BJU online: Can anyone explain this to me, in detail?

[Lang Syne Boardie]

I think I can help my tutored student be prepared enough to use this service for the rest of her homeschool career (starting in the fall of 2013). The perspective would be a good fit for her family, and I could know she was getting a solid education after my year with her (even though I wouldn't use BJU because the perspective doesn't fit my family at all, and I don't want to debate about it because this is not my kid).

 

The questions:

 

1. How much parental involvement is needed on a day-to-day basis? Please be very thorough in answering this. She doesn't have parental academic support, but her parents do care how she's doing in her school. They will make sure she has the time to study, but they won't be able to help her with her homework at all. I am willing to remain on the job as a mentor, if it would work out for me to purchase the optional support materials. (I don't live in her state, but right now I'm teaching her full-time.) I'm hoping the teachers manage the class so well that parents aren't really needed, because isn't that the point of an online school? She is a very motivated and responsible student. Thoughts?

 

2. Are there hidden costs? It looks to be about $1000/yr including books, but I didn't see anything about science lab kits, etc.

 

3. I saw that students are allowed to substitute up or down a grade level, for two subjects. My student will need to drop two levels down for math and science, but if I'm understanding correctly she may do so as long as all of her courses are within the 7-12th grade range. Do I have that right? Will they charge extra to make those substitutions?

 

4. How long is the school day, and how long does homework take?

 

Anything else I should know? Thanks very, very, very much for any information about this!

Edited September 28, 2012 by Tibbie Dunbar 2.0

[ccm]

My daughter used the BJU DVD's from ninth to eleventh grade for some subjects. I was working part-time, so she did some of the subjects on her own on the days I was working. I would go over the work when I returned home in the evening, but I relied on the DVD instructor to teach dd the material on those days.

 

Lab kits would be an additional cost.

 

I think you are correct about the substitutions. Full grade online kits may substitute up or down 1 or 2 grade levels in grades 7-12. Maximum of 2 substitutions.

 

Some classes run 30 minutes while others are 45. Even though the Writing & Grammar and Literature lessons were only 30 minutes long, the instructor had the student stop and do an exercise, so lesson time was longer. My daughter was an extremely slow worker, so I can't tell you a reasonable estimate on how long the homework takes to complete.

 

Hopefully others will be chiming in to give you more detailed information.

Edited September 29, 2012 by ccm

[Snoopytwo]

Tibbie,

 

My daughter took Spanish from BJU online last year so I'll try to answer some of your questions.

 

1. Parental involvment - BJU does manage the classes. They do all the grading. However, time management is the students responsibility. The student can log on to complete their work at any time, moving as fast or as slowly as needed. I believe the student has 13 months to complete the course. My daughter completed Spanish totally on her own.

 

2. Hidden costs - There was not any hidden cost with Spanish. Science might be different depending on the labs. I have a friend who does BJU satellite school and I think she buy her labs from Home Science Tools.

 

3. Substitutions - I don't know the answer to this one. You might have to call and ask.

 

4.Day Length - Their classes are at least 45 minutes long plus the student then has worksheets, homework, etc after that. I have no idea how long the paper/bookwork takes.

 

My friend who does total BJU said her 11th grade daughter works from early in the morning to 5:00 at night. Now, this girl does her violin and piano practice during this time also. She is a very bright, disciplined student. Hopefully, that will give you some idea to go on.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Thank you both so much! Exactly the info I was looking for. Thanks.

[Hockey Mom]

We moved away from DLO this year because my boys were getting bored with the video instruction. We're still using BJU, just not the videos. That said, I did a blog on DLO a couple of years ago that details what you can expect (with screen shots).

 

http://arkofcovington.com/wp/?p=771

 

My boys did DLO from K-3rd grade, and the time involved varied. Generally speaking, with the videos, we spent anywhere from 4-6 hours a day.

 

1. You can be as hands-on or off as you want to be. The program is very thorough, and the grade kits include everything needed to do the class.

 

2. If you want to participate in the snacks, or science labs, then yes, you will spend more. I bought science kits from Home Science Tools, but really, we rarely used the supplies. This was mostly because the labs are done during the lesson, and the teacher shows you step by step how the experiments are done.

 

3. Yes, I believe you can drop down or level up with two of your courses. I would call them prior to ordering to just make sure.

 

4. We didn't do homework because our class day was long enough. If we didn't skip or fast-forward through any of the lessons, it took us about 6 hours to get through the day.

 

Even without the video instruction, it's taking us about 5-6 hours to complete the lessons. The bulk of that time is science experiments. We LOVE science here! :)

[ccm]

We moved away from DLO this year because my boys were getting bored with the video instruction. We're still using BJU, just not the videos. That said, I did a blog on DLO a couple of years ago that details what you can expect (with screen shots).

 

http://arkofcovington.com/wp/?p=771

Awesome blog post, Hockey Mom! We only used the DVD format, but I was curious about how the online worked. Thanks for sharing.