# Christian Light vs. Rod and Staff



## barnyardfun

I am interested in anything you guys can tell me about these two curriculums.

The good, the bad, and the ugly!  

Thanks for any info you can give. These are the two I am considering and I truly value your opinions so I thought I would just ask.

:angel:


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## RockyGlen

Rod and Staff science is pathetic. We used it for years for the early grades, but finally just couldn't stomach it any more. It is the exact same info year after year with very little added to it. They seem to take being IN the world and not OF the world a little too seriously in this area and avoid just about anything that does not line up with the Bible.

Rod and Staff history is quite different than the normal. I'm trying to remember back to the early grades, so I may have my grade levels mixed up, but I think 5th grade is Understanding Latin America and you spend the entire year on...well...Latin America. Another year is European history, etc. The emphasis is VERY heavy on the Anabaptist background. Now, we are an offshoot of Anabaptist, but it was so heavily into it that I felt there were huge gaps in other areas. Also, being Anabaptist, they do contain the non-resistance theme throughout.

I love Rod and Staff phonics and Bible (in the first 4 grades it is called Bible Reading and Nurture series and it combines Literature, Phonics, and Bible). Their phonics is a different approach than I have ever seen, and is wonderful. For instance it teaches that when a word starts with the K sound and has the short vowel sound u, o, or a you use a C and if the short vowel sound is i or e the word starts with a K. Anyway, it is not all auditory phonics learning and it has been great. The Bible curriculum is very involved and uses KJV only. It is approached from a strict interpretation and not necessarily an Anabaptist approach.

We use the math until high school and it is more advanced than anything else we tried in the early years (Saxon, Singapore, Math U See, Abeka and a couple others). I love the fact that the problems are things like: Susannah went to the chicken coop and gathered eight eggs. She had ten chickens. How many chickens did not lay an egg that day? Just stuff that my farm kids can relate to.

We use R&S for Bible all the way through. They are very thorough, keep the interest, and give a solidly biblical basis - no interpretation like so many Bible curriculums do. They leave the interpreting to the parents and just stick with what the Bible actually says, while also presenting maps, historical facts, and things like that.

All Rod and Staff curriculum shows the girls in dresses and with head coverings, and does mention tobacco use and drinking as sin. One great thing is they are so affordable, and the books hold up well. Some of our math books are on their 8th student and still going strong.

We use Christian Light for home ec and sex. ed. Rod and Staff 4th grade health is things like washing your hands, don't cut up raw chicken on the counter without washing it, clean your room, etc. Kind of lame. I use the 4th grade book with my kindergateners and just do it out loud. 

We really like Christian Liberty for Science and History for the elementary grades. If you are looking for conservative Christian curriculum that supports the military and gives a more evenhanded approach to history you might look into them.

I, having majored in English, absolutely LOVED Rod and Staff grammar. It was more in depth and detailed than my college english courses. However, my cowboy farmer husband and every single one of my kids absolutely hated it. After eight years, I gave in, and I have to admit the kids are doing just as well. My oldest, in college, recently told me that he STILL resents all that stupid english stuff and after three years in college he still has not needed most of it. So, if one of your kids wants to be an author or a college english professor, use their grammar. For regular life, you might find it's not worth the struggle.

For several years we used Rod and Staff for all subjects and my kids always tested several grades above their age level, but as they get older, we get away from Rod and Staff for core subjects, as the Anabaptist perspective seems to limit the knowledge in the books. One reason they are advanced is that Anabaptist schools end at eighth grade, but they get twelve years of knowledge (at least!) in the books. Rod and Staff now has some subjects going to tenth grade, but you might want to have some plan in mind for how to do high school if you use R&S for the first eight grades.

Hope that helped a little. Feel free to ask my questions.


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## Cara

I used R&S math for the first three grades, and love it. My kids have the four basic functions down pat. I didn't really care much for any of the rest of it...and we tried it all. I have used a few Christian Light books. Right now my 9th grader is going through their home-ec. It's good, informative and thorough.


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## coondog

We started out with christian light publications, then later thought we would try some of the others. We tried A beka, School of tomorrow, & Alpha Omega Publications. Of all we tried, we should have just stayed with CLE., and saved ourselves a heap of money. It is so solid in the teaching of the fundamentals, that we have had wonderful success with it. The oldest only went thru the 10th level then decided to go try for the GED. He placed very high on his GED, ( some of the highest scores in the state) and also placement testing for college. He graduated college with a 4.0 and told me many times that he knew answers many of the other students didn't know, and he felt it was due to his learning from CLE. Even though the booklets at first glance seem drab in color, they make it more interesting and fun to learn than all the others we tried, and therefore the concepts seem to stick with the kids better. 

You can request from CLE their sample pack at the grade level you are interested in. It is $10, and helps to be able to look over their material and let the prospective student look it over. Another option I had thought of, was to use CLE for Math and English, and then A beka for science and social studies, but my kids requested they wanted the science and social studies in CLE also. They really love the farm theme and stories. 

I have never tried Rod and Staff, have heard a lot of good about it.


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## Ohio dreamer

I don't know Christian Light, but we use Rod and Staff. It has been a big hit for my son - doing 4th grade. 

He flies through his grammar every day (because he enjoys and understands it) and he loves the reading program as it follows the Bible. We are adding in their math next year (wish I would have thought of it for this year...too late now due to where we live). 

