Rod & Staff phonics -- does it stand alone?

[alisoncooks]

I'm playing around with next year's plan (haha, before we've even started this year...typical).

 

Anyway, I never noticed that R&S had a phonics element in their reading program. (duh!) Since I'm considering R&S for grammar & spelling next year, I wondered what people thought of the phonics portion?

 

How does it compare to a program like, say, OPGTR + ETC (this year's plan)?

 

Also, can it be a stand-alone program (purely phonics?) or does it reference their reading program (which I have no interest in using)? From the samples, it appears to be completely separate.

 

Does it have a heavy usage of diacritical marks?

 

Thank you!

[Medieval Mom]

The phonics can be used as a separate program. I have not [yet] used it; so I'll defer to others for the details :)

[lotsofpumpkins]

R&S Phonics can definitely stand alone. My oldest two used it to learn to read. They also did the Reading, but the phonics would be fine on its own. You'd probably want to add some reading practice if you choose not to use R&S Reading. With my 3rd child, we tried Phonics Pathways and ETC for a while, and went running back to our tried-and-true R&S halfway through the year. He is finishing up the 1st grade materials and his reading has really taken off. My 4th child just started R&S Phonics and Reading this week.

 

The diacritical marks took me a little while to get used to, but now that I know them, I don't think they are a big deal to learn at all. I don't think they are used too heavily in the 1st grade Phonics. In 2nd grade, they are used much more to write and interpret pronunciations.

[MrsMe]

I'm playing around with next year's plan (haha, before we've even started this year...typical).

 

Anyway, I never noticed that R&S had a phonics element in their reading program. (duh!) Since I'm considering R&S for grammar & spelling next year, I wondered what people thought of the phonics portion?

 

How does it compare to a program like, say, OPGTR + ETC (this year's plan)?

 

Also, can it be a stand-alone program (purely phonics?) or does it reference their reading program (which I have no interest in using)? From the samples, it appears to be completely separate.

 

Does it have a heavy usage of diacritical marks?

 

Thank you!

 

I loved R&S Phonics. It is a standalone program. I don't think there is any comparison to ETC. ETC is just different. It's comparing fruits to vegetables. ETC is funny but I didn't feel it was all there. ETC would be fun to use lets say, on a Friday, but it really did nothing for us. I haven't used OPGTR. R&S very well laid out, no frills and not confusing. It gave dd a solid understanding of spelling rules and phonics.

 

The diacritical marks, I thought are excellent. They do use them, but they make sense. Short vowels have no marks, where some programs such as CLE will give even a short vowel a mark. Or in CLE you wonder why they didn't use the line over the vowel for a long vowel sound, CLE will use something else and you wonder why they complicated it. So the diacriticals are excellent IMO! The right amount without overusing marks (like CLE). They just make sense!

 

I think it's a great program!

[Ewe Mama]

If you are interested in this set, I have the Grade 1 Bible Nurture and Reader set for sale.

 

It contains

the 3 Teacher Manuals (Very good condition)

the 3 Readers (very good, we loved these for extra practice)

the Reading Workbooks (brand new)

the Phonics Workbooks (brand new)

2 of the Worksheets workbooks (Unit 1 brand new, and Unit 5 new, but older copy that is a bit yellowed) Most people think the Worksheets are overkill, so I didn't order another copy of the Unit 2-4 worksheet workbook.

 

$35 ppd for the set

(My youngest is not a workbook kind of a gal, so we went with something else for her.)

[Clear Creek]

I'm playing around with next year's plan (haha, before we've even started this year...typical).

 

Anyway, I never noticed that R&S had a phonics element in their reading program. (duh!) Since I'm considering R&S for grammar & spelling next year, I wondered what people thought of the phonics portion?

 

How does it compare to a program like, say, OPGTR + ETC (this year's plan)?

 

Also, can it be a stand-alone program (purely phonics?) or does it reference their reading program (which I have no interest in using)? From the samples, it appears to be completely separate.

 

Does it have a heavy usage of diacritical marks?

 

Thank you!

 

 

I used the R&S Phonics program with my two older children, and I plan to use it with my youngest child as well. It can definitely be used as a stand-alone program without the reading program; it does not reference it all all. As far as comparing it to a program like OTGTR + ETC, I use 100 EZ lessons in Kindergarten before starting phonics in 1st grade and after seeing the first three books of ETC (my youngest does them for fun), I still plan on using R&S Phonics with him. It is an extraordinarily thorough program; your child *will* come out the other end reading well and spelling somewhat well. It works on reading aloud every day (I had my children read the entire list of words along the edge of that day's workbook page and then flip to the previous day's list and see how many words she could read in one minute), the last two units have two sentences for dictation every day, there are plenty of exercises to practice and review the phonics rules, and spelling is studied in the lesson - there is no need for a separate spelling program.

 

I really like the phonics program and nothing else I have seen compares to it (I have not seen everything, lol, but I have seen a lot). My children both received numerous compliments on their reading abilities after going through the program, and while my oldest was a natural reader, my middle child most definitely was not!