Questions Re: BJU Life Science (DVDs)

[Wonder]

I'm leaning more and more towards BJU Life Science (DVD) for my 7th grade DD next year.  I really like the idea of handing the teaching of science over to someone besides me. :)  

 

Some questions I have:

 

1. I will also have two 4th graders.  Has anyone included youngers with a junior high kiddo?  And, if so, how did that look?  I think they would enjoy watching the DVDs as well, and I was thinking of just having them do some notebooking pages to go with it, plus reading other books.

 

2. How much time per day does this course take?  

 

3. How much of the entire course did your child do?  Can you skip certain things or not?

 

4. Did you purchase a lab kit of some kind?  From BJU?  I'm seeing a dissection kit on the BJU website, but I'm not sure if it "goes" with the Life Science DVDs. 

 

5. What did you and your child(ren) think of the course?

 

 

[Peaceful Isle]

My dd did the 8th grade distance learning science. She loved her teacher and learned a lot.

 

I would say that their life science course would be way too much for a fourth grader. Maybe you could get the sixth grade science to use for all of them ?

Edited May 1, 2016 by Peacefulisle

[Mrs Twain]

I don't think his course would work unless the student is participating fully, especially by doing all of the reading in the textbook. Therefore I would not recommend trying to include younger kids just to listen in. The level is too high.

 

However, I have my fifth grader doing the full life science course. She is a very good science student and is thinking about become a research scientist. If you have a younger kid who really wants to take this course and be challenged, then I think could be fine.

[Wonder]

Thanks for the replies so far.  We really want to focus on Life Science, so I don't think jumping back to 6th grade BJU would work.  I'm guess I'm just confused as to why it wouldn't be beneficial for the youngers to watch the DVDs, read some library books, do notebooking, etc.??  

 

Anyone else have anything to share?  Can anyone answer the other questions in my first post?

[Mrs Twain]

I am ordering the dissection kit now for my kids to finish out the year with Life Science.

 

At first it took them about an hour per day to complete all of the work.  Now that they are more efficient at taking notes and doing the assignments, they usually spend about 45 minutes per day.  They spend more time on test days because they study the whole chapter, take the test, and then watch a 15-minutes introduction to the next chapter. 

 

I assigned my kids some of the lessons prior to the school year so that we could finish the whole course by mid-June since there are so many lessons.

 

I will have a rising fourth grader, and next year she will continue with Mystery Science (online science instruction) plus reading science library books.  www.mysteryscience.com

 

[Wonder]

I will have a rising fourth grader, and next year she will continue with Mystery Science (online science instruction) plus reading science library books.  www.mysteryscience.com

Thanks, Mrs. Twain.  I went to check Mystery Science out - is a homeschool price listed somewhere (can't find one)?  It's listed at $499.

[Mrs Twain]

Thanks, Mrs. Twain.  I went to check Mystery Science out - is a homeschool price listed somewhere (can't find one)?  It's listed at $499.

 

Homeschool (one household) is $129 annually.

My daughter loves this program and does it almost independently.

https://mysteryscience.com/pricing