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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?

Tina,

I think it is fine to do much of Rod and Staff English orally, however I would definitely encourage you to slow down the pace of the lessons to just one lesson each day. This will allow your child to truly absorb the material rather than just knowing the answer for the day. Rod and Staff English levels 5 on up are very challenging, so you won't want to get to those levels too early.

At our house, we also do much of the Rod and Staff English orally with our own boys. We have found that our boys do truly retain the grammar lessons well this way and enjoy the interaction with me. I allow my kiddos to choose one or two sections of exercises from the lesson each day to do on paper though, as I do want them doing some writing in the grammar area each day to help cement the information. I hope that helps as you ponder what is best for your family.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks Carrie. Well, I made a blunder on my earlier post. He is in R & S 3. We just started it a few weeks ago, as he was in R & S 2, but I felt he was too advanced for that one. (He had been used to Abeka in Christian school for the past 2 years). I feel R & S 3 is a really good fit for him. But, I will consider going down to 1 lesson a day. He would certainly not object to that!!!!

Oh, and I do make him do a few of the exercises on paper as well. Blessings, and thank you.

Tina,

Thanks for clarifying! That makes much more sense. There is a huge difference between Rod and Staff 3 and 4. Typically, if your son is a 4th grader, we would recommend doing Rod and Staff 3 at the pace of a lesson a day. If you desire a quicker pace, you can certainly do that instead if it fits your goals better. It sounds like you're on the right track!

Blessings,
Carrie