My soon to be 7th grader likes textbooks...

[Cheri Warren]

I am posting this here because I want to know if any of you have successfully used BJU for history from middle school on?

 

My youngest going into 7th grade does not like Lit based. She shutters at Sonlight and actually enjoys taking tests, fill in blanks, mapping etc..

 

We used Abeka for 6th grade and we could barely get thru it, in fact we did not.

 

I was thinking of starting her with Bob Jones 7th grade this year. Is it any better? Do kids do okay with textbook history? Is there anything wrong with it??? I looked at Notgrass, but it looks kinda boring. No pics or anything.

 

Or...I could "make her" do Sonlight and just cut the books WAY back...any suggestions?

[PeterPan]

You might consider doing the BJU dvd/online version with her. My dd particularly likes the BJU7 history. She watched quite a bit of it when we had some visiting friends in who were doing their schoolwork, and she enjoyed it GREATLY.

 

If you're not going to use the dvds, you might want to get the tm and have her read that as well or else discuss it with her. BJU stuff is meant to be teacher-driven and has the thought and meat in there.

[Cheri Warren]

You might consider doing the BJU dvd/online version with her. My dd particularly likes the BJU7 history. She watched quite a bit of it when we had some visiting friends in who were doing their schoolwork, and she enjoyed it GREATLY.

 

If you're not going to use the dvds, you might want to get the tm and have her read that as well or else discuss it with her. BJU stuff is meant to be teacher-driven and has the thought and meat in there.

We cannot afford the DVD's but I would get the whole curriculum package

[PeterPan]

You mean the whole grade level or the complete set (tm, student text, workbooks, etc.) for the history? You should compare the prices. Sometimes people get confused and don't realize the dvd/online prices INCLUDE the textbooks. The dvd price is the textbooks and the tm's, which of course you can then resell. So if you're buying new, the dvd's end up marginally more. It's at least worth number crunching. If you find the stuff used, obviously there's a bigger savings.

 

I'm a history hater myself, and I did ok with the BJU history the couple years I was in a cs. As you say, a textbook is a really concrete way of approaching a huge subject with a big picture learner. You might have a couple other options. Have you thought of doing a Great Books study? Veritas Press publishes Omnibus, which uses Spielvogel (textbook) as a spine for the history part. The Fran Rutherford guides (Questions for Thinkers) are very concrete. She'd probably survive if you did a textbook and then added in some of the SL books onto that. It's just that certain people, big picture learners, never develop a framework and see that big picture if you don't have something concrete and finite. It doesn't matter if that's a study guide with questions or the VP memory cards or what.

 

Just as an interesting alternative, you could cover all the VP history cards in a year. They're very concrete, something a history hater can really wrap their brain around, but it gives you that ability to bring in literature, etc. VP is offering a Transitions history class online this fall where they cover all the cards in one year. I think the first class filled up, but there might be a second.

[3andme]

Have you looked at the textbook Human Odyssey from K12? This seems to be a very popular option for middle school history on the k-8 boards. Although designed to be used with the K12 online program, you can just purchase the accompanying Teacher and Student guides from ebay/amazon and adapt them for your own use.

[ListmakerMel]

I am posting this here because I want to know if any of you have successfully used BJU for history from middle school on?

 

My youngest going into 7th grade does not like Lit based. She shutters at Sonlight and actually enjoys taking tests, fill in blanks, mapping etc..

 

We used Abeka for 6th grade and we could barely get thru it, in fact we did not.

 

I was thinking of starting her with Bob Jones 7th grade this year. Is it any better? Do kids do okay with textbook history? Is there anything wrong with it??? I looked at Notgrass, but it looks kinda boring. No pics or anything.

 

Or...I could "make her" do Sonlight and just cut the books WAY back...any suggestions?

 

I used Sonlight with my DD and DS who are two years apart up until two years ago. The first year after we stopped Sonlight I did my own thing for History and Science (just for DD, DS used Apologia) just picking and choosing from the many books we already owned and hadn't read yet. It was okay and they learned alot, but it was a ton of work on my part.

 

The next year (last year) my DS told me he wanted tests (?!) so I looked at textbook curriculum. I bought Abeka for my DD who was in 7th last year and Bob Jones for my DS who was in 9th (DS used Apologia again - did really well with it) so I could see the differences and what I'd like to go with in the future. Bob Jones won. I didn't use the teacher book and it was fine, but this year I did get the teacher books and I think it will be better.

 

I was so impressed with BJ history that I bought the literature books for next year as well. I did the same pick-and-choose for lit last year which was okay, but not great, so I'm extremely happy with my BJ choice. HTH

[PeterPan]

Just to add on the lit thing, I got the BJU lit 7 to use with dd last year, and it was a nice choice. What we did was buy the whole books that the sources came from. You can't do that for EVERYTHING in the book, but for a lot of it you can. What I liked about it was the variety in genre, writing style, etc. It exposed her to authors she wouldn't have found otherwise, and she made some new favorites! It was such a good move for us, I'm thinking about doing the same thing with the lit 8.

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

We've used lots of BJU texts over the years. We've never done "everything" and have always tweaked the assignments to fit us. Last year my 9th grade son mostly read the Geography book.

 

My kids actually like textbooks too. One dd loves workbooks even.

 

Textbooks are wonderful to own for this main reason: When life hits hard homeschooling can continue.... Just read the next chapter or do the next lesson.:)

[southcarolinamom]

We used BJUP curriculum until a few years ago, and then switched to Sonlight, b/c BJUP history and lit books got boring to them. They love learning the literature method, even though school takes longer!

 

My son used BJUP 7th grade World History - it was a perfect fit for him - not too much, not too little. We also tweaked his assignments and workbook activities. It was a solid year of history.

 

The 8th grade American History got kind of boring. We both liked their 7th grade level better.

[momtotkbb]

I have resisted textbooks --but my dd loves them and workbooks. I have tried ABeka and BJU and in our house BJU wins hands down. I let her use the 4th-6th grade BJU and supplemented w/ SL and she was in heaven. For 7th and 8th I went back to WP and SL and she wasn't as happy --like WP better though. This year for 9th she begged to go back to BJU so I bought the geography --I have to say I'm impressed with it. I will still supplement some w/ living books and projects --but I'm resigned to letting her do what fits her style even though it's not mine.

 

For what it's worth --the 8th grade Am History text has been re-done and I've heard from others that they really like the revision.

 

Their science texts are really meaty too if you're looking for science. We like them much better than Apologia--but I'm going w/ PH this year. DD thinks it doesn't look as good --but I wanted secular.

[Cheri Warren]

Thank you all, this is very encouraging!

 

Now I am torn between BJU and Notgrass! The notgrass new middle school program looks excellent! May use that for 8th grade, then use BJU for 9th, geography, and then decide between Notgrass and BJU! Decisions, decisions!