Biblioplan

[SpringTulip]

I'm still trying to decide what curriculum to choose next year.  

 

I like the Biblioplan, but had a few questions.  

 

When I searched on CathyDuffy's website, she rates Biblioplan highly but said it is more labor intensive for the teacher (more labor intensive than Sonlight, for instance).  What has been your experience with it?  I really liked the fact that they use challenging books, like Shakespeare's works but am a bit concerned that I can keep up with it.  I do like literature and history, but I'm a little concerned I can pull everything together since I have 2 younger children.  I'm college focused and would hope that my children could get adequately prepared for college.

 

I was also concerned that there is a large booklist and I'm not sure which books or how many to choose from the list?  I live overseas, so I have to buy everything very soon and I can't update the list later.  There seem to be about 40 books.  At the top of the books list it states,

 

"We do NOT recommend buying all of the books on this list! Instead, we recommend using the annotated book lists in our Family Guide "

 

but I don't see the list from the Family Guide on the website.

 

Further, the Biblioplan curriculum seems to cover lit and history but not writing and vocabulary, so it seems I'd need to purchase these separately.

 

For vocabularly, I like the Vocabulary, Spelling, and Poetry books sold through Abeka.  For writing, I've still not decided, but perhaps I might use the composition set sold through Abeka as well.  

 

 

[momtofive]

I'm planning on going with BiblioPlan next fall, so I'm not experienced in how to use it best yet, but thought I'd share some helpful links I came across from another mom who's used it very successfully for years now. Before that she's used things like Sonlight and Tapestry of Grace.

 

Here's her review of BiblioPlan:

http://gratefulforgrace.com/2013/02/a-review-of-biblioplan/

Here's how she uses BP:

http://gratefulforgrace.com/2014/05/how-i-use-biblioplan-putting-the-year-together/

Here's how she plans lit choices:

http://gratefulforgrace.com/2014/06/how-i-choose-plan-high-school-selections-for-biblioplan/

Here's how she shares using binders for BP:

http://gratefulforgrace.com/2013/08/how-to-use-binders-and-individualize-lesson-plans-for-biblioplan-or-my-fathers-world/

 

BiblioPlan has free three week samples you can download from any of their programs. In the sample, they give you a good view of each of their products (family guide, companion, cool histories for all the age levels, hands on maps, crafts and timeline). Within the family guide they list all the possible history and literature books you could choose for each unit. You only choose the books that interest you or you think would fit well in your year.

 

I read somewhere recently that a good place to start would be to choose 1 classic w/ study guide, and one book of interest (w/o study guide) for your high school student for each unit. (You could do more if you wish.) I think there's either 6 or 7 units total. They also have book lists on their website...just not arranged according to their units.)

 

You can purchase either print materials, blended packages (hard copy companion text and all the rest as ebook), or all ebook options. It's my understanding you'd be able to just look over the unit book lists in the family guide (and read their annotated book descriptions), and choose your 2 or more books per unit that way.

 

As for being more work for the teacher.....that may look different for each teacher. I've used MFW, SL, and HOD in the past, and am seeing BP as MUCH more flexible than any of the others. I can tailor what and how much we want to do, but still have the guidance of a schedule to be our framework. I hope this makes sense. We've been completely burned out trying to keep up with someone else's schedule in years past, and see BP as a great way to make it our own without having to start from scratch and do it all myself. It feels like a great 'meet in the middle' to me. ;)

 

ETA: I'm planning to do lit using the book choices from BP to coordinate with our history studies, but we're going to use IEW for writing. BP appears to have writing and research prompts within the cool history pages, but you could easily use whatever you like for writing. Vocabulary could be done within BP in an informal way, or easily just do the Abeka vocabulary, spelling & poetry you already prefer. Totally up to you. :)

Blessings ;)

[SpringTulip]

Thanks for the links momtofive!   I just looked over the links.  

 

When I looked back over Biblioplan, I couldn't find a very detailed table which shows coverage for Year 1.  In general this is the breakdown:

 

Unit One, Creation to Joseph: 7 Weeks

Unit Two, Egypt and the Nation of Israel: 7 Weeks

Unit Three, Israel Divided-- Assyria and Babylonia: 6 Weeks

Unit Four, Persia and Ancient Greece: 5 Weeks

Unit Five, Rome, Jesus and the Early Church: 9 Weeks

 

Maybe that's all I need?  I did go through and tediously print out the book lists for the upper grades and mark them Greek, Roman, etc.  I am a little concerned that I'll need to ask questions for the books but the Guide they provide won't give clues for questions for each and every book they list.

