Rod and Staff Reading

[Kezia]

I was just looking at the R&S reading which is separate from the well reviewed and much recommended English from R&S. I cannot seem to find many reviews on the reading. 
 

Is anyone familiar with it?

[2_girls_mommy]

I use the Rod and Staff 1st grade reading and phonics programs over k and 1st with all of my kiddos, including the workbooks for each subject.  In 1st and 2nd the phonics and reading program are tied heavily together, and since I already liked the R&S math and English, I just went with their phonics (which I ended up really loving the thoroughness of) and their reading which is all Bible with my 1st kiddo thirteen years ago, and I am still using the same combination now with my last 1st grader.  I spread it all out.  The phonics has two worksheets plus spelling exercises.  The reading has two worksheets in each lesson, plus additional exercises sometimes, plus an additional cut/paste worksheet tied to the reading story.  Instead of doing all 7 of these a day over 1st grade, I start it all slowly in k, alternating daily between the subjects and work through them into the next grade.  

Since I pretty much follow WTM, the Bible stories in grade 1 tie in very well with SOTW1 ancient studies, and I have loved the combination. In the past, I always dropped the reading program after we finished the 1st grade and moved into WTM reading real book suggestions.  I now own grade 2 readers and will have my dd use them for read aloud purposes this time around, but will not do the reading workbook pages.  I think the R&S English and Spelling along with doing copywork/narration/and moving into dictation in 2nd and up works fine.  We do those exercises from history and from literature.  

I like the R&S reading.  One of mine was already well before we started the program, and I used it strictly for the content of the Bible stories and little bit of grammar introduction that the reading program introduces.  The next one of mine really learned to read with the R&S phonics/reading combination, and we relied heavily on the t.m. and did all of the exercises and flashcards and such.  It does use some "sight" words with each lesson so that the child can read stories beyond just CVC books.  (I use Bob books for straight phonics readers when mine are very young readers too, because I appreciated the pure phonics approach,) but the phonics instruction and reading practice in the phonics program side is all phonics based, and the reading section uses all of the phonics the child has learned, and relies less on the sight words as the phonics progresses.   My current 1st grader started the phonics/reading combo shortly after turning 6.  Her only reading before that was letter of the week programs and Bob Books.  She took off after a about a month of the program at half pace.  So it has worked well for all of mine at this point. 

 

[Kezia]

2 hours ago, 2_girls_mommy said:

 So it has worked well for all of mine at this point. 

Thank you for such a thorough review! Very helpful 😀

[Servant4Christ]

I haven't used it because I used CLE reading for my oldest, but I may use R&S reading for my two youngest when they are school age. I have R&S first grade phonics and reading TMs on the way to look at now. R&S and CLE are Anabaptist and thus introduce nonresistance in both their history and reading stories. It starts much earlier in CLE which is why we stopped using their reading and history after third grade. My understanding is that it doesn't show up in R&S until after BNRS, so we'll drop it after 4th. 

Edited April 13, 2021 by Servant4Christ

[Ellie]

Just to emphasize the fact that the instruction is entirely in the teacher manual. It is expected that you teach using the scripted lessons, then give the child the seatwork that goes with it; then teach, then more seatwork; then teach and more seatwork.

I used it one year when I taught in a one-room, multigrade school, because I needed for the little six-year-old to be doing something while I worked with other children. It is not my favorite. I'm not a fan of sight reading in any form.

[Servant4Christ]

On 4/12/2021 at 10:22 AM, 2_girls_mommy said:

I use the Rod and Staff 1st grade reading and phonics programs over k and 1st with all of my kiddos, including the workbooks for each subject.  In 1st and 2nd the phonics and reading program are tied heavily together, and since I already liked the R&S math and English, I just went with their phonics (which I ended up really loving the thoroughness of) and their reading which is all Bible with my 1st kiddo thirteen years ago, and I am still using the same combination now with my last 1st grader.  I spread it all out.  The phonics has two worksheets plus spelling exercises.  The reading has two worksheets in each lesson, plus additional exercises sometimes, plus an additional cut/paste worksheet tied to the reading story.  Instead of doing all 7 of these a day over 1st grade, I start it all slowly in k, alternating daily between the subjects and work through them into the next grade.  

Since I pretty much follow WTM, the Bible stories in grade 1 tie in very well with SOTW1 ancient studies, and I have loved the combination. In the past, I always dropped the reading program after we finished the 1st grade and moved into WTM reading real book suggestions.  I now own grade 2 readers and will have my dd use them for read aloud purposes this time around, but will not do the reading workbook pages.  I think the R&S English and Spelling along with doing copywork/narration/and moving into dictation in 2nd and up works fine.  We do those exercises from history and from literature.  

I like the R&S reading.  One of mine was already well before we started the program, and I used it strictly for the content of the Bible stories and little bit of grammar introduction that the reading program introduces.  The next one of mine really learned to read with the R&S phonics/reading combination, and we relied heavily on the t.m. and did all of the exercises and flashcards and such.  It does use some "sight" words with each lesson so that the child can read stories beyond just CVC books.  (I use Bob books for straight phonics readers when mine are very young readers too, because I appreciated the pure phonics approach,) but the phonics instruction and reading practice in the phonics program side is all phonics based, and the reading section uses all of the phonics the child has learned, and relies less on the sight words as the phonics progresses.   My current 1st grader started the phonics/reading combo shortly after turning 6.  Her only reading before that was letter of the week programs and Bob Books.  She took off after a about a month of the program at half pace.  So it has worked well for all of mine at this point. 

 

I'm resurrecting this thread to ask: Would you still choose the older edition or the new revised edition of grade 1? Also, did you use the word cards, phrase cards, and phonics cards?

Edited March 7 by Servant4Christ

[Servant4Christ]

On 4/12/2021 at 1:14 PM, Servant4Christ said:

I haven't used it because I used CLE reading for my oldest, but I may use R&S reading for my two youngest when they are school age. I have R&S first grade phonics and reading TMs on the way to look at now. R&S and CLE are Anabaptist and thus introduce nonresistance in both their history and reading stories. It starts much earlier in CLE which is why we stopped using their reading and history after third grade. My understanding is that it doesn't show up in R&S until after BNRS, so we'll drop it after 4th. 

I am rereading this post almost 3 years later and thought I'd give an update for anyone who's looking into this program in the future.

Oldest has used R&S Reading grades 5 and 6. He is currently using their grade 7 and will be using their grade 8 next year. We will not be using R&S Reading for grade 9. In grades 5-8, there are some Anabaptist stories, but they don't rub me the wrong way like some of the CLE stories did at a much younger age/grade level. With the R&S stories, it is much easier for my children to identify where our interpretation of the scriptures differ from the Anabaptists and why. We have had many wonderful discussions and Bible studies where we look at scripture and discuss how different denominations interpret the same verses. This also leads into lessons on reading all verses in context of the surrounding story and lining it up with the correct time period in history.

I will be using R&S BNRS grade 1 for Middle this Fall with the intent of continuing the series through grade 4 (and then on to the upper grades 5-8). Middle has completed the ABC and most of the GHI series and what I've discovered is that a lot of this will be repeated in grade 1. So for Youngest, my plan is to use the ABC workbooks only (not the GHI series) in preschool and then start BNRS grade 1 at half pace over the span of both kinder and grade 1 like @2_girls_mommy.

Edited March 7 by Servant4Christ