BJU DISTANCE LEARNING||HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM UPDATE||WHAT I REALLY THINK
Vložit
- čas přidán 30. 12. 2020
- #bjupress #homeschool #curriculum
You guys have been asking me for my thoughts on BJU Press distance learning homeschool curriculum. So here it is. Today I am sharing what we like and what we haven't, and if I'd use it again.
Get my honest opinion as well as my daughters. Hope this helps you guys, if you have any other questions post them in the comments and I will get back to you!
Go check my NEW* website out: www.graceandgrit.shop
Lets Connect: / ashlee_graceandgrit
For business/collab/partnership inquiries: awilliams@mail.org
Shop all my favorite things:
www.amazon.com/shop/graceandgrit
Please like* comment* and subscribe* to help support my channel!
~Ashlee
FTC DISCLAIMER:
*this video is not sponsored, As always all opinions expressed are my own.
As a mom of one who has finished high school and another who is almost done, I want to encourage you in your desire to interact with your kids during their high school years. For the beginning of my oldest child’s high school years, we continued to do some subjects together but by his junior year, he and his sister who was a freshman split off and started doing most subjects on their own. While it did work out okay, doing that was one of my biggest regrets of my homeschooling experience. It changed the dynamic of our homeschool and I regret that.
Thank you for sharing! I appreciate your honesty and will definitely take your advice!
@@mitzifox4601, i am glad you found my advice helpful!
Love watching these videos. Especially like knowing more specifically what kids think about certain curriculums. We are no where near high school but it gives me a sense of peace seeing someone further along navigating all the challenges and such 😍
This was a great video for later years schooling options. Can always count on you for honest, realistic reviews. So thankful for that! Chatting homeschool update videos are one of my favorites!
I always appreciate your honest reviews.
Always enjoy your homeschool chats. Keep them up especially these middle and high years.
Love these kinds of videos! I completely agree with you in that BJUP needs to update the videography. My son could not get through British Lit with them, primarily for that reason. Their high school science and history is top notch! My daughter took their chemistry and then got a 97 in college chemistry as a 17 year old. BJUP definitely prepared her for upper level sciences in college!
I’d love to see more of these videos of curriculum you choose for your older children. I have an 8th grader too. Even though I have graduated one and will graduate another this spring, I’m always looking at other options because, like you said, what works for one child won’t necessarily work for another.
Hope your family had a Happy New Years!
Thank you! Your reviews are really helpful, especially for older grades.
Im all about your homeschool chats...especially once updates are out for a bit. I hope tgatb has middle n high school all subjects eventually. Im happy I can watch your ride first!!!
Been waiting for this one! Would love more chatty homeschool updates!!!
Yes updates are always appreciated. Even if opinions differ, it’s great to see/hear parent and students experiences. Especially for high school!!!
Always appreciate your reviews. I am so thankful we live in an age where there are so many options.
Yes!
Love your chatty update videos and your makeup looks amazing !!
This video was very helpful! My daughter is in 7th this year and it will help me know what to look at for the next school year!
Love your videos! We are currently using Algebra 1 for my middle schooler. Not distance learning tho, I am teaching it. Their teacher’s guide is very thorough, makes it extremely easy to teach. :)
This review was wonderful and echoes a lot of my own feelings about BJU, I attempted Kinder with BJU and it was just awful for my sons, the videos were 17-20 mins long per lesson, my sons were checking out. I figured out we couldn’t omit the videos completely due to their relevance to the course book, so I scrapped the whole curriculum and switched to The Good and the Beautiful. We are all so much happier and we will pick up BJU for science and foreign language later. Thank you for your reviews, they are excellent.
Love the homeschool updates!
Love the review...we choose books too & ive learned I’m teaching too (HS) so I’m learning...Learn math fast is a GREAT math for upper...Notgrass history, Bio 101 series(dvd ,short leassons,easy hands on), fix it grammar. I don’t feel we should turn them lose and we should always remember that if they don’t fully “get it” and decide to go to college they’ll learn it🥰....the love and togetherness wins!
I'm thinking ahead for my kids so really appreciate these videos. Thank you so much for taking the time to make them! I did bju distance learning for every single subject from Jr high through graduation. There were parts I loved but because I did it for EVERYTHING, I honestly felt kind of overwhelmed a lot of the time. After I got to university, I found myself wishing that I had skipped 11th and 12th grade and gone straight to college. I was a bit burned out by those grades, and I found college to be no more challenging. But I'm sure it was worth it, and that was my own personal experience. I wonder if the fact that it was mainly self-guided contributed to my feelings. Rest assured however, it's great college prep if your kids decide to take that route!
