This reading program is the most comprehensive I’ve seen, incorporating phonetic reading at the lowest levels (correlated to phonics instruction), a full range of comprehension skill development, and reading-related skills not usually found in a basal program (map skills, reading and making schedules, word skills, time lines, literary skills, and many more). The Teacher’s Manual contains daily lesson plans, with a complete presentation of the lesson, and student reading pages, either as a full size text, or in reduced size. Each reading lesson begins with skill development, the reading lesson, and optional enhancement or reinforcement activities. In the younger grades, many of the skill development sections reinforce phonetic and decoding skills. Many of the lessons refer to the Skill Charts for reading lists of words with the constructs being studied. The reading selections are wholesome, engaging, and include all genres - biographies, narrative exposition, historical fiction, Bible stories, imaginary (fantasy) stories, etc. These acquaint students with different types of literature from the beginning - a feature lacking in most other basal readers, which predominately seem to contain stories. As with all Bob Jones lines, the content is tacitly Christian. Typeset used in the readers is age-appropriate and not eye-straining. Most reading comprehension is done orally, but student worktexts contain skill practice pages and some exercises to test or reinforce student understanding. A Teacher’s Edition of the worktext has answers overprinted in red. The accompanying chapter-by-chapter study, along with background information and discussion questions, is contained in the Teacher’s Manual. Essential materials are listed first beneath each grade level, followed by asterisked (*) support materials. Complete Home Study kits contain all essential materials to teach one child.

The Bob Jones reading program has been a mainstay in our schooling for years, and we highly recommend it.