How much is necessary...

[stephanie]

We do R&S grammar and my oldest is in R&S6. Grammar is becoming so very complex that I'm just wondering how much do our dc really need to be abundantly prepared for their future. I don't remember doing any of the complex things that my dc do in grammar, and I consider grammar being my strength. It's not that I just want to educate my dc with just enough to get by, but what is the "meat" of it? What should they be expected to know to be successful in their futures? I'd like to "pick my battles" with grammar if possible and focus on the parts that really are necessary. KWIM? Anybody else feeling the same about grammar.

BTW, I love R&S and do not wish to change curriculum. I'm just wondering why things such as active and passive voices are important? LOL!

[Sophia]

about active and passive voices that is.

She's going to need to know the difference when she's told to write an essay using only active voice.

Her older brother is two grades above her and his writing curric. does refer to lessons he's learned in Rod & Staff grammar.

I guess you could pick and choose or do grammar light by doing it orally, we do that on hectic days.

We do plan to stick with it through 8th grade, and I will confess I'm looking forward to that day as much as the kids are!

[Kelli in TN]

I used R&S Grammar through the 8th grade. We tried to use the 9th grade, but we did find it to be a bit archaic and a real time hog. I prefer high schoolers to use that English time on reading and writing, not diagramming.

But through 8th grade, I think all the information is pretty important.

[Alana in Canada]

To pick and choose battles, I quess you have to know where you are going with writing and composition. I'm not there yet, and I don't know: but you could take a look at some stuff geared towards the high schoolers and see what might be necessary--you are probably doing that already, though.

On the other hand, don't forget, that if the child runs into something he doesn't know, he can always go find out--especially a high schooler.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I think that knowing the difference between active and passive voice is very important. It can make the difference in strong and weak writing, in my experience.

I never use what *I* learned as a determining factor in what my kids need to learn. My dd (also in R&S6) is learning things that I didn't learn until 10th grade. I plan on continuing R&S through 8th grade. She will be so ahead of where I was in high school. She'll just be able to write, and she'll know what she's doing! :o) (At least, that's my plan.) (grin)

FWIW, WRT picking battles: my dd doesn't do every exercise in R&S6. She reads through them all, but only does the exercises for things she doesn't know (she's the one who decided what she needs to do). I don't even look at her work. Then, she does the chapter test at the end of each chapter. I grade those, and she corrects everything she missed. If she misses whole topics, she re-does the respective lessons, and I test her again (this has only happened once). Usually, she gets above 95% on her grammar tests, so I'm not concerned.

[Brenda in FL]

Active and passive voice will become very important when writing compostions for grades. I think in high school we got significant points off for using passive sentences. (We had automatic F's for run-on sentences and sentence fragments! :eek:)

[Lolly]

If you make it through R&S7, your children know as much grammar as they will need to get them through college. Why continue it after that then? Because we tend to forget things. A few years of repitition cements them in.

They do need to know these little things when writing. As everyone else has stated, active and passive voice are very important when writing. A paper written in passive voice sounds extremely weak. Writing in passive voice is one of the most common mistakes in writing.

[angela in ohio]

R&S 6 gets crazy doesn't it? My dd is doing things I did in 8th grade or high school. I like that. I would rather get it out of the way now and then concentrate on more rhetoric-level skills in high school. I do think it is useful to know these things, though. Many of the errors you see in people's writing is from a lack of understanding some of the very things being taught in R&S 6 (verb tenses, for example.)

[Linda in NM]

that my students knew where to put commas, how to avoid colloquial language when writing formal papers, how to avoid second person, and the difference between active and passive voice. I refuse to argue with people about the use of gerunds (my son insists they're nouns--at 13, if he uses them correctly, I don't care).

[Tea Party Girl]

We do R&S 6 orally many days. We just finished the pronouns chapter. Unbelievable! Who knew there were so many different ways to use pronouns!?

But grammar is the equivalent to math as the basics for good writing. It is exercising my son's brain each day and I see the results in his writing. However, he did not have FLL like my 3rd grader and often the third grader understands diagramming, etc., better than the 6th grader because the third grader is building his understanding step-by-step.

In other words, every year of English grammar helps them take another step closer to clear communication. A rarer and rarer ability it seems these days.

We aim to continue R&S through eighth-grade, as well.

[Sandy in Indy]

I used R&S Grammar through the 8th grade. We tried to use the 9th grade, but we did find it to be a bit archaic and a real time hog. I prefer high schoolers to use that English time on reading and writing, not diagramming.

But through 8th grade, I think all the information is pretty important.

This is exactly my view. I do think they need through the 8th grade book but after that we concentrate on literature and writing.