Can someone help me with English placement questions?

[busymomma]

Hi everyone

I have decided to use Heart of Dakota for the end of this year and next year too. Basically as soon as I am able to order.
Anyway, I have already determined which guides my girls place into. I will be using Preparing Hearts for the oldest, Beyond Little Hearts for the youngest two, with my middle daughter using Language Arts and Math from Bigger Hearts.

My question is in transitioning from another English program, how do I know which one to do? The oldest two are using Climbing to Good English 2 and 4, which is also an Amish English program. I'm not concerned about my 5 year old.
If someone could google Climbing to Good English and tell me how they compare? I don't know how to post links, sorry.

Or, maybe I will post later on what is covered in the books and you can tell me how they compare. Basically, I need to know if my rising 3rd grader would go into Rod and Staff 3, and my rising 7th grader would go into Rod and Staff 5. They may not be finished with Climbing to Good English before we start Heart of Dakota.

Thank you for whoever can help me with these crazy questions!

Toni

[my3sons]

Hi Toni! Diagramming is introduced in R & S English 3, if that is helpful. Also, since R & S is considered advanced, a general goal is to finish R & S 6 by the end of Grade 8. I'm not as familiar with the other program you'd mentioned, but I thought maybe this information would help anyway. BTW, I'm excited for you to begin with HOD!

In Christ,
Julie

[busymomma]

I started this post once and lost it. But anyway here I go again.

Skills learned in Climbing to Good English 2

Phonics skills reinforced
Penmanship improvement practiced
Capitalizing sentences, names of people, places, days, months, and holidays
Punctuating ends of sentences, abbreviations, initials, greetings and closings of letters, dates, after yes and no
Working with compound words, plurals, contractions, possessives, suffixes, prefixes, synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms
Reading respellings and using the dictionary (not impressed with the respellings by the way)
Dividing words into syllables and listening for accents
Learning the concept of nouns, verbs, modifiers, prepositions, and prepositional phrases
Practicing correct usage of some verb forms
Writing original sentences, letters, stories, and book reports

Skills learned in Climbing to Good English 4

Four Kinds of Sentences
Subjects and predicates
Key words in subjects and predicates
Building Sentences
Compound subjects and predicates
Synonyms and antonyms
Review (diagramming sentences was introduced in this chapter)
Singular and plural verbs
Misused words
Choosing the correct form
Irregular verbs
Word Usage
Review
Nouns and adjectives Noun signals
Nouns in the Sentence
Proper Nouns
Singular and Plural Nouns
Possessive Nouns
Pronouns
Review
Order in a paragraph
Proofreading
Giving directions
Direct quotations
News stories
Review
The Dictionary
Table of Contents and Index
The Encyclopedia
Review
Action and Being Verbs
Adverbs
Verb Forms
More About Adverbs
Prefixes and Suffixes
Review
The Friendly Letter
Addressing Envelopes and Writing Letters
Review
Writing Poems
Descriptive Paragraphs
Book Reports
Dialogue and Stories
Review
Grouping Related Ideas
Writing Outlines
Finding Information and Writing Notes
Outlining your notes
Writing Reports
Review
Using commas
Prepositions
Proofreading
Autobiographies
Combining Sentences
Review
There is another review section at the end that covers more on capitalization, punctuation, verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives,and adverbs.

Thanks so much for your help.

[busymomma]

Thanks Julie!

That does help. I did look at Climbing to Good English 3, which I do not want, just using it as a point of reference. That book also introduces diagramming sentences. So they are at least similar, in that approach. If I had continued to use that program, she would be doing the same type of work. I also found Rod and Staff samples and table of contents, and while I think the second half of Rod and Staff 3 would be quite challenging for my almost 8 year old, I don't think the first half will be. Because she would technically be ahead of the game, we can slow it down as needed. The reason I don't like the respellings part of this program is this: They will show a list of words the way the dictionary has them listed for pronunciation, and she is basically supposed to write it the normal way, like translating. Then on other lessons, there will be the list of words they are to look up in the dictionary, and write it like the dictionary has it for pronunciation. It could be confusing for the child, I think. But we have not encountered this yet, so I don't quite know what to do. Maybe just explain what it is for. But I can't see her trying to write it all funny with upside down e's. It's just new to me. I don't know. Can anyone tell me how or if Rod and Staff deals with this?

Also, regarding my older daughter, I think I will just put her in Rod and Staff 5, like I had planned. She really enjoys diagramming. She thinks its fun, so I don't think it will be a problem. I saw that it also works on her writing skills, which is good, and likes like it will pick up where Climbing to Good English left off. A lot of the same things are covered in Rod and Staff 4, just in a different order.

Thank you Julie for your help.

Toni

[my3sons]

I'm glad you got a chance to look over Rod and Staff's Table of Contents and samples. It is a wonderful English program! I looked in my copy of R & S English 4. Chapter 11 is titled Capitalization and Dictionary Use. From skimming the answers in the teacher's guide, there are only 4 words that the student is asked to write the phonetic spelling for. This skill is covered in other ways like having dc look up words in the dictionary and pronounce them correctly orally by looking at the phonetic spelling and pronunciation key. I understand your concern with dc having to write a bunch of words phonetically, but R & S handles it really well. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie