Grammar level question re: R&S for my dd11...

[Sue G in PA]

She currently does R&S 5 although she is technically in 6th. I felt she needed the review b/c she hadn't had a real thorough exposure to grammar (no diagramming, etc.). She is doing extremely well w/ R&S 5 and is half-way through. My question: Could I skip her ahead to 6th now instead of waiting until next year w/out too many problems for her? I just don't want her to be "behind". OR, should I just wait until she's through R&S 5 and then move to 6 next year. OR should she skip 6 entirely and move into 7? So many questions! Sorry. Any opinions? TIA

[Sandy in Indy]

Rather than skipping whole sections, I think I'd do just a few exercises in each section to make sure you don't miss anything. And I definitely wouldn't skip a whole book. I really wouldn't consider her "behind" as I'm sure she's way ahead of most ps students in the grammar department.

[MIch elle]

The R&S English books usually are more difficult toward the end of the book(R&S E.7 is hard in the beginning) so I think you should stick with R&S E.5 and then continue with R&S E.6. I don't recommend skipping at all(skim doing chapter reviews & tests if you REALLY need to). R&S E.7 is hard w/o having done R&S E.6

[Carol in Cal.]

It is not uncommon for children to study Rod and Staff one year behind their actual grade level. If you want to accelerate her progress a bit, use a different writing program concurrently and skip all of the RS writing assignments. I think that that will speed you up about 20%.

[angela in ohio]

She is absolutely not "behind" as R&S is advanced, especially by 5th and 6th grade. If you are determined to get her "up to level", your better choice would be to skip now up to 6 than to skip 6 (6 reviews so much of 5.)

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I wouldn't skip ahead. I'd have her go through every lesson in 5 since she hasn't had much grammar.

Next year, in 6, she may be able to make up some time by skipping exercises she already understands. My dd (6th grade) has been using R&S since level 3. Most of the topics are revisited from year to year. They're re-introduced, and then expanded. My dd has been able to skip the exercises in about half of the lessons because she already understands them from Level 5 (and 4, and 3). Actually, she skipped more in the first half of the book (sometimes 3 or 4 at a time). Now, at the end of the book, she's needing to do almost all of the lessons because their new/difficult.

She takes the test (from the test booklet) after each chapter. If she misses concepts, she goes back and reviews those. If she does well on the test, we just go to the next chapter. For the most part, she's done very well. She's been able to move through the book at an incredible rate. She only has 30 lessons left in the book, and she didn't start it until the end of September.

Take your time in Level 5. Make sure she thoroughly understands the material. That's much more important than getting her up to an arbitrary "grade level". She is where she is. It's important that she learns this stuff. You can try to accelerate her next year.