Which R&S grammar after FLL?

tawbur · Post by **tawbur** » Mon May 12, 2008 9:08 am

I've used all of FLL's 1st grade

but only 1/4th of FLL's 2nd grade

for my now 2nd grade ds. We've done most of it orally.

For this next Fall when he'll be a 3rd grader, I'm not sure which R&S to follow FLL with? I've "heard" that R&S's English is advanced, but can't find anything "official" that verify's this. I lean a lot on Duffy's review, and she doesn't mention if it's advanced or not.

I'm sure alot depends on whether or not we finish up with FLL's 2nd grade part first, or drop it and start R&S 2 now. Any suggestions?

If we finish up with the rest of FLL this summer, which could easily be done just orally, then do you know which would be better for us to go into afterwards, R&S 2 or R&S 3?

Or if we drop FLL now, should we start R&S 2 and work through it in the summer, so he can start R&S 3 in the Fall, if the R&S 3 is actually "right on grade level"? He will be tested next year at the end of 3rd grade, so I don't want to waste our time this Fall with R&S 2 if he should really be in R&S 3, if you know what I mean.

How much of the "written" parts in R&S 2 can successfully be done orally, which would speed things up? I don't want to skip the written if it's necessary for learning the material, so any suggestions for how to know which type of "written" assignments can be done orally and which should be done in writing as instructed? Same questions for R&S 3?

I don't know if any of this makes sense to you. It sounds like rambling to me.

I just find myself caught right between these 2 programs, FLL and R&S. Any advice would be appreciated, especially if you've used both of these programs or have compared them.

I definitely am not interested in FLL Level 3, because it looks too teacher intensive, so I'm very willing to switch over to R&S. But FLL 1&2 have short lessons and are very easy to do orally, so I don't have anything to complain about. I just like to make the most of my purchases, and I don't like to duplicate things, if you know what I mean.

thanks in advance,
Teresa

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Mon May 12, 2008 12:15 pm

my projections, not my experience!

We did FLL 1&2. We sped through 1 as I only discovered it near the tail end of Grade 1 [like last May!] We worked through FLL Grade 2 over this past year.

After looking at R&S 2 and R&S 3 this weekend [borrowed from InHisTiming♥] I am extremely comfortable moving into R&S 3.

I've never done R&S, so I can't speak from experience in speeding it up by doing it orally. It SEEMS like you could do a lot of if orally if you had an easy-to-stay-focused audience!

There seems to be some things R&S 2 includes that FLL 2 did not, and vice versa. R&S spends a little more time discussing pronoun usage, they do alphabetical order [hard to do orally I would think for my son] and they talk about finding the subject of a paragraph. Yet I don't see prepositions, abbreviations, letter composition and they don't discuss verbs as deeply. [Someone who has used R&S 2, please correct me if I am wrong!!]

If money is a concern, I'd suggest finishing FLL [unless you hated it] and move onto R&S 3. What FLL doesn't do in grade 2, you'd catch up with in the first few lessons of review.

If you've only done 25% of grade two, though, I would not skip directly to R&S 3! I'd try to squeeze in R&S 2, myself, or finish FLL2. Too much meat would be skipped over from FLL early grade two to R&S 3.

I may go ahead and BUY R&S 2 and do it over the summer in a speedy fashion, b/c we do school all year and my original plan was to do most of FLL2 again over the summer to keep him sharp.

I have to say, for as much as I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED FLL, I really, really like what I see in R&S. What I felt FLL lacked [and all of that WTM stuff] is a Christ-centered focus that I long for.

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Mon May 12, 2008 12:19 pm

just reread your post, to see if I answered what you actually asked.

Can _I_ ask why you do so much of FLL orally? Does your child dislike or struggle with written, or does s/he learn better orally? I sped through FLL1 orally, but took the time to do FLL2 written and I think my son and I enjoyed it MORE written. We made a binder and included the copy work/dictation, etc. But my son doesn't hate to write. He rather enjoys it.

I also don't see narration in R&S 2.

tawbur · Post by **tawbur** » Mon May 12, 2008 12:58 pm

Well, ds doesn't like to do much "required" writing, and I think he does enough of it elsewhere, with a penmanship page and ETC daily, so I just don't like to make him do more than necessary.

I skip the copywork in FLL, because he's already doing copywork with his penmanship page. We use SWR for phonics/spelling, and he gets some dictation with that too, so I don't do the dictation in FLL. I only have him do the written in FLL when it's really a writing skill that's being learned and practiced, like with using contractions and such.

There's really not much written work in FLL anyway, so it's not much of an issue. I really like the way FLL uses some catchy rythyms to memorize some things. It seems to stick.

I just don't know how R&S 2 really compares to FLL 2. If I could get a better grasp of that, then I think I'd know where we should go. I do like the Christian subject matter in R&S.

I'm just wondering if FLL 2 would prepare him enough for R&S 3, or if R&S 2 would better prepare him for R&S 3?

thanks for you help!
Teresa

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Mon May 12, 2008 1:42 pm

truthfully - I think either would do, really.

As long as you don't skip the rest of FLL 2, it would lead in okay to R&S 3, I feel. Or, just stop FLL where you are and start R&S 2.

I, too, LOVE the way FLL has memorization. The preposition list is fantastic that way, as are the verbs.

tawbur · Post by **tawbur** » Mon May 12, 2008 7:21 pm

Well, I've spent all afternoon looking over R&S 2, which I bought at the bookfair because I was told it would probably be too advanced for 2nd grade. But looking over it, I really don't think it's as much advanced in the concepts as it is in the amount of writing. But much of the writing could be eliminated by doing it orally. I'm actually very impressed with it's explanations of the concepts, which seems to make it much more understandable than FLL does.

We did FLL today, and my son struggled with finding all the nouns, verbs, and adjs in the sentences. But after looking through R&S2, I think that they set up that process much more thoroughly, as well as other concepts, so that the child is better prepared. Funny, I just realized the books title is "Preparing to Build", which is appropriate.

Anyway, I think I'll drop FLL and start R&S2 immediately, but I'll go thru FLL and make a list of all the chants for memorizing the parts of speech, and just add that in to our R&S 2 as we go. How I wish I would have found HOD a year ago! Oh well, better late than never.

Thanks for all your input!
Teresa

Tabitha · Post by **Tabitha** » Tue May 13, 2008 7:15 pm

We did FLL for 1 & 2, moved onto GWG for 3rd. I have R&S 3 adn 4 here.

If you drop FLL now, I would say perhaps start with R&S 2. If you finish FLL this summer, I say go into R&S 3.

You can always take R&S slow and work through it over a longer period of time if it's too difficult, or if you find you need to move at a slower pace with it.

Tab