heartofdakota.com

Hi. We have been using HOD for a few years now and will use CTC next year {my dd will be 10 and in 5th grade}. I was going to use R&S English 5 and noticed that it is split and used over two years {CTC and RTR}. My concern is that she will still be in English 5 in 6th grade. And then if we continue following the schedule, she will use English 6 over the next two years, so she will be finishing English 6 in her 8th grade year.

Should I be worried? I know a few of her friends are doing English 5 in 5th and 6 in 6th...and my dd is pretty ahead in grammar as it is {I think}. I would love to hear others thoughts on this as it is causing me a lot of concern. Thanks in advance.

Christine @ Our Homeschool Reviews
http://ourhomeschoolreviews.blogspot.com/

Ok, I just found the answer to my question in The reasons behind HoD's choices section. I actually thought that whole section was very helpful!!

Christine
http://ourhomeschoolreviews.blogspot.com/

I do have another question though...are the English 5 worksheets and tests recommended?

I'm glad you found your answer to your first question! R & S English is very advanced. Levels 7 and 8 are high school credit worthy. You do not need to add one more thing to R & S English, so I would not recommend adding worksheets and tests. It is incredibly thorough! We are currently doing R & S English 6 with our oldest ds and R & S English 4 with our middle ds. R & S English is by far my favorite grammar program, and we could not be more pleased with the retention and with the carryover of skills taught in R & S English to our dc's own writing. We follow HOD's recommendation of completing 2/3 of the lesson orally or on markerboard, reserving just 1 section to be written. This has helped the lessons clip along nicely and has not hindered retention. We will also be completing R & S English 6 by Grade 8. The HOD guides balance heavier writing days out by not assigning R & S English on those days. It has been wonderful to be able to follow the half-speed R & S English plans on the years this is the way it is planned. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

After reading through the other posts and your reply, I feel much better about it now. Thank you for your help!

Christine
http://ourhomeschoolreviews.blogspot.com/

Just as a side note, we don't use the tests, but we do use the worksheets. My DD struggled with writing for a long time due to some dyslexia, so having the worksheets allowed her to complete her grammar without adding in the writing struggles.

crlacey wrote:Just as a side note, we don't use the tests, but we do use the worksheets. My DD struggled with writing for a long time due to some dyslexia, so having the worksheets allowed her to complete her grammar without adding in the writing struggles.

What a good modification for dd! I bet that did help! This reminded me that I have, at times, photocopied from the student hardback and let Wyatt write on that. Especially if it was something like a long paragraph he was to recopy and remove sentences or arrange order for clarity. Thanks for sharing what has worked for your dd with dyslexic tendencies, crlacey!

In Christ,
Julie