Love2Smile Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 how is it working? Is it doable without the DVD's? Is it enjoyable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 I can't imagine why doing the history without the DVDs wouldn't be doable. The books are interestingly written (considering that they're textbooks, lol). My dd read them and did the assignments I gave her. The science would be way trickier for a non-science-y parent. I managed to find someone who taught biology to a small group of hsers, and they did all the labs and everything. Without her, probably science would just have waited until community college. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsbeth Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 I know several who've used BJU's 9th grade Geography course successfully. I'd imagine the history courses would be do-able as well. As far as science, we found the 7th gr. life tricky to do at home and we do have a strong science background. We plan to use BJU's Biology next year, but we'll be using DIVE along with it. Have you considered using DIVE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emily in IL Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 We've done Geography and now are doing World History, and plans for US next year. Wasn't my original plan, we've used TOG(older version), Notgrass, Sonlight....yep a curriculum junkie. Our middle son was just overwhelmed with all the readings, original resources and multiple sources to pull it all together was too much, and I loved all the books. So we switched to BJU with Geography and it went much smoother, no dvd's. I supplemented his literature with Sonlight, Notgrass and TOG recommendations and left him with only one text book ( the route I never thought we'd take in our journey) to get the overview and specifics. He's much happier with his history studies. Does much better on reading comprehension and seeing how it all fits together now. We just do a section on reading and answer the section review ?'s, do the worksheets with the lessons and spend a day on review/study guide and then a day for the test - when we planned it out it filled the year and if it was a lengthy reading then we split it into 2 days of reading. For science we do Apologia, though have friends who taught a coop class with BJU chemistry and also apologia and they much preferred the BJU text, done without the dvd classes. MFW uses BJU United States history for their 11th grade history spine. So it's doable. Probably more info than you needed. Emily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love2Smile Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 We've done Geography and now are doing World History, and plans for US next year. Wasn't my original plan, we've used TOG(older version), Notgrass, Sonlight....yep a curriculum junkie. Our middle son was just overwhelmed with all the readings, original resources and multiple sources to pull it all together was too much, and I loved all the books. So we switched to BJU with Geography and it went much smoother, no dvd's. I supplemented his literature with Sonlight, Notgrass and TOG recommendations and left him with only one text book ( the route I never thought we'd take in our journey) to get the overview and specifics. He's much happier with his history studies. Does much better on reading comprehension and seeing how it all fits together now. We just do a section on reading and answer the section review ?'s, do the worksheets with the lessons and spend a day on review/study guide and then a day for the test - when we planned it out it filled the year and if it was a lengthy reading then we split it into 2 days of reading. For science we do Apologia, though have friends who taught a coop class with BJU chemistry and also apologia and they much preferred the BJU text, done without the dvd classes. MFW uses BJU United States history for their 11th grade history spine. So it's doable. Probably more info than you needed. Emily No, that was very helpful! We are just at the point where we have to decide what to do...Sonlight or Textbook. *I* love SL, but my kids sometimes get overwhelmed by it, then I feel we are rushing thru just to get things read and not really learning along the way. I keep going back and forth. I'll have to make up my mind here pretty soon though. I am surprised that those you knew liked BJU better than Apologia AND were able to use it without the DVD's. That is encouraging Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Tried BJU Physics w/dvds, ducked out at 8 weeks, it was a lot.... I wouldn't attempt BJU sciences without dvds (except Earth, that was fine). We did BJU Geography w/o dvds, it was fine. This year we did World History w/o dvd, it was dry, and the dvd teacher isn't my favorite (the same as for Economics and Govt), we did govt and economics, ditched the dvds, govt. was ok, econ. wasn't my favorite, but there is a new book out now. We tried US, but ducked out and did a lighter version of Beautiful Feet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love2Smile Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 Tried BJU Physics w/dvds, ducked out at 8 weeks, it was a lot.... I wouldn't attempt BJU sciences without dvds (except Earth, that was fine).We did BJU Geography w/o dvds, it was fine. This year we did World History w/o dvd, it was dry, and the dvd teacher isn't my favorite (the same as for Economics and Govt), we did govt and economics, ditched the dvds, govt. was ok, econ. wasn't my favorite, but there is a new book out now. We tried US, but ducked out and did a lighter version of Beautiful Feet. Susan, How did you like BF for World/US history?? That is on my list of possiblilities! Isn't it a 2 year program? