Kindergarten/First Grade Curriculum Picks || Horizons || BJU Press || The Good and The Beautiful 

I have used for 3 years and love them

We are really loving Heritage Studies. We haven’t started the science yet. As for Language Arts I don’t know that I can give a full review. We were having some struggles and in the process of figuring out the cause we set our curriculum to the side and took a different approach and my daughter is loving what we are doing now so we haven’t gone back yet. We discovered my daughter needed glasses and that was the big issue. I don’t think it was the curriculum but my daughter is doing really well right now and loving school so I just haven’t wanted to change what we are doing. I need to make a video and fully explain our thoughts.

Our school day is normally about 3 hours. That includes family time and working with each child individually. They are at an age that is really hard for me to multitask. I also have baby that being lots of distractions into the mix. Of the 3 hours about 2 of it is for my K/1st grade daughter. We also don’t do every subject everyday.

There were several reasons, but the cost was a big one. BJU Press is definitely one of the expensive curriculums. Another factor was that it has 180 lessons. I prefer curriculums that have 120 to 160 lessons because it gives more wiggle room for field trips, room to incorporate other activities related to what we are learning, room to slow down and take more time on a lesson without feeling behind, etc. The biggest reason it felt more like school at home than homeschooling. I like to make things our own and customize them to what works for us, and I didn’t feel like I could do that with BJU Press. I felt like it was sticking me in a box, and I had to do what they said to do when they said to do it. I love the traditional teaching method BJU offers but I want to do it my way. I am also a box checker and felt like I would be in a constant battle with myself to not feel like I had to check all the boxes. I had a hard time shorting this answer down, so I made a video explaining it more. Hopefully, it helps give a better insight into my thought process and why I changed my mind. I hope the spelling works for your family! I really like how BJU Press does spelling and looking forward to using it.