I'm about to bite the bullet and order curriculum for next year. I'm looking at Abeka or Bob Jones. I'm familiar with Abeka but then I started looking into Bob Jones and it looks pretty good too. Anyone have opinions good or bad about this curriculum?
I think they're both very strong programs! I'd have a hard time choosing as well! I think the English may be better in BJU, but that's just my opinion, since my kids didn't particularly care for the A Beka Language. But other than that, I don't know---I say make a choice and be happy with it! If it starts not working look around for something that will, otherwise go with whatever you decide 100%!
This year I switched my youngest from Abeka math and English to Bob Jones. We both really like BJU, it's a good program.
I have used BJU for history and bible for 1st and for Bible in 2nd. We will be changing to BJU for English/LanguageArts, and for Math. We have used Horizons for math, but we are both tire of it and the sample pages for math on BJU website looked very appealing to both teacher and student. I also liked what they were covering for grade 3. The BJU English covers exactly what we need to cover, starts where we need and overlaps just right. I will also buy there spelling. We will use Story of the World and other materials for history, but if that gets to be too much I might go with BJU on that also.
We used A Beka for the past four years, along with other things. This year I am using their Language but have switched to BJ for math. I do like it. I thought I might use BJ Math next year but decided to look around. It is good and Ems is learning. I just am not sure if this is what we want to stick with. What I like about the math is the way each chapter or unit covers the same thing. It really helps to reinforce what the child is learning. My only complaint would be that it doesn't seem to cover enough. Again, this would be the math I am talking about. I have never use all of BJ curriculum.
Thank you all for the replies. It helps with the stress of buying new curriculum. Somethings just not working for Noah I'm not sure if its the Abeka curriculum or his ADD. I'll make the switch to BJU and if he's still in a rut I may have to break down and medicate his ADD. I'm glad we homeschool so I can find a curriculum that works for Noah.... although its an expensive journey, I'm sure It'll be worth it. hmmm now wheres that money tree lol.
I root for BJU english, we love it! My ds asked to get it next year too.. okay this is reaaaaaaaaaaly cool cause he didn't want to do english in the begining! HA!
The Spelling book is divided into sections and each section has several lists of spelling words. The word lists are comprised of about 20-25 words all with a phonic similarity. There is a review of all lists in a section once you finish a unit. There are workbook sheets for each word lists. There is even a vocab word highlighted for every week. The student is even asked to write a paragraph or two on a question associated with the vocab word. I, personally, thought the words were easy. However, my dd was struggling with spelling. She ended up getting all A's all year. I think she needed words of the same phonic sound or ending or beginning...etc. together so she could see a pattern. Although you really only test on about 15 words, my dd would always add in the rest of the words from the list on her test. lol.
Thanks Ava, we may be using that for Spelling next year, we did good with ACSI spelling but ds said he wants something different.
