GVA and others who switched after RS D

[Ginger]

My dd10 just finished D a few weeks ago, and E came in the mail last week. The idea of starting E just fills me with dread, for reasons I don't really know why. GVA you said you switched to CLE after D--which grade level did you get? Someone mentioned going from RSD to BJU 4. Honestly if I have to start in a 4th grade curriculum, I'll probably just stick with RS through E since she is finishing up her 4th grade year. But if I could go ahead and start a 5h grade curriculum then I'm more likely to make the jump. And CLE or BJU would be my top choices.

[PeterPan]

From RS D you'd go to BJU4, sorry. You haven't had enough division in RS D to test out of BJU 4. It all gets reviewed in BJU5, but that could overwhelm her. She's older, so who am I to say? I guess look at the scope & sequence and decide for yourself. In BJU5 she would be doing all the writing, not using a student workbook, if that makes any difference to you. RS E is a really meaty level though, and some people have gone from it directly to BJU6. I forget what level Penny went into from RS E.

 

Is RS E scaring you because it has a lot of division? It definitely approaches it differently from how we were taught in school, lol. Maybe you'd like to call and talk with them about it or talk with the rep at your state's convention to see if they can explain the things that scare you. My suggestion is that if you don't have any problems and things have been going well, to just continue what you've been doing. You have the 60 day money back guarantee and RS will explain anything about the lessons to you if you call.

[Ginger]

The division doesn't scare me...I think it just goes back to the same story of lack of facts practice. DD could actually multiply/divide quicker than add/subtract this year. But toward the end of D she seemed to lose her multiplication skills as RS moved away from fact practice to geometry. She doesn't care to play the games, either.

[Pensguys]

I "misspoke" in my other reply about RS.....We went through E with my older. I'm not sure I would have done it that way knowing what I know now though....it just felt scattered to me vs. how things always came around again in the other leves. My ds did fine with it but we definitely needed more work with it after E (which is what BJU 5 and 6 do which is why we skipped 5.)

[Ginger]

So Penny, you were able to go from E to BJU6? Is that correct?

[Pensguys]

Yes. My ds is very good at math and we found 6 to be a good fit. We did have a few problems (melt downs) when we got to the long division, but we just worked through all of those problems (2 per day) while we kept moving forward with a non-division lesson. Now he can do long division with no problems.

[KIN]

I'm not sure I would have done it that way knowing what I know now though...

 

Penny - What did you mean by this? I'm getting ready for D next year and plan on E the following year, but it is good for me to hear what other's opinions/challenges have been. Thanks!

[Pensguys]

Well, I feel that so much of what we did (minus the geometry) in E is repeated so much in BJU (5th and 6th grade at least) that I would have gone ahead and changed to BJU for 4th instead of doing RS E. The way most of the topics were taught didn't strike me as being THAT different than the traditional way I was taught decimals, fractions, and percents. RS DOES teach long division a little differently, and to be honest, I didn't understand HOW in the WORLD she was teaching this, so we trudged through as best we could for that part but I had to re-teach it again this year.

 

So I'm saying that for MY son I would have gone ahead with BJU 4th for 4th grade. He is 5th grade this year and we were able to skip BJU 5 (we did start a bit of it, but it was a lot of review of what we did in RS E and he would have been bored silly) so I skipped on over to BJU 6 BUT I'm making sure I use the Reviews book and the Spring book that accommpany the BJU books to make sure he gets enough practice. BJU 6 has been easy for him in parts and a little challenging in parts so I think it has been the perfect fit for him.

 

My younger ds who isn't so good at math (other than the addition we did in RS A and B) will follow the normal sequence and not skip anything.

[jail warden]

So Penny are you still using RS for your 2nd grader? We're using C this year and planning on continuing with D next year, just curious.

[Pensguys]

No, I'm not. We did start with Level C this year but the subtraction was too much for him how RS was teaching it. He has some learning issues and our dr. said that subtraction may be hard for him. I do use some RS methods to teach him, but he needs lots more practice with it than how RS was presenting it. Also, neither he nor I wanted to play the games as much as HE would have to play them in order for him to make the progress he needed to make. I'm happy with the switch to BJU for him. He is 2nd grade this year and I backed him up into the 1st grade book to make sure to cement subtraction from the beginning. We just started it in Jan and he is zooming through it. We'll finish a whole year's worth of work before our school year is over (we're doing 2-3 lesson plus other practice each day) and start into the 2nd grade book. We might do a little of it this summer (if I can get him to do it) to get finished with the 2nd grade book before mid-3rd grade year. He needs to slow down when we get to the subtraction, but he zooms through the addition stuff so far.

[G5052]

My son and I just weren't clicking anymore with math, and I came to see that he really, really needed to be teaching himself more on things. For some reason any kind of division blew his mind and brought him to tears every time. So we gave up halfway through RightStart E when he was in 4th grade. He was in a real crises over math -- his confidence was really down.

 

Anyway, I took him all the way back to the first Light Unit (there are 10 per year) of CLE Math 4 because they dive right into division with remainders and 4-step division in the second light unit. I set a timer and had him do 45 minutes of math a day, which was sometimes more than one lesson and sometime less. This fall he'll be caught up and starting CLE Math 6.

 

I haven't really addressed yet what comes after CLE Math 6. We're in Classical Conversations which uses Saxon for 7th and up, but my son may be ahead of the level his class is using by then. Thankfully CLE goes easily into Saxon either way, so we'll figure it out then.:)