Rod & Staff vs. Analytical Grammar

Hello,

I am new to the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling.  Yes, I am guilty of bringing school home the first two years!  But now, we have been liberated!  We are really enjoying the CM philosophy.  I am so grateful for the SCM website – thank you for all your time and energy!  This site has been such a blessing with the transition from textbooks to living books.  We have been CMing for about 1 month now!

We have used R&S English for the last 2 years for my children currently in grades 5 & 6.  We started with 3rd grade the first year and last year completed the 4th grade book.  I try and teach these two together since they are so close in age (12 1/2 months apart).  I love the English program; however my children are dreadful of English each day. 

I am thinking about switching to the Analytical Grammar for grades 8, 9, and 10 as suggested by the curriculum guidelines of SCM.  My children would enjoy the break I am sure!  At this point my children already know how to diagram most sentences.  Being nervous to stop Grammar completly, I just purchased worksheets from R&S to complete about 2 a week to review the 8 Parts of Speech and Capitalization & Punctuation.  I am just a little nervous about skipping Grammar next year for my oldest who will be in 7th.  Do you reccommend continuing the worksheets as review once or twice per week until we begin Analytical Grammar or will we be okay to take a break?  I don’t feel like JAG would be neccessary since we have already covered heavy diagramming and parts of speech with R&S – but still unsure.  If anyone can give me some experienced advice I would really appreciate it.  

Thank you ahead of time for any comments!