apple4 Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Wondering what you thought of this program? Did your children enjoy it? Did they learn? Did you follow the teacher's manual and were the lessons long? We are using CLE and I really like it but do wish it taught more conceptually. Our girls really liked it at the beginning of the year but as the year goes on, math is becoming problematic. I may still use it and add in MUS somehow but was thinking about BJ. I like how they teach but it does not have as much review as I would like. On the other hand my girls would love the color pages. Any thoughts would be great. Thank you! Amy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 19, 2011 Share Posted May 19, 2011 We used BJU in the prior editions and liked it, but we're liking Math Mammoth even more. It too would fit your criteria. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homeschooling6 Posted May 19, 2011 Share Posted May 19, 2011 Wondering what you thought of this program? Did your children enjoy it? Did they learn? Did you follow the teacher's manual and were the lessons long? We are using CLE and I really like it but do wish it taught more conceptually. Our girls really liked it at the beginning of the year but as the year goes on, math is becoming problematic. I may still use it and add in MUS somehow but was thinking about BJ. I like how they teach but it does not have as much review as I would like. On the other hand my girls would love the color pages. Any thoughts would be great. Thank you! Amy I used it this year and really enjoyed teaching it. It took a few weeks for me to get use to it and sometimes I had to reread the lesson. I had a few light bulb moments myself using the 4th grade book:001_huh:. I have used what I learned with my other children too (using different maths). I am using it with Caleb, and yes he enjoyed it (as much as one can a school subject :D). No complaints. Yes, I followed the TM. I takes me 20-30 minutes to teach, then I have Caleb, do his worksheet on his own. I actually like the review pages better than the workbook because on the front is the days lesson and on the back are previous days lessons. The workbook page has a lot from the days lesson. I usually have my son do the front page of the workbook and the back page of the review page. Other times I'll teach from the front page of the workbook page and have Caleb, use the review page on his own. Caleb, will use grade 5 next year. I'm debating about using BJ4 again with Brent, but am not sure because he's using TT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted May 19, 2011 Share Posted May 19, 2011 Wondering what you thought of this program? I love BJU Math in general, but the fourth grade (yes, third edition) did not seem as well organized as the others. The biggest problem was saving two digit divisor long division until the spring when kids' brains are outside. I recommend anybody who uses this program should go straight from the first chapter on division to the last chapter on division, maybe every other day with some of the measurement or geometry chapters. (we actually do our own homemade spiral, front of a division page/front of measurement or geometry one day then the corresponding backs the next). I didn't plan far enough ahead to realize what the date would be when he hit that dramatic difficult two digit divisor concept. They also did not plan the chapter well. "Adjusting the quotient" up or down was the third to last lesson in the chapter, but problems requiring adjusting the quotient appeared on five lessons prior to that lesson. The TM kept saying to skip those problems. :confused: Did your children enjoy it? My oldest ds claims to hate math, so no, but that's his fault not the fault of BJU Math. Did they learn?Yes, I am very impressed with his progress. He generally makes 100% or a high A on tests. Did you follow the teacher's manual and were the lessons long? No, I used the TM when ds wasn't "getting it" from the examples in the worktext. In those cases the lessons were fairly long but not unreasonable. I am going to TT for this son next year. He placed in TT6. I hope it makes math more enjoyable for him since he will be using his beloved computer to complete it and won't be subjected to <gasp> listening to Mom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsMe Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 Wondering what you thought of this program?I love BJU Math in general, but the fourth grade (yes, third edition) did not seem as well organized as the others. The biggest problem was saving two digit divisor long division until the spring when kids' brains are outside. I recommend anybody who uses this program should go straight from the first chapter on division to the last chapter on division, maybe every other day with some of the measurement or geometry chapters. (we actually do our own homemade spiral, front of a division page/front of measurement or geometry one day then the corresponding backs the next). I didn't plan far enough ahead to realize what the date would be when he hit that dramatic difficult two digit divisor concept. They also did not plan the chapter well. "Adjusting the quotient" up or down was the third to last lesson in the chapter, but problems requiring adjusting the quotient appeared on five lessons prior to that lesson. The TM kept saying to skip those problems. :confused: It's funny you mention this Snowwhite. But, what's funny is that 3rd does the same thing. The larger digit Multiplication and Divison is coming NOW! The last two chapters of the entire program. Good grief! So I skipped geometry so we could get a start on multiplication and division prior to changing to CLE. I also threw in a metric page chapter and thought that this is a good way to spiral. We did a multiplication page (one side) and a metric page (one side) and thought this was good too! And...I agree we didn't do division for quite some time. So I think the gaps in the lessons of multiplication and division are a bit large at the end of 3 as well before it swings around a bit. BJU is a great program though...just mentioning the Mom-made spiral. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 Weird, we had BJU 3 last year and I totally did not notice. We finished earlier in the year I think, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 :bigear: Interesting about the sequence. Ds is in BJU 3 now, and I'm using CLE 3 for some spiral review and speed drills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apple4 Posted May 20, 2011 Author Share Posted May 20, 2011 You say you are switching to CLE. Why are you doing so? I really do like CLE. I have used Making Math Meaningful, MUS, some Singapore with our older boys and I did RS with these girls before switching to CLE. I never thought I would go to a more traditional program but I am finding they really need that review. I just feel the need to add more (please realilze that this is me and how I like to teach math). With CLE it has been neat to see things that were hard for them at one time, be easy now. But they needed time for it to get that way so a program without lots of review may not be so good for them. With BJ I was thinking that if I got the DVD's and they had another person teaching it that they may retain more and be able to do well with it. Appreciate everyones comments. Amy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsMe Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 You say you are switching to CLE. Why are you doing so? I really do like CLE. I have used Making Math Meaningful, MUS, some Singapore with our older boys and I did RS with these girls before switching to CLE. I never thought I would go to a more traditional program but I am finding they really need that review. I just feel the need to add more (please realilze that this is me and how I like to teach math). With CLE it has been neat to see things that were hard for them at one time, be easy now. But they needed time for it to get that way so a program without lots of review may not be so good for them. With BJ I was thinking that if I got the DVD's and they had another person teaching it that they may retain more and be able to do well with it. Appreciate everyones comments. Amy I am switching for the pure sake of 1) money 2) simplicity. I like how it all works and I think it's a great program. But this year I need to simplify some things and I'm sort of tired of all the visuals & Charts needed and it's are starting to make my head spin. Many times I can teach without them, but sometimes I have to. I can't always tell how they're teaching the concept unless I read through the TM and at times it's important on how they do it, because they'll use the same info to move up to the next level. But I think it's a complete program and I'll return if CLE doesn't work out. It's a little freaky for me, because I planned to use the DVD's in a few years...maybe I won't have to if I use CLE. Mom isn't mathy.:tongue_smilie: And I only noticed what Snowwhite said about the problems probably because we're behind and haven't hit it yet. But I'd rather do multiplication and division before geometry and metrics. I hate the latter immensely. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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