My son's a Science nut, so I bought him the 3rd grade Science book last year just as a reader...he liked it too much for that, he had me add it to our school work. I haven't looked at any other years Science, we do Apologia normally. I also bought the the 3rd and 4th grade Social studies books, but we haven't used them. They look great, we just have found other things that have interested us. I keep them on the shelf for back-up, being we can't just go out and pick up something from a library or another source to fill in if needed (we live in Europe).

My DD will start the first grade reading/phonic stuff next year. We didn't find R&S till DS was in 2nd, so it will be new to us.

Now, I'm curious about Christian Light...guess it time to do a little Internet research.


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## backwoods

If you go to Yahoo Groups, there is a Christian Light Families group, where they have curriculum samples under their "files" heading, and you can get lots of info from this group about CLE. This group also discusses and gives info on Rod & Staff and Pathway. 
I tried Rod & Staff 10 years ago with my older son in 4th, and he didn't like it. He was a history buff, and found R & S very boring. I'm now using Christian Light with youngest daughter, and she's loving it and doing very well. Another son is using Landmark Freedom Baptist curriculum, but will be trying out CLE next year. Try out http://groups.yahoo.com/christianlightfamilies/
Hope this helps.
backwoods


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## wehes5

you do know that rod and staff is owned and opporated by the mennonites. we have one only a few miles from our house and it is a very nice store....good luck with home schooling....I loved it, my children hated it and unfortunately wanted to go back to the evils of public school.


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## SandraBen

I am a second year homeschool mom of middle school children. My 14 yo son, was failing in public school so I brought him back to the same grade as his 12 yo sister and began with the basics of 6th grade. We used the Ron Paul Curriculum last year and it was so difficult that I had to teach every lesson to my children, even though it claimed to be self-guided and teacher-independent. The curriculum was loaded with errors and had extremely difficult content (Math & Grammar). This year, I dumped it and switched to CLE. I am a certified K-6 Elementary teacher who left teaching to homeschool my children. Here is my review so far:

CLE Math: Outstanding
I use CLE for Math and Language Arts. I Love the CLE math. It goes by the name Sunrise Math. Since this is my first year with this curriculum I made a few mistakes. I ordered the 10 Light Units for the 8th grade and the corresponding answer keys. I didn't know that the answer keys only give the answer and does not write out the math problem and the steps toward the solution. This was disappointing because when my children wanted further clarification I couldn't provide it. So I had to quickly order the teacher's manual and do "rush delivery" to be able to teach them the difficult concepts. I will save you money right now: order the Light Units and the Teacher's manual and skip the Answer Key. The teacher's manual has it all and is very thorough in the teaching of mathematics. Love this curriculum for math. Lots of supplements to give further practice.

Now to the Language Arts: Disappointing.
Because everything was "a la carte" I had to order and "rush deliver" 3 times to get the complete LA curriculum and in the end, the whole package was less than satisfactory. This is for grade 7: The 10 Light Units, The answer key, A novel, and English Handbook was what I ended up getting. Once again, the answer key was horrible! It gave the answers to the Light Units as "fragments." For example: Circle all the letters that should be capitalized in the following sentence: Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my name, he will give it you." In the answer key it will be written like this: ... Father in My name, He will give it... 
So as my children's teacher, I had to have their book in my hand in order to follow along with what the answer key was referring, leaving a student without their book! I "rush delivered" the Grade 7 Teacher's manual for the Language Arts, hoping to rectify this problem but it was terrible, nothing like the math teacher's manual. The fragment answers were still there and it didn't give any teaching material to reinforce the lesson. Basically a waste of money and my time. I am currently in search of a new LA curriculum. I am curious about Rod & Staff, looking into further. I hope this helps in your decision making. Good luck in your research!


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## mekasmom

I love Rod and Staff for the younger kids. All my kids used it, learned to red from it, and just did well with it. Pathway story books and reading books are wonderful too. That is the Amish readers. I loved them. For the older years Abeka is king. I would suggest Abeka for math as the child ages over any of the "plain" curriculum from either publisher. The simple reason for that is the way anabaptists do math with "crossing out nines". I never could understand that way of doing math. It is very different than the American way of doing math. For higher math, use Abeka or even Saxon, AO, etc.


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## mekasmom

mekasmom said:


> I love Rod and Staff for the younger kids. All my kids used it, learned to red from it, and just did well with it. Pathway story books and reading books are wonderful too. That is the Amish readers. I loved them. For the older years Abeka is king. I would suggest Abeka for math as the child ages over any of the "plain" curriculum from either publisher. The simple reason for that is the way anabaptists do math with "crossing out nines". I never could understand that way of doing math. It is very different than the American way of doing math. For higher math, use Abeka or even Saxon, AO, etc.


https://www.google.com/search?q=math+crossing+out+nines&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1


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## mekasmom

The link is to the "crossing out nines" way of doing math that anabaptists use. I do not like it. For kids over ten or so use Abeka math or AO or Saxon, etc. I would not suggest an Anabaptist math book in the older years at all.


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## mnn2501

RockyGlen said:


> I, having majored in English, absolutely LOVED Rod and Staff grammar. It was more in depth and detailed than my college english courses. However, my cowboy farmer husband and every single one of my kids absolutely hated it. After eight years, I gave in, and I have to admit the kids are doing just as well.* My oldest, in college, recently told me that he STILL resents all that stupid english stuff and after three years in college he still has not needed most of it. So, if one of your kids wants to be an author or a college english professor, use their grammar. For regular life, you might find it's not worth the struggle*.


Just to go a bit off topic:
You never know when it may come in handy - at the age of 55 I starting writing and really wish I had paid more attention to English and grammar.


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