Rod and Staff English is mind numbing!

[gratitude]

I Love R&S English. My ds9 has a hate / love relationship with it; mostly hate. I won't dump it though. The thoroughness and detail I know will take him to the place in writing I want him and my other 3 to go (well other two, the youngest is special needs).

 

Jessie Wise is the first one who turned me onto R&S English, and I am so grateful that she did. I don't always like the process. I do cut the assignments in half for time and the fact he doesn't need that much repetition. It is building a solid foundation though and I love the fruit I am already starting to see in his writing and understanding of the English language.

 

I thought I would clarify that for the repetition if it is a new concept I will have him do, for example, all 8 problems. If it is a concept though that i think he is mastering easily I might have him only do 2, 3, or 4 problems from that section. I do the same thing with math. I have him do everything for new concepts, but will skip entire pages if I think he is understanding the material well and doesn't need the extra practice. I do though try to aim for really knowing material that can be used easily and quickly, versus a familiarity and slow recall.

Edited October 7, 2012 by gratitude

[curlylocks]

R&S rocks. I know you don't agree, but I'm going to say it anyway. :001_smile:

 

I'm teaching high school. You just can't teach composition to cranky teens without a solid foundation in grammar. They produce awkward, ugly sentences all the time. And they get the same response from me, "Diagram it; you'll see why I'm right. It's a bad sentence." It avoids the "But I like it, I want to keep it" argument. Which isn't really true. They don't like it. They are just too lazy to change it. ;) If they don't have a firm foundation in grammar, a simple command loops into an endless battle of the wills. Not pretty! Teach grammar. You'll have enough to argue about when they are teens.

 

IMO you don't need to have a heavy grammar year with R&S every year. In fact, I think the odd years of school are the hard years in general for school: 1st grade, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th. For general school subjects, the even years are the double-back-and-review/peek-forward years.

 

However, R&S is heavy in the even years. PERFECT fit in my mind. You want to focus on books 4, 6, 8, and 10. You can skitter through the odd ones. In other words, you have heavy grammar years during 4, 6, 8, and 10 when the rest of your curriculum (think math) is not as challenging. For R&S in the even years, spend time on the lesson. Review. Tests. The whole shebang. During the odd years, you buzz through the lesson, diagram a few things on a white-board together, and assign the workbook pages for written work. Done. Three times a week for a few minutes. Don't finish the book. You don't need to. Begin the next even-year book in the fall.

 

OR just purchase the even books. For third grade, purchase the level four book. Work through half of it. In the fall of fourth grade, review the concepts covered by assigning the workbook pages as review (zip through the lesson as a review) and then pick up where you left off. Solid grammar. Done.

 

One of my little people loved workbooks. We did A Beka on the off years. But everyone gets a heavy dose of R&S around here (Psst: I needed it in order to learn grammar myself. Plenty of ah-ha moments for me. And Susan is right: college profs adore a child with proper grammar and usage. I am certain they overlook content issues and hand out automatic A's because it is just so darn nice to read a paper that is not riddled with errors. Really. It just places your kids ahead of the pack. An easy-peasy boost.)

 

You won't regret it. I regret a lot from my early years. But NOT R&S. It's gold.

 

Peace,

Janice

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

 

This is brilliant... :)

 

:hurray::hurray::hurray: Thanks...... Your posts are gold. :001_smile:

 

:iagree: