LA: R & S or LOE Foundations?

[dessertbloom]

I want a phonics/complete LA program that unifies the different elements of LA and that presents pure phonics in a logical way. I also need something I can use easily in a bigger and busy family. We have 5 kids now that are just 7 years apart in age. We tried AAR and are one of the few families that it just didn't click with. We have started R & S phonics and I was planning to use R & S for all of our LA in the future. But now I'm reading The Logic of English and really love her ideas!  So... has anyone tried both and can compare and contrast for me? Which is easier to use in a bigger family? Is one more thorough than the other? Thanks for any advice!

[Ellie]

I want a phonics/complete LA program that unifies the different elements of LA and that presents pure phonics in a logical way. I also need something I can use easily in a bigger and busy family. We have 5 kids now that are just 7 years apart in age. We tried AAR and are one of the few families that it just didn't click with. We have started R & S phonics and I was planning to use R & S for all of our LA in the future. But now I'm reading The Logic of English and really love her ideas!  So... has anyone tried both and can compare and contrast for me? Which is easier to use in a bigger family? Is one more thorough than the other? Thanks for any advice!

 

By "LA", are you meaning grammar, composition, and spelling?

 

LOE is very parent-directed. With five children so close in age, having something for English skills that is less parent-directed might be better, at least for the children who are old enough to work independently in some subjects. R&S will give you that independence. And then you can work together on history and science, which would be much more fun. :-)

 

I prefer Spalding over LOE (and AAS, and any other Spalding spin-off/lookalike), but even I find it challenging to work with multiple children of differing ages and abilities.

[dessertbloom]

Thanks,Ellie. Would you say LOE is more teacher intensive than R & S for phonics, spelling, and HW? (Foundations vs. R & S 1st and 2nd grade?)

[happynurse]

I'm using LOE Foundations with my almost-5-year-old. We just finished A and will be moving on to B after the New Year. I have to say that it is definitely 'teacher intensive' as far as it being teacher-directed, but it is really quite open and go. There are several additional activities that require some household items that you can incorporate, but I have a two year old and a new baby, so I skip most of those. I just use the straight phonics instruction and we play some of the games when we have time. It takes us about 20 minutes to do a lesson, but of course my little guy is squirmy. :) If you read through the lesson the night before, it'd probably take you a total of 5 minutes, and you'd be prepared. Usually I don't even do that. I am sorry I can't comment on R & S, but we are planning on using R &S English, Spelling by Sound and Structure, and Pentime Cursive when the time comes. I think LOE Foundations is giving him a solid, gentle, and somewhat 'fun', start to Language Arts. Good luck!

[Ellie]

Thanks,Ellie. Would you say LOE is more teacher intensive than R & S for phonics, spelling, and HW? (Foundations vs. R & S 1st and 2nd grade?)

 

yes, although R&S's complete learn-to-read materials (not just the phonics, but the reading--which is different--and the readers and the teacher's manual and the whole ball of wax) does take time to do properly (do the stuff in the teacher's manual, assign seatwork; do the next thing in the TM, assign seatwork; do the next thing in the TM, assign seatwork, ad naseum). I am not a fan of R&S's Bible Nurture and Reader series because it is way too much sight reading.  I used it when I taught in a little one-room, multigrade school, because I needed to be able to give my little first grader some stuff to do by himself when I worked with the other children. It took us all morning to get through both reading and phonics lessons, although there were breaks in between while he did the seatwork. And BNRS doesn't teach spelling; for that you need Spelling by Sound and Structure, which starts at second grade. It is pretty independent, but I don't love it until the fourth grade and above.

 

LOE (and its grandmother, Spalding, and its cousins, SWR, AAS, and others) take a whole lot of face-to-face time. As much as I love the methodology (and the results), I would have to choose something different for teaching the dc to read, if not all of the children are pretty much at the same reading/spelling level so that you can teach them together.