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Last year we did R & S English 2 and everything was fine and he loved it. This year it seems like 3 goes much quicker which is normal since they are older. I am doing the lesson orally with him, with him writing 1/3-1/2 of the answers. I do all of the oral review, etc. I can't think of anything I'm doing wrong. I can tell he's just not retaining like I think he should. For example, he habitually forgets what an "s" form of the verb is or when asked to find the subject or predicate he will usually answer with the simple subject or simple predicate. He seems to have forgotten things about using punctuation correctly in the context of quotations. When he's not sure on something on the oral review, I have him repeat it 3x's aloud. I'm not sure what else to do. He's not feeling frustrated or anything, but I guess I'm a little concerned that next year we'll hit a wall if he's having the problems that I see this year. I'm sure level 4 is even harder. Just in case it's important, he's 9 (born in June) and considered 4th grade this year, so we are using it a year behind.

Anyone have any advice for me?

Yes, Yes, Yes, I've been through this with all 3 of my oldest. We started making a flash card for each lesson or for lessons that this was appropriate for. I put the cards on a ring and before each lesson we review the cards. It works!

Florence, thanks for the idea.

So is this pretty normal then?

I do think it is normal. There are a great deal of rules to remember when it comes to English! The good thing about R & S English is that it is repetitive. I used English 3 last year and have moved on to English 4. English 4 does not pick up where English 3 leaves off. We are already 12 weeks into English 4 and we are still reviewing what we did last year. We are still only diagramming simple subject and simple predicate. At the end of English 3 we were diagramming every word in the sentence! Lots and lots of review is provided!

We found R & S English 4 to be a great review of R & S English 3 as well. I have to say, for Wyatt, it has all come together within R & S English 5. He knows the answers to the oral review, and he just gets it. He is clipping along with it, and it's smooth sailing. He did not know the answers as well in R & S English 3 or 4. Keep at it - it will come! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks for the reassurances, ladies. Ds is more a Math and Science guy, so some of it may be that. I did not want to leave R & S so this gives me hope things will improve. Oh, and that ds is pretty normal.