heartofdakota.com

If using R&S 3 in Bigger with a 3rd grader, do you do the writing lessons? Are they planned in Preparing or should those be skipped?

Due to circumstances, I'm having to cut back and find the most independent things I can for DD8 for 3rd grade (using Bigger). I want her to have a list in the mornings of her independent work that she can get done on her own-- Cursive, History Readings, Grammar, etc....So, I think I might stop R&S grammar for now and use Growing With Grammar, but add the R&S writing lessons in if they would be done if we stuck with R&S. I'm not sure R&S can be completely independent and I really don't want to switch, but I need that extra 20 minutes and dd will love the less writing (and it will save her another 15min! (we already do white board with the lessons).

If you've used or are using GWG, any opinions about GWG as a short-term fix, potentially long-term (with R&S writing added in)? How do you find it to work with HOD? Do you add writing instruction?

I also want to add that R&S is the greatest grammar program out there and I'm not switching b/c it doesn't work, I'm switching b/c I have a wild toddler, a rough first trimester (4th baby!), a recent move, been off for two months, have to school through the summer so we can break when the new baby gets here, adding in a Kindergartner this year, and dd and I are clashing for school and she needs more independent work...I need more time in my day. LOL

Tamara,

Your life right now sounds a lot like mine over the past year! With my 4th being just 3 months old, I completely understand needing more time in the day. Maybe, if you like R & S, instead of switching you could just slow it down to 3 days a week? (I have found that my 3rd grade dd is able to read the lesson herself and do it independently, but you would need to be sure to look over it each day. It's easy to let it go and then find out dc didn't 'get' something or maybe didn't even do it, KWIM?) You could try that (slowing down) with the rest of your subjects too...then you would still be moving forward but at a slower pace. Just a thought...

Oh how I wish I could slow it all down! But, I'm trying to get ahead! DD has to test this year...so we really need to get a little deeper into our studies, especially basics, and then when the baby gets here, we can slow down or stop completely for a while and still know she'll be ready for the test when we start back up.

I'm trying a week of doing R&S independently then will decide for sure if I should switch. I love R&S or teaching, but it's a little wordy for independent work. She did okay with it today and I just went in to check and make sure she understood. She did really well considering it was her first time to do it by herself and the concept was about the understood "you" in command sentences! We'll see...

...thinking ahead...trying to plan and see where we're headed!

Tamara,

While you can easily use GWG if desired instead, I agree that the writing lessons within Rod and Staff are a part of what makes it such a solid English program overall rather than just focusing on grammar. So, I would try to have your daughter do Rod and Staff more independently first, slowing to 3 times a week.

You'll find it is a very advanced program and there's no need to rush to get to the very meaty Level 4 English of Rod and Staff's. Even when you have to test, the Rod and Staff English prepares kiddos thoroughly. My oldest son did all of English 5 this year as a seventh grader, and aced his language portions of his standardized tests this year. He will complete Rod and Staff 6 as an 8th grader. There was nothing on the Iowa Basics that even came close to what was in Rod and Staff English.

Blessings,
Carrie

Tamara,

Another idea/question here. I know that your little gal already did R&S 2, but it was more than a year ago, right? I'm thinking that she will probably understand a lot more of it now than she did as a 1st grader. Maybe you could have her do that again. I think with that book you'd find that she could do it independently. Since she's matured as a learner in the last year, I would think that the application of what's there will make more sense to her. It would also be a good building block to improve her writing. If I was wanting to simplify, this is what I'd do, so I just thought I'd throw that our there.

Kathleen

We've been doing Bigger this year. We started off with R&S 3, and it was just too much for my dd. So, we continued on and stuck with our Growing with Grammar.

In Preparing, we are going to use R&S 3 (even though she is going in 5th), and pair it up with Cozy Grammar/Punctuation when she needs a break from R&S for a day. It will be a "reward" break only if she gets her R&S done.

Since there is such a big differnce between 4 and 3, I didn't want to start her off in 4 this year if I know 3 was a challenge last year. If we move faster in 3, sobeit...we'll just get into 4 sooner.

If you need more time, it's easy to go with GWG. However, my dd is lacking in the writing arena which we will be making up for this coming school year...something that would have been worked on with R&S. I don't think this is necessarily ideal, but a consequence of what we needed to do.

For me, I needed the sanity/time release as well. GWG was done independently by her, whereas she wasn't able to do that with R&S.

Next year, she'll be ready for more independence in that subject.