The BJU Press Distance Learning program has been a great fit for my family this year. My kids are enjoying the video instruction and I am appreciating the extra help with educating my kids at home.
(Scroll down to the bottom to watch a more recent video on how I modify BJU Press video lessons.)
For me, one of the benefits of homeschooling is being able to modify curriculum to better suit my children’s educational needs. With BJU Press Distance Learning online, I am able to utilize the excellent video instruction while still being in control of what my children are learning and what assignments they are completing each day.
(This post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here.)
Here is a look at how I am modifying BJU Press Distance Learning online for my school age kids who are in 1st grade, 3rd grade, 5th grade and 7th grade.
Skipping Quizzes and Tests
I am having my 1st grader and 3rd grader skip all the quizzes and tests. In the early elementary years, my goal is to expose them to information. While quizzes and tests can be an excellent tool for evaluating how much information a child is retaining, I am finding that the worktext pages are a sufficient means of monitoring my child’s retention of the information.
Skipping the quizzes and tests means my younger ones can move on to new lessons without spending a day studying for and taking a test. It also allows them to move through the program a little faster since they are not taking an entire day to take a test or quiz.
My 5th grader is not taking quizzes or tests for reading. I found that the quizzes and tests were not adding any value to her learning experience in reading. The worktext pages she does seem to be a better gauge of her reading comprehension than the quizzes and tests.
I am also having my 5th grader skip the history quizzes. The history lessons are so engaging to her that she is remembering and understanding most of the material that she is learning. I realized that the quizzes were just taking up her time so I am letting her skip them as long as she continues to grasp the information. She is still taking the history tests though.
Taking the Test on the Same Day as the Review
My 7th grader is taking most of her tests on the same day as the review lesson. This does add a little extra work to her school day but it benefits her in two ways.
- The information is fresh in her mind. When she took the test the next day, she found that she was reviewing everything all over again before the test.
- She can move through the course a little bit faster. Most of the time she is given a day to review the material and a second day to take the test. Studying for and taking the test on the same day means she can combine those two days into one.
Teaching Some Lessons Myself
Watching the videos takes time and there have been a few occasions where the information being presented is one that my child already knew or I thought they might catch on to quickly. I don’t want them to waste time watching a long lesson if they could get the same information from a shorter instruction time.
In these cases, I taught the lesson to my student using the Teacher’s Edition and then let them skip the video lesson. Access to the Teacher’s Edition is available to families using the Distance Learning online option. It has to be purchased separately if you are using the DVD option.
Teaching some of the lessons myself has allowed me to quickly review information my child already knows or give a quick lesson in a new concept that isn’t very challenging for them. I enjoy these opportunities to teach my kids, as I miss that aspect of homeschooling with using the video courses.
This is a great way to squeeze several lessons into one day as well. I haven’t done this yet, but if we ever need to catch up on a particular subject that my child is doing fairly well in, then I can just teach several new concepts in one day.
Just the Workbooks for Handwriting
I actually love the video lessons that go along with the handwriting curriculum. They are filled with interesting facts that I think are beneficial to my children. But, they aren’t necessary for learning good penmanship and they do take up way more time than is necessary for handwriting practice.
Therefore, we are sticking to practicing handwriting in the workbooks which only takes about 5 or 10 minutes. Sometimes we will watch a handwriting video as a family for fun. Like I said, there are a lot of interesting facts mixed in to those handwriting lessons.
Using the “Skip” Feature
The online Distance Learning program has a “skip” box that I can check off if I don’t want my child to watch a particular video or do an assignment. When I am logged into my Distance Learning parent account, I can still see all the videos and assignments but my student will not see those “skipped” videos or assignments when they are logged into their student account.
