My ds is using BJU 6 this year. I am very pleased with the course. I use it as a spine do add quite a bit, though. I went through SOTW and coordinated the chapters to match up with his BJU readings. He is also reading Sonlight 6's readers and read alouds to supplement the text. It is not difficult to add outside resources as the BJU course is not a year long course. I am mostly hands off with it, but he does come to me each day after his reading, and we go over the comprehension questions in the teacher's guide together. I don't have him outline the text (he's doing that with BJU Science), but he does use the worktext. It is certainly a Christian text, and it is written from a Biblical worldview. Most of the Biblical applications are in the teacher's guide, though, so your student would not necessarily have interaction with all of those ideas unless you introduced them. (I use them, but I'm sure there are those who do not.) Overall, BJU gets two thumbs up from our house. HTH.

This is a fascinating discussion for me. When I read this on Dr. Shormann's website, it seemed like he was asking the students to read the text first, before the lecture... How to use the syllabus: DO NOT PRINT it out, use it from the computer so that you can just click on the Internet links to open them, as opposed to having to type them in by hand. First, determine what assignment(s) are scheduled, then use this syllabus to determine what textbook pages to read and/or Internet sources to study. Complete your definitions, then watch your lecture, take notes, and complete your review questions. Also, on the printed assignment sheets, it says: Assignment: 1. Read textbook pages corresponding to this topic. 2. Define the following terms.... etc. 3. Watch the lecture and take notes. 4. Complete review questions, and check answers. My son is just following Dr. Shormann's own order given in his syllabus. I just assumed that he wanted the students to have some background information before watching the lecture. That's why I still believe that the text ultimately drives the course; it's their first exposure to the information. Also, I believe Dr. Shormann originally made all of his videos corresponding to specific texts (primarily Saxon and BJU), so I think those books were the original driving force behind his own lectures; it just makes sense. For example, if you look at all of his science syllabi, they correspond perfectly with BJU 2nd edition texts. I understand that he probably supplemented a bit, but the majority of the information came from the texts themselves.

Yes, I am using the new syllabus. I don't know that I want a supplement to BJU, but I do think the text tends to drive the course, just because that is what the student is exposed to first. For example, my son may study chapter 7 of the text on Monday-Wednesday, watch the video on Thursday, and complete the lab on Friday. If the video was truly driving the course, he would probably need to watch that first, but of course that would not work with these videos. Of course, the labs and exams are based on both the text and the lectures, so if that's what you mean by driving the course, I completely agree with you. I tend to be a really linear thinker and I am sure that some of that has rubbed off on my son. The more orderly a program/curriculum is, the easier it is for us to use. But DIVE has met our need for this year, and I think overall it's a really good program, especially paired with the BJU text. Thanks for your thoughts.

I can only speak to physical science. My son is using DIVE with the newest edition of the BJU books. He likes the lectures, but the fact that the new book does not line up with the video is really bothersome to him. He says it feels too disjointed to be studying part of chapter 3 and then part of chapter 16 in the same week. He doesn't know yet if he prefers the quarterly exams or traditional chapter tests. He took his first exam yesterday and it was okay. He spent a week studying for it, but he didn't realize that he needed all of the computations memorized so he ended up with a B. An A was easily within his grasp, though. I think he has pretty good understanding of the material. The labs are really good. I bought the kit through Nature's Plus (though I surely could have saved some money piecing it together myself), and that makes the labs very easy to pull together. Lab day usually has the whole family crowded around the table fighting over the blow torch. The schedule is great. I really like how Dr. Shormann organized the material so that there are a couple of days to study, a day for the video, and then lab day on Friday. It fits our school week really well. The new BJU text is fabulous. My son completed Apologia Physical Science last year, but he is learning so much more with the BJU Physical Science text. I do have him complete all of the section reviews, though Dr. Shormann does not assign them; that helps cement his understanding. I must say that if this was his first pass through physical science, I would definitely have wanted him to use the BJU videos instead. This is a tough text (at least for us) and I don't know that one 25 minute lecture per week would have been enough. As a matter of fact, I am planning on using the BJU videos for Biology next year as he never had a life science course. All in all, I'm glad we bought DIVE for this year. My son has a really full schedule this year and the DIVE videos are just enough supplement for him without taking over the whole day. Like I said, though, if it was all new material, I would want something more thorough. HTH.

My ds is working through Ch. 4 of Foerster's Algebra 1. He has struggled through all of the word problems and now, towards the end of the section, he is finally starting to "get it". I would like him to practice on many more problems before he takes the chapter test. Any ideas of where I can find some? Thanks.

Well, it's not elementary, but my ds just started Science 6 w/Mrs. Vick and it's a huge hit! Yesterday as he was reading his text book, he commented about how interested it is and hopes that the rest of the book/course will be just as good. Two thumbs up!

I don't know if you'd be interested in an online course, but my ds is really enjoying BJU French 1 online this year. It is a very traditional class/book and Madame Anderson is an excellent teacher. HTH.

Unless she's already had prealgebra, I would not do it. My ds took that course in 8th grade while concurrently taking prealgebra and the math heavy chapters were very hard for him. HTH.