What spine will you use?  I've already used Story of the World. What should the next book be? Is it worth changing over to Mystery of History, for instance?  

 

Also, have you heard good things about their mapwork?  I noticed they had The Cultural Atlas Series for several civilizations.  Is it necessary to purchase those?  

 

I really like the 4-year cycle.  I'm a little concerned about getting all the requirements for college met however.  I think I would have to add in an extra semester to get the gov in.  It makes me think I ought just to start with medieval Year 2 rather than the Year 1.

 

For the MFW, they use Writer's Inc.  Do homeschoolers generally like Writer's Inc?  I know that IEW is good and I've used it for the lower grades.  I haven't looked at their high school material closely yet, though.

[momtofive]

I'm afraid I don't have much help to offer about how Year 1 is set up....as we'll be doing Year 2 (Medieval). My oldest is a rising 10th grader, so by beginning in Year 2, we can still cover what he needs over the next 3 years for graduation requirements.

 

I went ahead and printed out book lists for Year 2 also, but mostly just so I could highlight what books we already own that I could use. I don't think their guide will have questions for all the books they list, as it's just meant to be the flexible framework you can build upon however you like. For whatever spine you choose, you could use any included questions within that resource (for example: the Activity Guide questions for SOTW, or the review questions at the end of MOH chapters). For any literary classics you choose, you can look for coordinating study guides that would bring depth to your study of those books. I believe they had quite a few listed that have accompanying study guides.

 

For spine choices, I'll likely do the SOTW for my younger kids, and MOH for my older ones. The BP Companion is designed to be a complete spine for high school age students, so my older ones will also be reading that. My thought is that we'll likely have a history time all together with the olders where I'll read MOH aloud, as well as any other supplemental books listed for that day that we feel like incorporating (keeping in mind that they are not all listed each day). Books like Greenleaf's Famous Men books, Courage and Conviction as well as Monks and Mystics, etc... Then they can read the Companion independently. Oh, also there's the Cool History pages for each age group that would add more questions for comprehension as well, which are based on the Companion readings.

 

In BP's description of their maps on their website, they mention all your student should need for completing the maps is the Companion and a globe or world map. I don't remember seeing the atlas series you mentioned, but I'll go look again! ;)

 

I plan on doing government during BP Year 3 (Early Modern). They suggest using Walch Power Basics, but you could easily use whatever you prefer. Instead of having a dedicated semester for doing government, I'm planning on doing it over the course of year 3.

 

I've only read briefly about Writers Inc. It looks like a great resource to me, but we had already planned on using IEW, so I didn't look much further. You could really use whatever writing program you prefer, though. :)

 

I don't know that I've been much help, as I haven't used BP yet myself. From what I've seen of the samples and reading everything on their website, I'm really looking forward to using it next fall! ;)

 

Blessings! ;)

[mom@shiloh]

I'm still trying to decide what curriculum to choose next year.  

 

I like the Biblioplan, but had a few questions.  

 

When I searched on CathyDuffy's website, she rates Biblioplan highly but said it is more labor intensive for the teacher (more labor intensive than Sonlight, for instance).  What has been your experience with it?  I really liked the fact that they use challenging books, like Shakespeare's works but am a bit concerned that I can keep up with it.  I do like literature and history, but I'm a little concerned I can pull everything together since I have 2 younger children.  I'm college focused and would hope that my children could get adequately prepared for college.

We're just finishing our first year of BP (we did Year 3).  I've used SL, Truthquest and TOG in the past and I've found BP much easier to implement with multi-age students -- currently home educating my five youngest, ages 10-17. The Cool Histories in BP make it easy to keep up with multiple students, allowing them to work independently and the family discussion guide makes it easy to pull all ages together to discuss the topics.  I have found that even if I get behind in the reading, the discussion guide allows me to discuss the important aspects in a chapter.  

