I am in the process of planning for our 2010/2011 school year.  I have to start early because of how many children we have and there is no time during the summer because we are so busy at Pennywise Learning.  I have to get all of the prep work done by the end of June.  During this process I’ve been challenged to find the right fit for my current 5 year old.  He will start first grade in the fall but he is my most advanced student.  He is already well beyond first grade math.  He has known how to read for a while now.  The trouble is his hand-eye coordination is on par with his grade level.  Because his brain works much faster than his hands, he gets frustrated with lots of handwriting.

While trying to find the best fit for him I took a fresh look at Bob Jones curriculum (BJU).  I have always liked BJU.  It is colorful but not distractingly colorful.  It has lots of manipulatives and teaching ideas.  It is textbook based but has the benefits of lots of hands-on activities.  It is challenging but not overwhelming.  It is a great all around curriculum.  I think I have settled on moving my little guy into mostly BJU.  We have already started some of it and he is really enjoying it.  While he does have to write out his answers, BJU is not as writing intensive as the curriculum we had been using.  We will drop handwriting for now and continue to use the Kumon workbooks for extra handwriting practice.

One question we get asked frequently is if you really need the Teacher Editions for BJU, especially in the younger grades.  I thought I’d simplify life by skipping it with Math.  My little guy is already very advanced in math.  He catches on quick to new concepts.  I really didn’t think I would need the Teacher Edition since the math is still easy enough to grade.  I ended up ordering the Teacher Edition because we missed the cute little stories that go along with course.  The manipulatives include making 2 little puppets to be used with the story.  Even though my student could learn all the math without the Teacher Edition, it is a lot more fun with the extras.  I will invest in the Teacher Editions for now on!  I will hold onto them to use them with my younger boys, making it cost effective.  I will only need to replace the consumable worktexts and tests the next time around.

I am so glad I took a closer look at BJU after not using it for awhile.  It really is a nice curriculum and will serve us well in the coming year.