I have checked the “skip” box numerous times for all of my children. Here are a few reasons I have used this very helpful feature:
- Skip assignments that I don’t think will benefit my child or look like busy work
- Skip tests or quizzes
- Skip videos I don’t think are necessary (especially if I am going to teach the material myself)
- Skip “Work Days” which are usually days set aside to study or catch up on assignments
- Skip an entire section that covers material my student already knows or that I do not want them to learn right now
BJU Press Distance Learning Online
I have found BJU Press Distance Learning online to be easy to adjust to better suit each of my kids. The Distance Learning online program is allowing my children to work fairly independently while still giving me some control over what my kids are learning.
Keep in mind that the Distance Learning program is designed to maximize a child’s education while minimizing the homeschool parent’s workload. While I have found numerous was to modify the Distance Learning online program, it wasn’t designed to be a highly adaptable program. There are lots of other excellent curriculum choices out there for parents who want lots of flexibility. I love that there are so many excellent curriculum choices for homeschool families!
Hi Janelle,
Thank you for all the wonderful insights!
We used BJU dvd’s once and I was blown away by ALL the paperwork. I would spend 10 minutes just looking for the correct papers, and I was thoroughly organized😳.
How did you keep track of the paperwork?
Thank you,
Kelly
There sure is a lot of papers! The DL has less since a lot of the teacher’s resources are online. Here is a video on how I organized all my teacher resources: https://youtu.be/AZcauzs1RdE And here is an example of how I organized my student’s work with BJU worksheets: https://youtu.be/u3vtIBzH8BY
I am using BJU Press online Spanish 1 with my 7th grade daughter. While she generally enjoys learning Spanish, she was getting to where she wanted to hide when I brought up Spanish. So I spent some time trying to figure out if we should just push through, modify it, or find something else. I had looked at a lot of other programs, and hadn’t found any others I really was happy with, not to mention I didn’t want to pay for another program, so I ended up modifying it by cutting out some of the videos as well as the tests and quizzes. That seems to have helped, and she is less resistant now. I think the videos were just too repetitive, and there was so much (which was one of the reasons I chose the program so she would hear a lot of Spanish!). Not to mention, after using it for a year, we are less than halfway through it! I still use the videos occasionally, especially if it is a new concept (we have done some Spanish before, so some of the lessons are review for her). But I am glad we were able to modify it so we could continue using it. And hopefully we will be able to move through it faster now!
Hi, Janelle,
Was wondering if you are familiar with BJU press’ K5 and 1st grade reading/phonics curriculum? I know you like Spell to Read and Write, but I’ve already used BJU for my first child and am familiar with it. Are these two curriculum similar??
Thank you for your time and for any insights you may be able to give. Thank you as well for the encouragement and wise advice you share.
Best wishes,
Hi Gretchen!
I have not used the BJU K5 or the 1st grade phonics. From what I have seen, BJU phonics is very different from SWR. But the best curriculum is really one you can implement. If you are familiar with BJU and found it to work for your first child then keep using what is working and what you feel comfortable implementing in your homeschool. 🙂
I am very sorry we got BJU for this year. Papers everywhere, WAY too much work every day and they have something for a full 180 days. WHO DOES THAT!? Not one single day for catch up, etc. No school I have ever taught in expects so much. And it is impossible to really figure out where to cut stuff out in the upper grades. If I wasn’t past the month cutoff for returns I would return all of it. Never again.
I understand how you feel. Not every curriculum is a good fit for every family. I hope you are able to make it through this year and then find something that works better for you and your kids. BJU DL on DVD does have a lot of papers. I switched over to the online option which is way more manageable in terms of paper. I also prefer a curriculum that only has 165ish days since we never do a full 180 days. What I found with BJU is that there are a lot of review days and “catch up” days scheduled in that we skipped. I also did not have my students do all the work or even all the lessons but I do that with any curriculum we have used. 🙂
Our daughter began BJU online for fourth grade, and while I initially intended to use all of it, I very quickly saw that we were looking at an impossible amount of work on top of having way too much time with video watching. We immediately dropped handwriting videos and replaced it with free online cursive sheets. The National Parks info was irrelevant to her learning cursive, something her school wasn’t teaching. We are using the DVD program, and missing handouts from the parent guides are a continual frustration. I do not have the time to perpetually fish around online on my account hoping to find the right PDF to print it, and half the time the handout isn’t there anyway. I feel like we have paid for things we never got. We now use only four subjects of the video instruction, allowing my daughter to read books freely and discuss them with me. Worksheeting and quizzing and testing her to death is not my idea of education. The video instruction we do use is excellent, however. We probably will not use BJU again, though.
