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My son (9) and I have been going through the R&S 4 together and it is working out really well, but for the last two days I have not made him write down the answers to all of the lessons. He just tells me the answers orally. I do have him write down 1 or 2 of the exercises, like diagramming a sentence. We do 2 lessons per day.

Do you think this is okay just to not make him write it all down? He gets it so much better when we sit down and do it together like this. It is a real stressor for him to write too much, and I just don't want to force him if it isn't necessary. The things he does write is spelling, science lesson (we do R&S 3 for science now), A Reason for Handwriting (cursive), and when we have a workbook page to do in the DITHOR, we talk it through as I have him write it down, also the poem copywork each day (in Beyond).

Thoughts on this?

From what I've read, there seems to be quite a few moms who allow their children to do the exercises orally. Sounds like your son is doing enough writing from what you've written.

I was a real stickler with my first child , and made sure all the assignments were written out. Now, after reading what other mothers are doing, I allow as much as possible to be completed orally, except for Reviews and diagramming, She enjoys the lessons more, and retains the information just the same.

I just reread your message. Your son is 9 and you're having him go through R&S 4, two lessons a day? I think at some point in the guides you are scheduled to go through the R&S English books at half pace. This is not to criticize, just a comment on how HOD schedules English in the upper guides.

No, I'm sorry! I meant that he is doing R&S 3! Not 4! Ooops...thanks for pointing that out!!

We do 2 lessons of the R&S 3. Thank you for your thoughts!

I usually do 2/3 of it orally, and have him write 1/3 or part of 1 section. The oral review questions in the teacher's guide have been a good gauge for me to see if he's retaining what he's learned. These were harder for him at first, but now that he knows the oral questions are based on the "Remember" boxes and the key ideas of the lessons, he works hard to remember them.

Both of our dc are doing at least 2/3 orally, and both are retaining what they've learned well. Doing 2 lessons a day, I think you'd definitely want to make sure not to require a lot of writing, but also you'd want to make sure the pace isn't too fast and that he is still able to retain what he's learned. If diagramming is part of the lesson, I usually make sure to have my dc write a portion of the diagramming section, as that's one area in English that is tougher to retain when done just orally. It sounds like your ds is doing just fine, and that doing it orally and writing just a portion is working very well - so I'd just keep on enjoying that plan! Many, many moms do this and enjoy how doable it makes R & S English from year to year.

In Christ,
Julie