Rod and Staff English 7 and Up?

[JumpyTheFrog]

My 8th grader is about halfway through Rod and Staff English 6. Previously we had been using Easy Grammar, but he wasn't retaining much from it. This year is going better, but I wonder how many levels of Rod and Staff are necessary? Should I just use one book a year and stop after R&S 10? Should I try to compact them? Grammar is one of the subject that has tended to frustrate him. Fortunately, it must be starting to get through because he's been doing some practice ACTs recently and been getting in the high 20s to low 30s on the English section.

[Ellie]

Which Easy Grammar was he doing? Did he complete it?

Is he doing all of the R&S English text, or are you trying to separate out just the grammar? Because if you want just grammar, then Easy Grammar Plus would be my first recommendation. R&S's English is much more comprehensive than that; it's a complete English course except for literature.

R&S English only goes to 10th.

[JumpyTheFrog]

We used Easy Grammar 3-5. The explanations in Easy Grammar 5 weren't thorough enough for either of us and it didn't have enough review for him. We understand prepositional phrases well, but it seemed like the other topics weren't covered nearly as much.

As far as Rod and Staff, we do most of it orally together. I do have him write out the diagrams for the sentences. I use other programs for outlining and writing, so we skip most of those sections.  

[freesia]

Our target is through 8.  I use one of the 9/10 texts for extra practice in mechanics for some of my students.  In practice ds1, dd1 completed through 8.  Ds2 used Climbing to Good English for 4, 5, 6 and 7 because he needed a workbook text.  He transfered into Rod and Staff 7 in 8th grade and I let him stop at that point.  My children write grammatically by the end of 8th grade and I feel that the diagramming they've done from 5-8th grade has benefited their brain enough.  High school gets busy. 

[Ellie]

15 minutes ago, JumpyTheFrog said:

We used Easy Grammar 3-5. The explanations in Easy Grammar 5 weren't thorough enough for either of us and it didn't have enough review for him. We understand prepositional phrases well, but it seemed like the other topics weren't covered nearly as much.

As far as Rod and Staff, we do most of it orally together. I do have him write out the diagrams for the sentences. I use other programs for outlining and writing, so we skip most of those sections.  

If you want something just for grammar, I wouldn't recommend R&S, especially if you're doing it orally. Oral just isn't enough. You might check into Analytical Grammar.

That's an unusual assessment of Easy Grammar. o_0 You were using Easy Grammar, not Daily Grams, yes? Were you doing it orally, too?