my3daughters Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 We used FLL and WWE for 1st and 2nd grade but this year for 3rd grade switched to R&S English with separate writing curriculum. After exploring CLE for math I started looking further and liking the looks of their Language Arts curriculum. Right now in addition to R&S English we use R&S Spelling by Sound and Structure and Pentime for handwriting. We also use MP literature studies and MP poetry and are starting W&R alternated with TC. Everything is going well but wow, the idea of having 1 language arts curriculum coving so much is so appealing. Plus, it seems in general DD1 does better with spiral approach. The review in R&S english is great but it is always amazing how much she forgets from year to year (i.e. didn't remember her being verbs that were drilled in FFL2). Yet, she catching onto things initially really quickly. I almost never have to do any extra teaching with R&S she reads and understands well. So, after my long ramble some of my questions: - every thing I read it SEEMS CLE grammar portions are as rigorous as R&S is that correct? It just seems to good to be true that a curriculum with it all rolled into 1 could really be as rigorous. - Does CLE teach spelling rules? We used AAS for 2 years before switching to R&S. I LOVE the theory behind AAS but it just got to be way too much and DD is really a pretty darn good speller (R&S is too easy). Even though she is a good speller I really want DD to know and understand spelling rules. I think it helps with reading and spelling. Is CLE spelling really a good spelling program? - Can I easily cut out writing assignment from CLE? I eliminate poetry from R&S easily since we already study that separate. I would want to cut out writing from CLE as we would be doing that separately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherGoose Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Hi Just started with CLE 3rd grade for my 8 yo. I used R & S grammar and spelling for 2nd grade. I find that CLE is more geared to the homeschool environment, while R & S is designed for a school. Exercises in CLE are short and sweet. I haven't seen explicit instruction on spelling words yet, but that doesn't mean it's not there. I've been able to point out that the EA and EE both say long E in various words and have lists of spelling rules (someone posted about that this week). So far the writing assignments are very short. I'm doing them with my dd although we are doing other writing. You could pretty easily skip them if you wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my3daughters Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Interesting you fine CLE more geared towards homeschooling. I do find I cut out a lot of the work in R&S to make the lessons shorter. Can anyone link the spelling rules post? I can't seem to find it upon my initial search. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my3daughters Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Another question: - What about instruction in the student book of CLE. The student lessons in R&S seem so complete. I can't get a real handle on CLE based on the samples since it is spiral. I realize all that is presented in each lesson is a small snippet of the big pictures. Over time is the instruction just as complete or is further instruction from the teacher expected? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherGoose Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I can only talk about the brief work we've done. There is teacher instruction but it's very brief. 10-15 mins, which is less than I was spending on spelling alone. I like not having all the books to shuffle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 CLE feels really complete to me. Anything and everything I would want to teach my kids in LA, it's there, somewhere. It's just really gentle, bite by bite. I have heard that CLE's spelling is not phonics or rules-based, but I don't know. Maybe that's for the higher grades, but from what I've seen in 1st and 2nd grade levels, it has a spelling "rule" or two that the words are based on. We did a year of R&S Spelling, and it feels similar, but with more varied activities for each "list." Don't know that it's the best spelling program, but it bet it is sufficient for a strong speller. It's very easy to cut the writing in the lower grades; not sure about higher levels. We mostly follow instruction from the student book, but I also buy the teacher guides to make sure all my bases are covered (they are pretty inexpensive, compared to other programs). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birchbark Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I'm not sure if this is helpful, but a few years ago I did a side-by-side comparison of R&S and CLE and wrote up a quick report. DS and I spent the last few weeks trying out both CLE and R&S for grammar. I had heard great reports about both programs, and didn't know what I wanted to use next year. So I thought I would try out both and see which worked better for DS and I. I really thought CLE would win out; certainly the workbook and spiral format would be easier for DS and I was drawn to the idea of more independent learning so as to have more time with my littles. But after road-testing, this is what we discovered: I was actually spending MORE time doing CLE. Going over all his work and then explaining where he went wrong got time-consuming and I realized that I was just doing my teaching after the fact rather than before. When we did R&S the HoD-recommended way (we were using HoD at the time), which was orally with just a few exercises on paper, it was fast and smooth and well-absorbed. DS at first said he liked the workbook, but after correcting it with me for a few sessions he sighed and said, "I guess I like the yellow grammar (R&S) better, Mom." The other thing I noticed is that his handwriting got pretty sloppy on the single lines in the workbook. It stayed nicer on notebook paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my3daughters Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 I'm not sure if this is helpful, but a few years ago I did a side-by-side comparison of R&S and CLE and wrote up a quick report. Thank you that is helpful. I like that idea too. We are using R&S and will for the rest of the year but really it wouldn't hurt anything for me to order 1 3rd grade LightUnit and see how it goes. I know my daughter can really get hung up on the novelty of things so I know for certain initially she would LOVE CLE but that love might not last long term. It would give me a better evaluation of it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Yes, CLE's grammar instruction is rigorous. I've also been happy with their writing instruction. In 3rd and up, spelling is organized more into topical/themed lists, without a strong phonetic emphasis. I use Rod and Staff instead. Generally, it is very easy to cross off any part of the course you want to skip, there are some LUs dedicated only to writing (a couple that I can think of), but you could skip those if you didn't want to use them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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