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love2Smile Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 Susan, What exactly did you not like about BJU's US history? Was it *too much info to absorb*?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love2Smile Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 Tried BJU Physics w/dvds, ducked out at 8 weeks, it was a lot.... I wouldn't attempt BJU sciences without dvds (except Earth, that was fine).We did BJU Geography w/o dvds, it was fine. This year we did World History w/o dvd, it was dry, and the dvd teacher isn't my favorite (the same as for Economics and Govt), we did govt and economics, ditched the dvds, govt. was ok, econ. wasn't my favorite, but there is a new book out now. We tried US, but ducked out and did a lighter version of Beautiful Feet. What about 7th grade life science? How is that one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 My son liked it. It is a lot of reading (about 40 pgs. a day). We called BF for suggestions to clip it down to one year. We read BJU US (before we ducked out), then Hakim up to the Civil War for review, then jumped into BF (and added the rest of Hakim for a spine). He is in college now, and says that he remembers what we did in BF, but not what we did in textbooks. I know some on this forum think it isn't "deep" enough, but I am seriously questioning how deep you can go with high schoolers anyway :) When he said he remembers the whole books better, that said a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love2Smile Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 My son liked it. It is a lot of reading (about 40 pgs. a day). We called BF for suggestions to clip it down to one year. We read BJU US (before we ducked out), then Hakim up to the Civil War for review, then jumped into BF (and added the rest of Hakim for a spine). He is in college now, and says that he remembers what we did in BF, but not what we did in textbooks. I know some on this forum think it isn't "deep" enough, but I am seriously questioning how deep you can go with high schoolers anyway :) When he said he remembers the whole books better, that said a lot! Thanks so much! BF is actually what I had planned maybe using instead of SL for my younger child. She is going into 7th grade and I got the Western Expansion and also waiting for them to come out with Calif history. They are both one. sem. courses. She could then use BF all the way thru. My 10th grader needs a good world history program so I was thinking of BJU or Notgrass. then move onto BF's World/American history for the last 2 years. I like the samples of Notgrass better than BJU. We could skip what we don't need. It just looks like it reads better and less textbooky. Still up in the air for science. It is my younger one's favorite subject, she loves it, so I was thinking of BJU's life science then Earth, and maybe move onto ACE for biology and Physical Science...too many choices! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Susan,What exactly did you not like about BJU's US history? Was it *too much info to absorb*?? I thought it was fine, but neither of my kids like it. Probably because I'm an adult with more "under my belt." I'm doing US next year, Tindall's is one possibility I'm looking at, there are nice online supplements on Norton's website. I also am considering repeating Hakim's with some BF books like I did for my son (except dd doesn't read quite as fast). BJU textbooks get the job done, but are a lot of dry facts. If you have a lot of other history under your belt, they might be a nice summary. But, even though I am Christian, I am starting to tire of texts being too Christian.... and BJU can get preachy, and leave out things you would like to cover. I just changed over to Human Odyssey, and they covered women's issues, Freud, etc. I am grateful for the exposure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 What about 7th grade life science? How is that one? I haven't done that one, but I will tell you that it looks hard enough (to me) to be high school... Not many agree with me, though. I don't think I would attempt it w/o dvds or DIVE. I had a hard time with BJU Science on DVD, it has a lot of books, text, t/e, lab, lab t/e, link papers and forms, and keys for them. The experiments are complex, they were hard to do at home with only me and one student. Tons of never ending paperwork. One plus, it was nice to have that science teacher... I like Apologia MUCH better for science. Much more homeschool friendly. I use virtualhomeschoolgroup.com for biology, and love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 so I was thinking of BJU's life science then Earth, and maybe move onto ACE for biology and Physical Science...too many choices! We did Earth w/o dvds, (but the teacher for that is great). But it was 11th grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emily in IL Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 we also enjoyed the teaching companies history dvd's with Lynwood Thompson I think it is. watch the site for a sale, they're always running them and our public library system also has them for checking out. Emily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janice in NJ Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 Don't mean to derail this thread, but I wanted to make sure that you knew about the Hippo Campus videos that line up with the Tindall text. A nice break from reading once in a while. :001_smile: http://www.hippocampus.org/?select-textbook=54 Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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