CLE vs BJU Reading?

[nena3927]

We have just read various books this year for reading but I'm looking to perhaps add a more formal curriculum this fall.  Between CLE and BJU, which one would you choose for reading (4th grade and up) and why? Thanks!

Edited March 23, 2018 by nena3927

[mom31257]

CLE. It includes all the important aspects of a reading program, but at those grade levels, it is only half a year's worth of work. That leaves time for more whole books. 

[mom31257]

You might also look at reading Deconstructing Penguins and the video course, Teaching the Classics.  Both are very helpful to learn how to get more out of reading. 

 

 

[PeterPan]

I haven't looked at CLE, but the elementary BJU Reading is mainly Press-written stuff. It changes over to excerpts in 7th. I like their workbooks, because they bring in a lot of great skills (outlining, etc. etc.), but for some kids, like my ADHD dd, it was kind of tedious, even grade-advanced. It just depends on the kid. So when we used it, we would skip things, discuss some lessons and not others, do some worktext pages and not others, etc. 

 

You might also look at spines you can apply to other books you're reading, like the How to Report on Books series. Also around that age I started googling for lit guides. We found guides for the Hobbit, did a Shakespeare study with guides and the Ambrose dvd productions, etc. 

[Jess4879]

CLE questions really make the kids think, but there is a lot of writing.  The stories are all the same though...and they get boring, fast.  They also don't offer the same variety of genres as BJU.  Between the two, I prefer BJU, but it is a LOT of work to cover one subject.  We switched to Mosdos and much prefer that.  The selections and variety are wonderful and it's much more manageable to cover literature without it taking over the entire day.

[alisoncooks]

We preferred CLE over BJU, but eventually ended up switching to Mosdos.

[mrsduenes06]

We have only used CLE's reading program for 1 year (grades 5, 3, and 1) and while I was concerned that the stories might be too simple, my boys surprisingly have really enjoyed them. I too like that it only takes half of a year to complete - I am planning on adding other books in to supplement but we still get the basic literary analysis that comes with CLE's program.