Also, I did Spanish for 3 years and LOVED IT. Hands down my favorite and I actually got college credits for simply taking a test before starting, and tested into a Spanish class that you normally need extra prerequisites to get into. The guidance counselor was completely baffled at how I managed that with only 3 years of high school Spanish. He said, "This just doesn't happen." So yeah, their Spanish was great. Still felt overwhelmed through high school, but Spanish made it better. Chemistry, Biology, Physical Science and World History also stand out in my mind as classes I enjoyed quite a bit.
Yes Bob Jones is good. My 9 year old has short term memory loss and so he struggled with the abeka and paces when we switched to Bob Jones he excelled so much.
I love updates! They are very helpful
Agreed about the videos being dated, but my boys really enjoy the lessons. We swapped from Abeka Academy to BJU for science and math and they like it so much better.
Hi Ashlee! This school year is my first as a homeschool mom and happened to be my son’s first year of high school as well. I feel that I did my due diligence in research prior to beginning, but I kept feeling lost on the best curriculum choice for high schoolers in particular. We ended up with Abeka Academy as a package for every class, and I now feel exactly what you’re saying to be true... far too much time in front of a screen and not enough freedom for me to interact. However- I feel so inadequate to teach him high school level material without the help of a video instructor. Still currently researching other options, but would love to hear some thoughts and ideas from you or others here with more experience and insight than I have! Thanks so much for the helpful content! It has been such a blessing to me as I figure all of this out. ☺️
This is where I am struggling too and I have exclusively homeschooled from the beginning. My oldest is entering highschool next year and it's so hard to find curriculum for those levels that aren't either all online/distance or written with the purpose of being student led. I homeschool to spend time with my children and to learn along with them, refreshing and redeeming my own education. I wish there were more options with scripted teacher guides, lesson plans, etc for highschool like there are for elementary and middle school. I would love to hear what others do to stay hands-on with their high schoolers.
Thank you so much for this video! This year for 7th grade we are trying another science curriculum that also has lab kits. Then I was wanting to try BJU Press Distance Learning for 8th grade science. That way my oldest can decide which learning style of science he prefers to move through in high school. It’s still so hard to find reviews and how Hs courses work (other than flip throughs). Thanks again! ☺️
Love this. I’m curious to see what you will use for your oldest son for next school year. We are using Essentials in Writing, which I like but like some of the BJU stuff, the videos are dated. I also purchased the Essentials in Literature curriculum, but it was overwhelming for my 7th grader to do both EIW and EIL, so I split it up amongst semesters. For science for my 7th grader, he is using Berean Builders curriculum for “Science in the Atomic Age.” I like it, and I think he likes it. I feel like middle school science is a huge jump from elementary science, and it’s been a bit of a struggle for him since there’s quite a bit of textbook work. We may continue with it next year, I haven’t decided.
One of the issues I have with homeschooling is not having time to do other things besides teaching. Anything that involves hands off lessons is a plus for us. Maybe we'll check this out.
YES- when we tried a BJU subject, the datedness was so distracting for my daughter! (In grade 8 at the time) I thought for such a large company that they’d keep up a little better! 😄
Thanks for the update. We use the books not online video of the bju maths. I really enjoyed it but it was very intense for me preparing the maths lessons beforehand. I'm moving onto math u see this year because it has a DVD lesson. We don't have many options for online here in South Africa. But I also prefer books and hands on teaching for other subjects
Thank you for this video. We currently do the Abeka academy but it’s been on my heart to change it for many reasons and this video has helped me learn more about another curriculum. I love that the thoughts came from your daughter as well. I am currently looking at many different curriculums to pick and choose from.
Thank you for this. My daughter is a freshman in HS. We are using TGATB HS Year 1 for Language Arts and we LOVE IT!!!!
Yes, can’t wait to go back to it next year!
I’ll be interested to see what you use for your sons’s eighth grade language arts. I so wish TGTB had an 8th grade LA.
Thanks for your honest review!
We did an online Latin class this year. I agree that I wouldn't want all classes online for my kids. However, they are great for those few subjects that I really have no desire to teach or are incapable of teachingb(latin).🤗
I love your updates!! I completely agree with the video quality aspect... It’s hard to learn grammar from someone wearing a matching sweater and skirt set 🤪
So true!!! 😹
I agree with you. We use BJU for English and math. And I teach the rest.
agree, some video lessons are outdated. But when you compare them to Abeka videos - Bjupress wins. I was choosing between them. Abeka videos are long and dark recordings of actual class setting, with all students answers and etc. Bj video settings are not long and more colorful with some animation. My second grader liked English and Spelling video course.
❤️ totally agree!
Please cover your journey with the middle school and high school years! New to homeschooling this year (not because of Covid)and my daughter is in 7th grade!
First year here too, my oldest is in 7th
Sooo this is random. But I sure wish you would do a video or list your items used for your makeup here! So pretty!
