R&S Math in younger grades and skipping some problems - ?

[StaceyinLA]

Dgs is doing R&S, and gets very frustrated with so many of the same problems. Has anyone ever assigned only part of the problems, or is it critical to do them all for mastering the concepts?

[Zoo Keeper]

Yes, you can skip problems as needed.  In, 1-3rd, R&S contains more drill than some kids need (especially in the 2nd grade workbooks).  I would stress the classtime in the TM, and edit the student workbook load as needed.  In the 1-3 books, the TM has a chart of when new concepts are introduced, so it easy to look ahead, see what lesson gets to something new,  and then condense problems in a few lessons if the child gets it and is getting frustrated by all the review.  New topics are introduced in each lesson in 4th and up; you can condense in those grades as needed, but I would be hesitant to skip whole lessons in those grades.

I would also sometimes do problems orally or on a whiteboard to give the appearance of cutting work.  Sometimes it was just writing out the whole page that my child was resistant to, not the problems themselves. For my kids who are quick in math, a lot of R&S 1-3 is done orally or on the whiteboard.  I also cherry pick my way through the problems as I mentioned above; they do a second math program (MEP or Miquon or Singapore) to stretch those math muscles that R&S builds. I do think that R&S's slow and steady pace builds a great base--some kids don't need it quite that slow and steady, though. 

In the 6th-8th grade TM's, it does specifically state that you can assign odds or evens; the problem sets are set up that way so you can do either one and not miss content.

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by Zoo Keeper

[2_girls_mommy]

Totally agree. The same goes for the English.

[StaceyinLA]

Thank you. I do a lot with him orally when I do school with him, which is about to be more because my dd is expecting a baby soon, and I’ll be taking over home schooling her 2 oldest kids at least 2-3 days/week (we live on the same property, so they’ll just walk over and do school in the mornings).

He is doing the 2nd grade right now, and it just seems like it is pages upon pages of the same thing. Although I feel like he does need some repetition because he just doesn’t have his facts down right off the top of his head or anything, ten pages of the very same thing just gets ridiculous.

[daijobu]

As they say, "Teach the student, not the curriculum."  

[StaceyinLA]

Thanks! I actually might do that. I had also forgotten how much I love all their products - good gracious I probably need to stay away from there!

[Ellie]

On 1/12/2020 at 6:26 AM, StaceyinLA said:

Thank you. I do a lot with him orally when I do school with him, which is about to be more because my dd is expecting a baby soon, and I’ll be taking over home schooling her 2 oldest kids at least 2-3 days/week (we live on the same property, so they’ll just walk over and do school in the mornings).

He is doing the 2nd grade right now, and it just seems like it is pages upon pages of the same thing. Although I feel like he does need some repetition because he just doesn’t have his facts down right off the top of his head or anything, ten pages of the very same thing just gets ridiculous.

You are doing the oral class time with him, yes? Because that's where all of the actual instruction is. The seatwork just reinforces what you taught him. And doing just the seatwork without doing the oral class time would be just a dreadful experience.

[SilverMoon]

In 1 and 3 we did every problem in every lesson and I taught every lesson from the teacher manual. In 4+ we rarely skipped anything and I only taught the lessons it seemed like they needed me to.

 

In grade 2 we skipped SWATHS. It's almost like that level wasn't written by the same people. One full grade two set is practically enough for two children to complete grade 2. 😜