I wish I had not waited so long to get the Rod & Staff curriculum. I thought I could make do with piece meal and free stuff. But, I really need a set curriculum, and Katie likes it better - more like "school". She took her first math and science tests yesterday and did well. She is 6th grade, but doing 7th grade math. Amanda is liking hers as well. Spelling is good, and the Art gives me some direction. I also love the Biblical focus. I need to get the History for them soon.
I'll be trying R&S for the first time next year (English only). I've already bought the books and started looking through them. I love them!
I was planning on buying R&S this year but didn't....I will have to buy it for next term..I need something new!
Rod and Staff has a reputation in this area of being no-nonsense and a bit advanced. A gal who recently graduated from college with honors said that she didn't encounter anything in college that she hadn't covered years before in R & S! I believe it's also laid out in a manner that once the student has mastered an area, it's easy to skip on to something else. Quite plain, so those students who have a hard tiime concentrating aren't distracted with silly mice dancing in the corner pointing out the main topic, IYKWIM. Some of the Rod and Staff literature books are among our favorites. Enjoy your studies!
Someone "willed" me a lot of R&S English books last year, and some math, and another book here and there. I just bought a whole ton of the science (now have third grade through the highest they have, currently 9th/10th), and some more of the higher levels of English (8th, 9th, 10th). This year we're using 2nd grade social studies, which is geography, spelling, phonics, English, and the reading, which we're using for Bible, and third grade science (which we liked so well that I bought all the rest!). We may get around to second grade health before the year's over, too. We're also using 4th grade English, and we used 5th English some last year. We are liking this! I still like Christian Light so very much, but the R&S is better suited for certain of my students, and I'm all about finding the fit, y'know? Since we're teaching Other People's Kids, and kids tend to come and go through the year, having the hard-backed textbooks makes it very easy to just take it off the shelf when someone comes and put it back on the shelf when they go, without having leftover workbooks. (I'm really amazed that it's Veteran's Day, and I still have the same five we started with!) About the Engish, I like that it's a traditional approach, and the TMs have tons of daily oral drill already there for me to use, and the reduced-size student pages, with teacher-helps and answers in the margins. The TM also has the AKs for the worksheets and the tests in the back so you don't have to have 3 separate TMs to keep up with. The lessons follow a similar format all the way through the grade levels. A LOT of each lesson can be done orally, too. I have a few grades of math, but I personally do not like the mastery approach. If I could have had spiraled math when I was in school, I probably would have liked it a lot more. I'll probably be selling the R&S math that I have ... (hint hint) Considering the social studies, I like the CLE ones better -- they can be done either by textbook (chapter tests only) or by using the lightunit study guides (with periodic quizzes). They're bigger, with more info, more color, more questions for dicussion than the R&S ones. OTOH, the R&S seem a bit more concise (I guess that's how to put it) and some kids do better with concise. By contrast, most of the CLE science is still in the older Lifepac format, so I prefer the R&S science which is in textbooks that are very well done.
I love them too! I started my 1st grader and 3rd grader on them this year . I must say it looked plain and I thought they'd be bored especially my 1st grader since it starts so basic (letter sound etc..) but we just finished unit 1 and he is reading great! I started HS with Sonlight and although we got a great literary start my daughter never got an in depth phonics instruction (which she NEEDS) So I am actually using the phonics program to review the points she missed. Today as she struggled to read "soared" he walked by and calmy told her OA says O That word sound like S-O-R. I agree with the math mastery is not for everyone but I only have them do odd rows unless they struggling with a concept and we don't do all the drills. We also use Horizons Math on the side. I didn't know R&S offered a health program I must g check them out! Ps I love their art too I ordered my own set so I could do the pages with them...
They really only have second and fourth grade Health that are separate, but in the upper levels of science there are health topics covered.
We're R & S English users....using or have used Grade 2,3,4,5, and 6....7 is waiting on the shelf until probably early Spring.
I finally went over to full R&S this year for all three girls. We are doing prek, these books are so much fun my 4 year old LOVES them. We are repeating third grade for the oldest because we were starting to notice a few "holes" in her knowledge. I am amazed at the english, I mean my 2nd and 3rd grader are diagraming sentences. I never even saw anything like that until highschool and then I hated it. The girls love every part of school this year. I haven't had to fight them into doing school once. In fact there have been some mornings that they are up before me and already starting on school when I come downstairs. It is FANTASTIC!!
