I have been using Rod & Staff since 2nd grade. I am getting ready for ds to be in 6th grade and I want to go to either Abeka or BJU for middle school/high school. I can't get my hands on good samples of either. Can you help compare/constrast them for me?
BJU is set in units where they go through the lessons two pages a day plus writting assignments, they do review quizes and tests if you choose to get the test booklets. My ds is doing 6th this year and his understanding of a sentence is way better than mine is! I am learning some of it along with him as I never had to do diagraming sentences when I was in school any further than Subject and predicate, and vowels nouns etc like that level not the fancy nouns and verbs haha go to cbd.com and you can get BJU english copy to look at
I thought the lesson manuals for A Beka were difficult to understand. Unless you know what you are doing or could get help if it arose, I would go with BJU. Just my opinion, though... others may feel differently. You can go to a display for A Beka - just type in your zip code on their wesite and it will tell you when and where.
I love BJU English. It is well organized and spells out exactly what needs to be done and so on. Abeka is too abstract and all over the place. The writing is so weak that you need to suppliment with another writing program. We have a homeschool store near us that has used stuff so I have been able to spend a fair amount of time looking over Abeka. I have chosen to use BJU.
You feel the writing component is lacking in Abeka? Also, is one more spiral vs mastery over the other?
We switched from Abeka to R & S. I think R & S is more thorough (grammar wise at least) than Abeka (although it wasn't terrible, we just like R & S better). R & S 6th grade is a challenging year (DD10 is using it now). I think a previously R & S student would do well in Abeka....my understanding is BJU would be easier so it might not be a challenge to a student (more of a review) but that's hearsay based upon friends. Definitely look up the scope & sequence and compare them.
I loved A Beka Language Arts program for the younger years but we stopped using it after a few years.We are now using BJ English; for writing and grammar. It is good. I am trying to find something new for next year but if I can't find anything, we will us BJ English again.
Lee what do they have for jr high level in Abeka? I have to find out if we are continuing with BJ for next year which means two or three books, or if we are switching....
