something that has more review in the beginning so he can go in at grade level. I've looked at BJU. I talked to one of their reps. and I think it would work well to do that with it. I am pretty sure he could go into BJU English 8 with no difficulty but he likes R&S and I already have it, so I'm just not sure if we should change or not.

[~Anna~]

I am wondering this as well because I am thinking of doing R&S with my soon to be 7th grader. I originally was going to start her at the Grade 5 text, but if 5 & 6 are similar then maybe I should just do 6?

[Scuff]

Yeah, start with 6. We started this year with 5 after ds had done 2, 3, 4 & had a year off. He was so frustrated and felt like he knew everything already. So I switched him midway into the 6th grade book. It was a much better fit. A lot of it is still repeats of previous years, but it gets much more into technical terms and depth. I don't know about skipping 6 to go i to 7, since we haven't done 7 yet. But for a child who doesn't need all the repetition, skippig 5 has been just fine.

[Donna T.]

We used Heart of Dakota this year and the author doesn't think a student should skip the 5th grade book, so we used it based on her suggestion. I thought the 5th grade book was considered a "foundational" text and have been told that the 5th and 6th grade books should both be taught even if you plan to go to another grammar curriculum.

 

I have asked here on this board about skipping a book and I think every response I received was to not skip any book after book 5. I had wanted to go to 6 this year but didn't because I was afraid he would miss something important.

 

He actually really likes the writing instruction in R&S and it's been good for him. We will be using WWS next year so we will probably skip the writing in R&S at that point. We do like the writing though.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Donna T.

[~Anna~]

Well, my DD hasn't been taught grammar in school (she just came out of p.s.) but does know the basic parts of speech. I had a copy of the WTM from the library and I believe SWB said to start with the grade 5 book Progressing with Courage. Only that's the Grade 6 book. So I was confused. I don't have it anymore so I can't check.

[swellmomma]

We are returning to R&S grammar next year. We did half of 3 in the past and next year will do 5. When I spoke to the people at the R&S booth at conference, they said that 5 is an important level because it is one that introduces many new terms rather than just the basic parts of speech covered in 3 & 4. They said once we finished 5 if we wanted to skip 6 and jump into 7 that would work fine. 6 reviews much of 5, but 5 is better as far as introduction of those things. According to those working the booth at least.

 

In our case the kids have been working through MCT so they have been introduced to the parts of speech etc but not retaining the way I would like and they have not been doing diagramming, so I was more than happy to start off with 5 despite them being in grades 7 &8 next year.

[~Anna~]

Thank you, that makes sense. If I decide to use it, I think I'll start at 5 like I originally thought.

[SFossum]

Thank you so much for clarifying this.

 

We are returning to R&S grammar next year. We did half of 3 in the past and next year will do 5. When I spoke to the people at the R&S booth at conference, they said that 5 is an important level because it is one that introduces many new terms rather than just the basic parts of speech covered in 3 & 4. They said once we finished 5 if we wanted to skip 6 and jump into 7 that would work fine. 6 reviews much of 5, but 5 is better as far as introduction of those things. According to those working the booth at least.

 

In our case the kids have been working through MCT so they have been introduced to the parts of speech etc but not retaining the way I would like and they have not been doing diagramming, so I was more than happy to start off with 5 despite them being in grades 7 &8 next year.