What would my child be missing if he did NOT...

[wehave8]

...do a reading program?

I am looking at BJU Reading and I can see there are some things in the workbook that I may not think of to teach if we were just reading books. But are there enough concepts taught in the workbook to make the time to do them??

 

What do you see that we'd be missing by NOT doing a reading "program"?

(looking at 4th grdade & up)

 

Pam

[mom2bee]

Nothing important if you just make a note of skills that you may not have thought of and cover them informally with your son. Google should be very handy in the endeavor of determining important reading skills for 3rd-8th graders.

[Lily_Grace]

Well.........not a lot until Logic stage, imo. We didn't do a reading program all throughout elementary, but found that by 6th grade, it was valuable. He was old enough to understand the parts of literature, to explore different genres and literary styles, and adapt them into his own work. He could talk about a story a la Deconstructing Penguins style.

 

We did a few MBTP workbooks for stories he was interested in already to help springboard us, but I don't see how waiting until he was older hurt him any.

[Another Lynn]

We don't use a reading program here, and one thing I forget to be deliberate about sometimes is poetry.

[Hockey Mom]

We stopped doing BJU Reading 4 about two weeks into the school year. It. was. booooooooring. I felt it was more important to instill a love of reading than to go through comprehension worksheets that were just as dry as the stories.

 

Since I made the decision to "quit" a reading program, here's what we have done:

 

8 weeks of Evan-Moore Pockets: Non Fiction

 

3 weeks of A Christmas Carol, with Literature Guide.

 

2 weeks of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, with Literature Guide

 

2 weeks of Where the Red Fern Grows, with Literature Guide (also did this unit with the audiobook.)

 

We are starting Shiloh this week, and using this as a supplement. Since we will be starting this book while travelling, I also downloaded the audiobook, and as a special treat for my animal-loving boys, I'm giving them one of these before we start the book. ;) I also decided to incorporate some state history into this lesson, and bought a couple of books on the state of West Virginia (plus, Dh and his family is from there).

 

I have other books in the wings so that we can continue throughout the year (Old Yeller - a request from DS10, and Holes - which I think they would find interesting).

 

If there is a movie adaptation of the book, I allow them to watch the movie AFTER they've read the book. We discuss the differences between the book and the movie, and they write a short description in their reading journal on their comparisons.

 

I'm pretty sure I have achieved my goal of instilling a love for reading, as they now look forward to it. Sometimes I have to slow them down so they don't get too far ahead. LOL

 

ETA: I just noticed your DS is 9 years old. :) The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan is a HUGE hit with my almost-9 y/o DS, and DS10 just discovered Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer. These are two boys would gnash teeth and wail as soon as I would mention reading a book, and now they read on their own. :) I have also bought them the audiobooks, and that has been a big motivator in getting them to actually crack a book open and read along.

[Crimson Wife]

I do not do a reading program after phonics until the student is working at a middle school level. Then I use "Figuratively Speaking" followed by Walch "Poetry and Prose Toolbook" to teach lit analysis terms.