 

I was also concerned that there is a large booklist and I'm not sure which books or how many to choose from the list?  I live overseas, so I have to buy everything very soon and I can't update the list later.  There seem to be about 40 books.  At the top of the books list it states,

 

Mostly we just read the spine books and I have a book basket of books we already own.  I try to find books that relate to the time period and rotate them through the basket periodically.  I wouldn't worry too much about finding the exact books that are listed in BP.  They are just suggestions and not integral.  I like to look at several curriculums to see which books are recommended.  You will often find the same books showing up in multiple curriculums.  My advice would be to invest in those.

 

"We do NOT recommend buying all of the books on this list! Instead, we recommend using the annotated book lists in our Family Guide "

 

but I don't see the list from the Family Guide on the website.

 

Further, the Biblioplan curriculum seems to cover lit and history but not writing and vocabulary, so it seems I'd need to purchase these separately.

It covers Bible, history, geography and literature.  There are suggestions for writing assignments.   

 

For vocabularly, I like the Vocabulary, Spelling, and Poetry books sold through Abeka.  For writing, I've still not decided, but perhaps I might use the composition set sold through Abeka as well.  

 

[mom@shiloh]

There's a BP group on Facebook which is very helpful when you have questions.

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Can I sidestep just a little? At least it will bump the thread back up.

 

I'm watching BP to see when/if it will go on sale.  Particularly the Medieval Family Guide (lesson plan book).

 

Have any of you been with BP long enough to know when they have sales?

[SpringTulip]

I was having many thoughts roll around in my head when looking at various curriculum these past few days. One of the thoughts I had was that as I downloaded and looked at the Biblioplan's 3 week bundle, I wasn't especially happy that their main history text is in printable format and the other texts/spines they suggested to accompany the history download were for younger kids. So, then I turned back to MFW's Notgrass history texts for World History for High School. I like the Notgrass books in that they also have a study book to accompany them. Literally, I wouldn't necessarily need to have my oldest study the same era as my younger two. She could just plan to study and answer the questions independently.  I'm sure it would be valuable to have a group discussion, though.

 

I like Biblioplan's suggested reading list. The books are very challenging, I think, and perhaps I could incorporate those? The books on the Biblioplan reading list are to be purchased separately, along with the study guides, through Amazon.

 

After looking at Sonlight, MFW, and Biblioplan, I was thinking that perhaps I ought just to combine different elements of the three. MFW also gives a 1 year Bible credit.

 

I might just make up my own schedule and have her review sections of the Kingfisher to supplement the history. It's for younger kids, but it would be a fun review. Additionally,  I was considering have her reread 1-2 STOW texts for review this summer before we start high school.   

[momtofive]

SpringTulip,

 

On BP'S website, they give you options to buy the Companion as either an ebook or as a hardcover print copy. It's supposed to be the high school level spine when read in its entirety. You can read as many sections of it as you desire for younger kids. You can always choose another option for spines if you prefer (such as SOTW, MOH, or Streams of Civilizations, etc..). The Cool History pages info comes from the Companion, I believe.

 

I just purchased a blended package from BP the other day. So they're sending me a print copy of the Companion, and I got the rest as ebooks that I can print out. It was pretty cost effective, because I can print however many copies I need for my kids. Then in a few years when we cycle back around, I just print out whatever we need that year.

 

Sounds like your developing a nice plan for next year! ;) Just thought I'd share a bit about the Companion, in case it helps clarify at all. :)

 

Blessings! ;)

[tuesdayschild]

I've had Ds read Biblioplan Companion Text as his main history spine for (NZ) highschool for the last 3 years.

There is very little work for me with  the way we use Biblioplan.

If you don't mind blog reading, and to save me time typing here :), I've detailed how we use Biblioplan here.

Just scroll down to about 1/2 way in that post.

 

All the best while you sort out what will work for you and your family!

[SpringTulip]

Thanks for your replies!!

 

I might have more comments and questions later, but tuesdayschild I was glad that you compared Biblioplan maps with Knowledge Quest in your blog. I had thought Knowledge Quest to be about the best map geography curriculum that I've seen. It is pretty pricey though, from what I remember. That's interesting that you get the kids to participate in making their own schedules. I think, as long as I check behind dd and give her detailed instructions in how to do that, it might be a useful skill for her to learn. I had given a cursory glance to the history text (I think those are the Cool History pages), but by looking at the BP briefly, I'll admit, in comparison, I was a bit more smitten with Notgrass. I might try to look over the Cool History pages again and rethink.

 

Love the picture of the baby chicks, by the way! :)