Rod and Staff Spelling

When we first started homeschooling, we went with Rod and Staff Spelling. It was a five years ago, but I am going to try and remember the details. I know we only used it for a 3rd grader and 4th grader. We only used it one year, because starting in 4th grade, the spelling words are only given in cursive writing. My son did not like that at all and neither did I. I noticed that he was getting a lot of the words wrong. I believe it was because he didn’t know how to read cursive well enough and he definitely didn’t write in cursive. Because of that, I don’t think he was “seeing” the words spelled correctly. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, that is the only reason that we switched and never went back. I do remember the lesson plans being very simple and straight forward. I always added more review on the whiteboard but it didn’t seem to work with my 4th grader. My 3rd grader loved the program, but I truly believe he would have started having problems in 4th once all the words were in cursive. Just my 2 cents.

Tammy

We also used it with 4th grade.  My DD had trouble reading the cursive words, and I thought she just couldn’t read cursive, but found out later it was just their cursive font!  I did have her “translate” the words from cursive to manuscript before she began her lesson (I had to help quite a bit with that).  I also had to help quite a bit with the rest of the lesson, so it wasn’t the independent book I’d hoped for.  She had no trouble with the actual spelling, so we went back to dictation and saved us all a lot of time.     

Well, my daughter who is a good speller loved it and my daughter who is a bad speller hated it. 

What grade is your daughter in?  That will help me know what to tell you.

We tried Spelling Power once years ago but I didn’t like it. We have used rod and staff spelling for years and I see great results from a very simple program. The lists vary enough so they don’t just figure “oh, all the words on this list are ‘eigh’…one of the things I didn’t like about SP. I have tried a more Charlotte Mason approach but with 5 children I sometimes didn’t get around to individual spelling work. I find myself wishing I could do every single subject in a CM way but I have found that I need to pick what things are most important to me, do them, and then choose (or allow myself) to use what works for us and gives results. R&S does that for us. Plus for the older grades they do some Greek and Latin, antonyms, word studies, etc.

Hope this helps you with your decision! Don’t beat yourself up!

Blessings

Lisa

We only used up through 4th.  If you are starting the series at her age you may want to start a grade lower.  It’s not just that the words are hard to spell but the assignments can be especially if she has never done them.  For example, they are given the phonetic spelling (with dictionary marks) and they have to write out the word.  Like this….. hwis ‘əl and ə hwil’ (the i should have a line over it but I can’t figure it out).  Those words are whistle and awhile.  That was from the 4th grade book.  See, it is kind of challenging.

Other thoughts:

• They use Mennonite specific words like “Mennonite, buggy, etc, handkerchief” No big deal but not words we commonly use.  (“Girls, let’s take the buggy to town.  )
• Teaches by rule
• Teaches dictionary skills, abreviations, prefixes, suffixes
• Does not show mispelled words for the student to find which is good
• Can do 4 days of lessons every week – part a, part b, part c and the test.

As far as the grade level, if you go a grade younger, I would take a sharpy and black out the grade on the front cover and spine.

Again, it is not CM.  But, I won’t throw tomotoes at you for it. 

Aaaawww!  I’m so glad, Heather!