questions about BJU 1st grade phonics/english

[anniet]

I am very close to buying the BJU 1st grade phonics/english along with the reading course for my twins. I would like some questions answered before I proceed. My 6 yr old twins will have completed "The Reading Lesson" by the time they start BJU phonics this fall. I really like what I see with the BJU samples but I need to know exactly how time consuming it is to teach that course with a student who can already read at a 1st grade level. I have used many other phonics programs with my other kids(PP, ETC, SSRW, A Beka, Rod & Staff, Calvert..) however, I am very drawn to the BJU program for my boys. As I look at the online lesson, it doesn't look too difficult to teach and I love the workbooks they do for reinforcement. Although it's difficult to make a decision by looking at a few sample pages.

For those of you who have used this program, can you please share with me your experiences, thoughts, opinions?

Thanks,

Ann

[diaperjoys]

We use the BJU Phonics/English 1 for our 5yo. Works great! The TM is pretty easy to work with. I can scan over the page and quickly pick out the main objective and decide what I need to review with my son. From there we just spend a few minutes going over the new english concepts, such as exclamation points, quotation marks, etc. Then he does the worksheets mostly on his own. I usually spend a couple minutes getting the workbook pages out, another minute or two scanning the TM, up to 5 minutes working with the new concept (he already reads pretty well, so no need to spend oodles of time going over the letter of the day, etc.), then he works on his own from 10 min to 30 min., depending on how well he stays on task.

 

I'm certain there are oodles of other programs out there that accomplish the same thing, but overall we've been pleased, and we'll likely use it for his brother next year, and the younger sibs after that.

[Wee Pip]

My 6yo dd is on the last 1/4 of the 1st gr BJU Phonics/English along with the Reading. Honestly, I started off following the TM, introducing the sight word cards, introducing the phonics lesson, reading the little theme story in the TM, etc But by the end, my dd had caught on so quickly to reading and phonics, that I ended up not even bothering with the sight word flashcards and phonics introduction. This is probably an example of my bad teaching, LOL, but I skip the TM most of the time and just teach my dd whatever she needs to know from the workbook. A child that didn't catch on to the phonics so quickly probably would benefit from the TM instruction. So what I'm saying is...you can adjust the amt of time spent on lessons and how much of it you do based upon your children's needs. There is enough to do in the TM to last 30-40 mins of your instruction, or you could just spend 5-10 mins doing the TM instruction. My 6yo gets her English/Phonics workbook done quickly. She complains if it has a lot of handwriting, but even then, it doesn't really take her that long. We can get all of her LA (Reading, Spelling, Handwriting, Phonics/English) done in 1hr-1.5 hours. She usually does 2 reading lessons, because she loves reading and doesn't want to divide the story up into two days lessons (many of the reading lessons are 2 day stories). Quite often, we get all of that plus her math done in 1.5 hours. If your children are already good readers and know their phonics, then it wouldn't take you long for each Phonics/Eng lesson.

[anniet]

Thankyou ladies for your thorough responses! You've helped solidify my decision. I'm going to go ahead and order:001_smile:

Ann