We LOVE BJU Press!
Yes share updates. I agree with you. I used them a couple of years ago and had the same issue with the videos. They are a good program. That said I feel a certain way about them since they have not updated their videos. I used them back when my child was 11 he is 16 now. I Attempted to use them with my 7th grader ..back in 5th grade. still outdated. I've heard other parents expressed same concerns years ago, to them. Why they don't invest in new videos is beyond me. In regards to high school since your little lady will be doing that. You may be interested in Narhs website if you haven't check them out.
My 8th grader is using BJU Writing and Grammar 8- we skipped the Lit. portion because we use SL... He seems to like it okay, but I am not so sure I love it. We really needed an overview for grammar before moving into high school, so its filling that need for now! But like you, I don't think we'll use it again. My 9th grader loves the Spanish 1 course though, and I feel he's learning a lot from it. I was wondering about the science as we tried Apologia Biology this year and are not really liking it. Thanks for the update!
We did a science curriculum that had dated videos--I feel ya!
Love the HS chatter
My daughter is the same age/grade as Kylie and I’m noticing the same behaviors😊 she hates the fact that her schooling takes so much longer than her brothers (2nd and pre-K) I searched long and hard for a grammar/writing program for her and decided on IEW and she loves it. It isn’t distance learning but DVD and the instructor has actually made her laugh. The grammar portion literally takes her 15 minutes
We are doing Parent led BjU now and have like sit this far. Next year with a one year old, and newborn we’ve considered online just to allow me a little more time and he to gain independence . The dates videos has definitely been a concern as well as the length .
Thanks, Ashlee!! it our first year one too of our kids 'match'. Your littlest is the same age as my #4. My #3 is Kylee's age (he's the one I have on the fence for homeschooling). TGAB has been so great for my #4 & 5. I have been wondering exactly what I'd do if I got my 8th grader away from his 'friends'. I trust your opinion and may present this info to my son and husband. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you
My daughter will be in 8th next year, and I've been trying to figure out a Spanish course. It sounds like this would be a good option!
So, we use a lot of BJU Press so I was very interested to hear your review of the courses she took. Writing and Grammar 7 & 8 (even the parent led), is probably the courses I hear parents complain about the most... we haven't gotten to those grades yet so Im not sure if we will use them when we get there. Could your daughter tell the big difference between the Writing and Grammar and the Science videos? Earth Science was just done in 2018. You can look online and see what year the videos are done under the Contents tab for that video. I highly recommend looking to that if the older videos bother your daughter.
Thanks for the update!
I watched previews of the BJU stuff for my kids in elementary but I could not get over the dated videos either.
I am against video led learning too. I am trying so hard to stay consistent with my kids learning, but something comes up or I don’t have the motivation to teach them. I always think on having them learn video for now until I find motivation, but I am so against it. I will feel guilty if we end up loving video led. They are only 5 & 7 and those early years, I want them to play and do lots of hands on. It’s hard when I have no motivation anymore.
That’s exactly how I feel with online classes as well. Though I will say, as she’s gotten older (grade 11 now), I notice I’m using more snd more online classes snd fewer face to face, which is sad. That’s why I still love using TG&TB history. I don’t care what the naysayers say- it’s enough when it’s a curriculum she retains! 😊
Agree! I hope to find something to use as a family for the remaining years! We will be on year 4 next year and I’m undecided about going through it all again.
Same.....
I just started my son in grade 6 history dvd. I don’t like History or teaching it so I am hoping this works. I watch it with him though.
Totally unrelated but where is your hoodie/sweatshirt from? Been looking for something similar. Super cute!
Vici dolls!
Would yall do English 8 if the videos/lessons were updated? Great info on Spanish, our daughter will be moving to 8th grade next year. We use BJU parent led and online just due to my daughter being audio/visual learner. We have only tried Easy Peasy and BJU so far. Thank you for the updates :)
No I don’t think so!
Ash: She is getting to that age where is likes to hear what other people think about things.
Me: pauses video to sob and realizing that is coming up soon with my 12 year old but I haven't fully recovered from the two before her .
But don't worry...I'll be fineeee
Ash: I need more face to face time...pauses to keep it together...that is just my homeschool mom heart.
Me: bursts into tears
My Husband: She must be watching Ashlee again
🤣🤣🤣💯
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Do you have your daughter do all of the Spanish everyday? Seems like a lot to me but Im trying to figure it all out (We start DLO in a few weeks). Also, do you check/grade the handouts/worktext pgs for the BJU DLO subjects?
Hi, I'm a homeschool dad that wants to pick your brain on some ideas and tips when homeschooling my 4yr old and 2yr old.
Is the Spanish 1 also good for high school because my son will have to take a foreign language next year? Thanks for the update! :-)
It is a high school course she’s just taking it early!
