Yet Another Thread About BJU English...

[iamrachelle]

I've been reading through old threads about the lack of writing instruction for BJU English 7 and up. Would it be too much to add in IEW to supplement the writing? Is there a way to use IEW and apply it to the assignment given by BJU? I'm not sure if my questions are making sense but I like the look of BJU English, however I don't think she's ready or able to be given an assignment and "run with it" without any guidance. Does that make sense?

 

I've also considered CLE 7 but am thinking I would also add IEW to that as well.

 

If anyone has any experience using both I would love to hear about it.

[mom31257]

I used BJU English for 7th, but we didn't use the writing assignments at all. I felt that the instruction was too minimal. I loved BJU through 6th grade, but hated it after using 7th. I had dd use some of Apologia's Jump In Writing Program that year, and she got to attend a free class by a retired English teacher.

 

I love CLE English for those upper grades for grammar. I had dd use it in 8th, but I wish we'd started earlier. It's thorough and the best part is that there are references numbers on the review sections that refer to their English Handbook (7th grade and up I think). I am not always the best with grammar, but this helps me so much.

 

I will probably switch ds to it by 4th or 5th grade. I'm using BJU now because he really likes their colorful pages. I'm skipping the writing chapters because I'm trying to introduce him to IEW. I wish I had know about IEW when dd was that age.

[iamrachelle]

Do you or would you supplement CLE's LA with IEW? If you removed the writing instruction from both BJU and CLE, which would be the better all around language arts? By "better" I mean more in depth and comprehensive. I think I'm pretty much sold on IEW, I'm just trying to figure out which LA would be the easiest to use and supplement with, as well as providing a firm foundation.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

I am going to get Meaningful Composition. We may or may not continue with BJU writing. I am not certain. I really like the looks of MC though and can NOT wait to get it!

[mom31257]

Do you or would you supplement CLE's LA with IEW? If you removed the writing instruction from both BJU and CLE, which would be the better all around language arts? By "better" I mean more in depth and comprehensive. I think I'm pretty much sold on IEW, I'm just trying to figure out which LA would be the easiest to use and supplement with, as well as providing a firm foundation.

 

Yes, I would use IEW for writing and CLE for the grammar. CLE's writing instruction was not helpful. They have a separate writing book for teachers, but I didn't think it was helpful to a mom like me.

 

I feel that dd has the writing process down (thanks to that free class for two years), so I'm going to give her the writing assignments in CLE's English 1. I also saved one LU from CLE last year (#807) to use this year, and it's all about doing a research paper. Dd is going to use IEW's The Elegant Essay in the next couple of months, too.

 

There are other grammar programs out there that just teach grammar so you can focus on IEW for the writing. I just don't have experience with them, and the CLE Handbook is so useful to me.