Grammar placement for soon to be 11 yo

[deltagal]

HI there,

We've just completed Rod and Staff 2 with my 10 year old son, who will be 11 in one week! I had planned for him to roll right into R&S 3, but he is much more capable with writing sentences then he was a year ago. I've just begun to ponder whether or not I should move him into R&S 4. I actually think he would enjoy the diagramming. He is very visual and likes the physical aspect of writing, but not the cognitive. He also in the last couple of months has shown a new level of maturity towards his school work, willing to get it done, stay on task, etc.

Any thoughts?

With Joy!
Florence

[3musketeers]

Florence,

I have just one option. I'm sure others will have some other ideas for you. I have used R&S 2nd-4th and each book really builds on the next. Could you go ahead and do the 3rd grade text, but move quickly through or orally review any parts ds finds easy and slow down on things he is still needing help with, before moving to the 4th grade book?

I also wanted to add that i understand your excitement when ds is working hard at his school work and staying on task. That is something we are working very hard on with our dss. It's great to see that finally click.

Blessings,
Cindy

[inHistiming]

I have a bit of experience in this..we recently moved our son up to level 6 from level 4 b/c he's strong in LA and we thought he could handle it and he'd be in the 'proper' level for his grade. However, I soon found that there were areas that he had not learned about (prepositions for one) and I was unable to go back in the book to help him b/c we skipped the level at which if is first explained (level 4). So, we ended up moving him back down to level 4, starting back right where we left off.

Carrie recommends completing level 6 by the end of the 8th grade due to how 'meaty' R&S is and from now on we will be following her recommendations on the grammar. I feel we wasted time moving him up and now we have to backtrack...he'll still finish 'on time' but I wish we'd done it differently. When we began R&S last year we did just what the pp recommended...we started with level 3 but moved quickly, doing some orally and skipping what he already knew. That allowed us to be able to start level 4 by the spring. He will complete that by the end of this school year and will then be able to complete one level a year for the next two...which is still at a quicker pace than Carrie recommends, but it's where we're at with this ds. So, I would say go through level 3 with him, but feel free to skip those areas that he has mastered...there's no reason you have to do every lesson, unless he needs the review or it's a new concept. My dd just began level 3 last week, and we skipped the first 5 lessons b/c she knows it already. Now we're almost 'caught up' to where she'll be able to just do the scheduled lessons in the guide and that will be great! Anyway, just my opinion....

[my3sons]

I think I'd clip along with R & S 3, doing much of it orally, and just have ds write for a few things, such as diagramming, as that will be new. R & S 3 doesn't take long this way, and you could easily do 2 lessons a day and just slow down for anything that seemed difficult. I do think the programs build nicely upon one another, and I agree that moving ahead too quickly can sometimes mean backtracking later. Just an idea - you'll know best!
In Christ,
Julie

[deltagal]

Good thoughts everyone. When I came home last night he bounded down the stairs and asked if the Blue book was his next Grammar book. I said, yes and after perusing through it I think it will be a good fit, because he'll feel so successful! And yes, we can pick up the pace where and when we need to.

[Alison in KY]

Want to hijack for a minute and ask a question about this. We haven't used RS for grammar and it's probably my son's weakest subject. I'll be starting on CTC with him this fall so I was assuming I'd use level 4 with him, but should I just do 3?

Alison in KY

[deltagal]

Alison,

What age is your son and has he had any grammar experience?

[Alison in KY]

He'll be turning 11 in April, and we'll start CTC sometime around July, unless I get a wild hare and decide to start sooner. We've went through a few programs but not consistently because it was like pulling teeth. He's mostly worked from Easy Grammar last year. I think I'm going to break out Winston Grammar and have him go through what each word is doing in a sentence...at least that's my plan for the next few months. I don't know if it's typical or not, but if I show him what I want him to pick out then he can do it, but if I ask him to underline a simple predicate (or verb, I switch up the words some) he will mostly look at me like I have two heads . One thing I know he doesn't really know is linking verbs, but he does know quite a few prepositions. He's also a reluctant writer. I think I'll try to do CTC as written, but I'll have a real hard time giving up Writing Tales...it's been good for us.

Alison

[my3sons]

Alison - One idea to ponder would be to start R & S English 3 now. We did a good portion of it orally, and I just had him write a little less than 1/3 of the written parts. This would not take long to do at all, and would set up your ds so nicely to do R & S English 4. Then, you could just finish out R & S 3 doing it daily during the first half or so of CTC. R & S English 4 is scheduled half-speed in CTC, so when you finish R & S 3, you could decide whether you wanted to do R & S 4 daily or every other day at that point. If you are really desiring to do R & S 4 with ds, and feel that is the best placement for him, then you could just start R & S 4 now and ease into it over the next few months. That would give you some extra time built in already in case you need to slow it down while doing CTC if it becomes too difficult. You will know best what fits your goals for English, but I know it helps me so much to hear different ideas on the HOD board, ponder them, and then pick what fits us best. So, those are just a few ideas you could consider!

In Christ,
Julie