So how far does good and beautiful go? When do we have to look for something else? Does TGATB plan to eventually have curriculum to take our kids all the way to graduate? Thanks
Have you looked at Gather Round Homeschool?
Thank you! I've been watching your videos and following you for a year now. This is my first year homeschooling and we went with TGTB except for math. My question for you is Spanish. I am fluent in Spanish and been teaching my kids from what I know, but I feel like I need a curriculum. Do you know of any curriculum to teach Spanish that is not online? Thank you for all you do. :)
Have you checked out Breaking the Barrier Spanish? There is workbook/CD/DVD option or an online (not a class) option. My son used it for French and my daughter is now using it for Spanish.
I haven't, but I will check it out. Thank you!
BJU has the option to do the courses parent-led and not online. You purchase the student materials (text, activity manual, tests) and teacher materials (teacher guide and answer keys). We are doing the new edition of BJU Spanish 1, which is only available as parent led at the moment and it is going well.
@@northernlight4016 thank you!
??? Ok, I have the same convictions about letting kids do DLO. It kind of defeats the purpose of homeschooling. Buy let me honest, as I am about to have baby #4 my oldest is going into 1st next fall, and knowing that all my kids will be 2 grades apart, I find myself overwhelmed and considering BJU online courses for a couple subjects for my oldest already. I just don't know how I would have the time to teach him everything and also do Pre-K, entertain littles and take care of a baby. PLEASE tell me how you have managed to do it all with 4 kids!! I am struggling to see how combining some subjects with kids on so many different levels will work, as I don't think developmentally they can grasp or remember certain things that are above their grade. Tips? Is there specific curriculum you loved for this?
We don't do all subjects everyday, and I also think leaving the Charter School and creating your own lessons might help as well. My opinion is that if you at least teach them basic math, reading and writing, they can learn the rest on their own. We are doing gardening now, and gardening in itself is way better at learning science than a textbook. The beauty of homeschooling is that you don't need to focus on subject, just cater the lesson to each childrens interests.
We're only using Spanish from them, but it's going good for us too. We've enjoyed Essentials in Writing with the grading service for highschool, SL literature, and Easy Grammar added for those who need review. Essentials in Writing has some grammar but some of mine needed a little more.
I appreciate reviews like this. My son will be high school next year and I am looking at using EIW. We have been doing the good and the Beautiful. We love it but I feel my son needs more explicit teaching for writing. I also like the grading resource.
@@christinasheaff6097 The grading service is amazing!
What is SL Literature?
@@kristinkraft5978 Sorry, it stands for Sonlight.😊
@@TrimiMitri thank you 😊
I think they are slowly updating the videos.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with Clear Water Press, but my daughter has LOVED the writing courses from them. They are very well-done videos, and the teacher is excellent. He does have his corny “dad joke” moments, but my daughter has grown in her writing so much. I heard him speak at a homeschool convention and was so impressed. clearwaterpress.com/coverstory/ Cover Story is for middle school. There are a few other programs too. The high school program is writing an adventure story in a year, which seems pretty cool. I love these chatty updates! Thanks! I’m interested in the BJU Spanish. I definitely won’t be teaching that to my kiddos! 🤣
I definitely understand poor or dated videos being off-putting (especially if they were training videos we were supposed to take seriously like job training videos). As an adult i can see them as more humorous but as a teenager I remember it being distracting and almost insulting, like they couldn’t be bothered to try.
Exactly!
I thought u were using TGATB?
This is very off topic, but I need some advice from an experienced homeschool mom. My daughter is four and we have been homeschooling since August. She is so smart, she can write her name now and she can verbalize her numbers 1-10. I usually really enjoy homeschooling but today, I just feel so bad, i lost my patience and got so upset. Has that ever happened to you or anybody you know?? She counted to ten for me when I pointed to the numbers on a chart which was great and then when i asked her to count five red chips, she wouldn't do it till after she could tell i was getting upset. I just don't understand, I know she can count to five. I felt like she was being stubborn. What do you think?? What are your experiences??
My kids are 11, 4 and 2, and for the very little ones they’re very often just not ready to perform on command. Let them soak up knowledge but before 6 I don’t require anything from them because it just leads to bad feelings when they don’t want to participate.
@@MistyWarden thank you:)
@@MistyWarden, such great advice! There is so much pressure to teach kids early but they really do not need to be doing formal school at such a young age. I remember feeling so frustrated with my first child at 3 and 4 because I felt like he would never learn. I had a friend who was a preschool teacher who told me to back off and let him learn at his own pace and it was very wise counsel! By child #4 I didn’t start “school” until he was six and he was, by far, the easiest to teach because he was ready!
@@kristinpatel8230 thank you:)
@@Toutuu98 lol good idea!