Hi Kim! I agree, those handwriting videos are unnecessary and a waste of time! We just use the handwriting workbook or, like you, find one that fits my child better than the BJU one.
I did want to mention that those student handouts are actually pre-printed for you and part of the Students Handout packet that you should have gotten with your DVDs. (They are not in the parent guides.) If you did not receive them then contact BJU.
BJU DL gives you a lot resources to use but you certainly don’t have to use all of them. I agree with you… skip some of those worksheets and quizzes and tests! I only have my 7th graders and older take tests and quizzes.
You seem to be doing well in determining what works and doesn’t work for you and your daughter. I hope you are able to find a better fit for you both in the future. I find that different curriculum works for different kids and in different situations. I know BJU isn’t a great fit for all of my kids and it certainly wouldn’t have worked for us several years ago.
Thank you for taking the time to comment and share your thoughts. I know they will be helpful for other homeschool moms trying to decided on curriculum. 🙂
Would you recommend using a computer for BJU DLO, or do you like an iPad better? We need to decide which to purchase ASAP. We are using DLO for 6th grade Bible, history, science, and English, and high school biology and Spanish.
Both options work great for BJU DLO. Neither one is really better than the other. Just comes down to your preference and budget.
If you order the DLO with books, are the books on lease and need returned, or are they yours to keep? I’m not quite clear on that. Thank you!
Videos are the only thing that has to be returned. All workbooks, textbooks and handouts are yours to keep.
Hi, you have really helped me in making the decision to get BJU DLO. Thanks a lot.
We recently bought the whole program except one subject.
Please tell us how you made your daily schedule and divided the lessons during the week. And how many hours does it take to finish each day? And any other tips that you want to add would be appreciated.
Yesss!!!! Please update with a schedule!!! I am so overwhelmed with my 4th grader. We can’t fit all of these videos plus the numerous amounts of paperwork in a school day. I researched a lot before getting the DVD program and I am upset with how it has been so far. Hoping I can figure out a schedule for us.
Oh and I found a sample schedule that BJU press recommends for their program and they have 30 minutes blocked off for Math but yet their lessons are almost all 30 minutes long then they “assign” multiple pages for them to do so that gets put down for “homework” at the end of the day?? It’s just a lot!
With the new online learning and homeschool hub, are the student handouts all I need, or do you still need to purchase student worktexts?
You will still need to purchase the worktexts. The Hub functions like the Distance Learning platform did but has added features like being able to add in parent-led courses.
I have a 4th, 5th and 6th grader that are doing the BJU online and workbooks. Do you have your kiddos read all 3 of the books they send and do all the comprehension pages with it? Also, do you have them do all the book reports the curriculum ask them to do? This is our first year to homeschool so I am trying to get out of the public school mindset. Also as a former teacher wanting to make sure they are learning everything they are supposed to.
I have my kids read the books/novels in the summer or during a longer break. I just ask them to read the book and give me an oral summary and opinion of the book. There is a lot that we cut out from BJU curriculum. What I cut out depends on each child and their strengths and weaknesses and areas that we are focusing on improving that year. Hope that makes sense.
Thank you for posting all of this! I was wondering if you have your kiddos do all the Book Reports as well as read all 3 books that BJU sends? I have a 4th, 5th and 6th grader. This is our first year to homeschool so I am trying to get out of the public school mindset.
I usually have my kids read the books in the summer or over our Christmas break and do an oral summary of the books.