Well, we are only a couple of weeks into it, like I said, but so far so good. I am doing most of it along with him. He does the Music and Moments With the Masters on his own and some of the Adventures in Art on his own. We do the readings separately, but I am trying to keep up with him so that we can at least talk about it a bit. My plan is to have him do the majority of the curriculum on his own with me available for just a bit of discussion. I anticipate that his dad will do a lot of the philosophy with him as my dh really enjoys that topic. Schaeffer's works are a bit tough (for us, anyway), but I've found with some careful reading and notetaking, it is coming along. I'm learning so much and I know my ds is, too. Overall, I think it's a fabulous curriculum. We did Starting Points last year and just loved it (well, my dh did it with him and a few other students) and WVWW was the next logical step. David Quine has a way of really making the students think and while sometimes his open-ended questions can be a bit frustrating, I think it's a very effective way of helping the students to internalize the material and to come to their own conclusions. Some people complain about it not having an "answer guide", but I think an answer key would defeat the purpose. The students need to arrive at their own conclusions about the material and Quine's questions really help them to do that. I haven't found an answer key to be necessary. Let me know if you have any other questions. I'm still a novice, but I'll help if I can.

We started it a couple of weeks ago and it looks like it will probably average about 2 hrs. per day for my fast reader.

Very nice! Thanks for sharing your hard work!

I haven't looked at the BJU 7 text very closely, but my inclination would be to do the class with the BJU 7 text (plus the great labs and extras) and call it "Intro. to Biology", and then another year pick up BJU's Biology or Apologia's Advanced Biology and call it "Advanced Biology". (Actually, I would lean towards BJU just because it encompasses more... perhapes even use the DIVE CDs as they are considered honors level courses.) In other words, I like your original plan; I would just alter the title and make sure to supplement. What are your goals for her? Is the knowledge learned more important than the transcript descriptions? Or do you just want to check a box, so to speak? (I do realize there are times when we just need to jump through the hoops, but is this one of those times?) I personally would utilize the great teacher along the with corresponding curriculum (while you can!), knowing that a useful foundation was being laid for further Biology studies. But that's just me... :) And yes, you can have more than one science credit per year. Lots of people do.

It's a lot cheaper to buy a roll of magnet tape and apply it to the backs of the letters. It also works better as you can use a bigger piece than each of those little tiny magnets. HTH

Heather, You may want to look into Bontech Supplements. My ds has been using them for 6 years and they're highly effective. Also, the stress of being teased at school probably made his tics worse and I am confident that homeschooling will help him next year. Blessings to you. http://www.bonniegr.com/

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I didn't grade the OYO questions. I kept it simple: Tests- 50%, Labs- 25%, Notebook- 25%. As for the study guides, if my son got less than 80%, I required him to redo it. That helped with the tests. HTH.

I have no experience with Omnibus, but my son used Starting Points this year and it was fabulous. My husband led a SP co-op consisting of 4 boys. The co-op format aided the discussion, of course, and it was also helpful for time management. My son took this class during 8th grade and I think it was the perfect time to do it. I am so glad that he has this information "under his belt" before he begins high school. Some of the readings were quite easy (Narnia, for example) and some were more difficult (Mere Christianity, Assumptions, etc.), and that made for a nice mix. David Quine does a nice job of leading the students through a self-discovery of thought, if that makes any sense. I believe this program has taught my son the importance of thinking from a biblical worldview. At least, it has laid a great foundation and started him on the journey. Hope that helps.

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

Well, I haven't for those levels, but I am planning on using BJU 6 with my son next year and he will add Sonlight 6 readers and read alouds to his studies. You may want to check their catalog along with VP, MFW, etc. and glean some ideas from there. HTH.

This is my tentative plan for my upcoming 6th grader. Hope it helps. Bible: Awana T&T Yr. 4 Math: Rod and Staff 6 English: Rod and Staff 6 and AAS 4 Latin: Finish Getting Started With Latin and LL1 or FF1 History: BJU 6 w/SOTW and Sonlight 6 readers Science: The Elements and Bite Size Physics Music: Violin and Piano Art: How Great Thou Art Typing: Typing Instructor Deluxe P.E.: Swim Team

:iagree: Very good advice here!! These stories sound eerily similar to my own. For my ds, he completed Ch.10 of Chalkdust, but his grades were not to my satisfaction. He is now breezing through Rod and Staff 8 and he'll pick up Algebra 1 in the fall. I bet if you found a high school level prealgebra book (as opposed to college level) and had him work through it, he would do well and it would build his confidence back up. If he works hard over the summer, he may surprise you and be ready for Algebra next year.

You might consider looking at David Quine's Worldviews of the Western World. He covers several classics each year. I've linked the first year: Bible and the Ancient Thought. There are samples on his website. http://www.cornerstonecurriculum.com/Curriculum/wvww/wvww1.htm

because we are doing this next year, too! I hope you get some answers.

We like Dana Mosley, but my ds needs more review in a math curriculum that Chalkdust provides. Also, there are a lot of problems in each lesson and I prefer more white space on the page rather than telling my ds to complete only the odd problems. ymmv

BJU's Space and Earth may be an option for you.