"History"/Geography for next year.

[Hoggirl]

I am looking at two options right now.

 

1) BJU Geography

 

2) Abeka Geography (1 semester), Notgrass Gov't (1 semester)

 

Ds will only be in grade 8. Would he be able to "handle" the Notgrass Government? I am considering this b/c I am thinking of using their World History in Grade 9 and their American History in Grade 10, and I thought this would give us a "taste" of it.

 

I was considering MFW ECC, but ds has not been keen on using a "piecemeal" (meaning, read a little of this, read a little of that from a variety of books) approach. Although I do think Geography might be conducive to that method - more so than history maybe.

 

Any thoughts?

[Quiver0f10]

My Ds is finished with the Notgrass Government. If you want to look through it let me know.

[Alphabetika]

We're slogging through the BJU geography right now with a 10th grader. We tweak it a lot, but it's still a lot of information. Whew! I'm not sure why it's called "Cutural Geography," either. It skims over the top of culture when it even gets to it. It's a good course, I think, but it's not exactly what I imagined when I think of cultural geography. So, if you do this, one, be prepared for either LOTS of info and a pretty shallow presentation, or lots of tweaking.

[Chris in PA]

:iagree:

I am using BJU Geopgraphy with my dd's 9th and 11th grade. It has been a real challenge. Biggest complaint: They take good notes, complete the study guides in the activity manual and study. They take the tests and do what I consider poor. The tests seem to focus in on obscure pieces of info and it is very frustrating. We have had to tweak it here as well.

[Hoggirl]

We're slogging through the BJU geography right now with a 10th grader. We tweak it a lot, but it's still a lot of information. Whew! I'm not sure why it's called "Cutural Geography," either. It skims over the top of culture when it even gets to it. It's a good course, I think, but it's not exactly what I imagined when I think of cultural geography. So, if you do this, one, be prepared for either LOTS of info and a pretty shallow presentation, or lots of tweaking.

 

My friend who tried BJU this year said it was a HUGE fact cram.

[Love2Smile]

Isn't all BJU and Abeka curriculums huge fact crams! LOL

My dd did Abeka's one sem. Geography and it was a huge fact cram/waste of time in my opinion. Lots of useless info and weird things on the test

I cannot recommend it to anyone

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

:iagree:

 

I do like the BJU book. Along with some very tedious, completely unimportant, tiny bits of information we've found several nuggets that were very interesting.

 

I don't think it is important to memorize all those tedious facts (even the interesting ones). Tests have become open book and are mainly used for the purpose of teaching study skills.

[yinne]

My dd used BJU Geography last year. I found it incredibly boring, but she enjoyed it--she liked all those facts:001_smile:

 

However other than the chapters on the Northern Hemisphere I made all tests open book. I just did not see a good reason to learn all those facts.

 

Yvonne in NE

[Alphabetika]

:iagree:

 

I do like the BJU book. Along with some very tedious, completely unimportant, tiny bits of information we've found several nuggets that were very interesting.

 

I don't think it is important to memorize all those tedious facts (even the interesting ones). Tests have become open book and are mainly used for the purpose of teaching study skills.

 

Yes, I have to agree that we've found some very interesting tidbits, too. I don't have my dd memorize any of it, to be honest. We don't do the little quizzes or tests or even the activity book. I didn't even order it, because I knew we wouldn't get to it. Right now all we're trying to do is get through the reading and do some mapwork. We also watch foreign movies from as many countries as we can, because this is a good way to get a feel for the cultures and often to see glimpses of the countries (at the moment, we're only watching a movie every two weeks or so, but our Netflix queue is full of them - great resource!). I would like to also watch travel DVDs but we haven't had time. And I also had visions of reading literature from many of the countries, but (you guessed it) we haven't worked that in either.

 

Obviously, this is our fault, not BJU's fault. I had visions of using this text as a spine for these other things, but I wasn't realistic about it. This is my first experience using a "big box" curriculum and it's an eye-opener. We are also using BJU biology this year and finding the same thing. The difference between what's in the text and what's on DIVE CD is enormous. BJU seems like a very rigorous, but sometimes time-guzzling, education.

 

 

Oops, got off topic, but maybe this will help someone make a decision.

[saved1112]

Obviously, this is our fault, not BJU's fault. I had visions of using this text as a spine for these other things, but I wasn't realistic about it. This is my first experience using a "big box" curriculum and it's an eye-opener. We are also using BJU biology this year and finding the same thing. The difference between what's in the text and what's on DIVE CD is enormous. BJU seems like a very rigorous, but sometimes time-guzzling, education.

 

 

Oops, got off topic, but maybe this will help someone make a decision.

 

This helped me make a decision!

I already have the BJU Geography text. I'll just make it available for reference.