Which Reading Curriculum? Looking at R&S or BJU for 2nd Grade

[Joyfullyblessed]

Hello,

 

I have been looking over the curriculum I have so far for my son who will begin 2nd grade in a few weeks. It seems I overlooked the reading part.

 

We have just used Hooked on Phonics in the past, but I thought I would look at something else this coming year.

 

I am going between R&S Reading/Phonics 2 set and BJU Press Reading 2 set. The R&S looks extremely thorough and it very affordable. The BJU looks great as well, but is pretty pricey, yet I love the vivid colors in the books. R&S is all black and white.

 

We are doing lots of R&S for our curriculum, but it is fine if I choose something different for reading.

 

Has anyone used R&S or BJU, and if so, what are your thoughts? Is the BJU worth the more than $100.00 price over R&S? Any helpful thoughts are welcome.

 

Thanks and have a wonderful day! :)

[monalisa]

I used BJU 1 and 2 with my dd, and liked it. Didn't always do all the worksheets (maybe 1/2 the time). Love the readers though. I didn't use the TM much, so I'm not sure you need it. YOu can definitely get by with the readers and workbook if you want to. This year I'm having her do HOD's DITHOR with chapter books for something different.

[suzf242]

We did R&S Reading, did not include the phonics. My favorite part is that the content is all Bible stories. It is amazing how much dd has retained. I don't have any experience with BJU to compare, though.

 

Take care,

Suzanne

[campmom]

My friend who has 12 dc uses R&S reading and phonics and loves it. She feels it covers everything needed. My two boys are going into 2nd and we are reading the R&S readers (without the phonics) and the pathway readers they are really enjoying both sets. We had read some other things before but they are enjoying these more and never complain when reading time comes.

FYI they just read outloud to me and when a words comes up that they can't sound out I help them out with it. If you are using a spelling program that is phonics based you really wouldn't need the phonics part.

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

Have not used R&S but have used BJU reading for many years. We did 2nd grade Reading last year and enjoyed it. The stories are very well written with good story lines. There is a wide variety of genera throughout the book. The workbook gives you one side of a page phonics review and the other relates to the story or a literary skill. These work pages do not have to be completed everyday if you choose, they are there to reinforce lessons if needed. The teachers edition has vocabulary and discussion questions that are labeled with the type of question it is so you don't need to go over every question, just a few or one from each type. There are also enrichment ideas such as writing , drawing or a project that are optional.

[mom31257]

My son used BJU Reading for 1st and 2nd. He will continue it for 3rd, too. It was always one of the first subjects he wanted to do each day. I did have the full set including the TMs. I used most of the worktext pages. On 2-3 days of the week I would ask all the discussion questions in the TM. I found that they asked questions I probably would not have thought to on my own.

 

He only did one of the book links because we were doing tons of reading in library books for American history. We will be doing lots of reading of library books again for Ancients, but I'm going to try and have him do two of the booklinks.

 

I plan to use BJU reading for 4th and 5th as well. I have the sets because I used them with my dd. I can't wait to do the 5th grade booklink, The Bridge, again. It was one of my favorites.