Bob Jones DVD Curriculum for junior high and high school

by Sharon
(Leavenworth, Kansas)

Product: Bob Jones DVD curriculum

Subjects and Levels Used: Physical Science (9th), Geometry (10th), English (8th), French 1 (used for 10th), World History (10th, but 8th grader loved it and begged to join in), Bible (10th)

Date used: 2008-2009

Liked: Bob Jones allows you to go up or down a couple grades with the purchase of a one-student package. That allowed us to mix subjects and grades to suit our needs.

For example, Biology is a standard 10th grade class, but our oldest had taken a different course in 9th grade. That meant he needed physical science (a typically 9th grade subject) in 10th grade. The 10th grade student was taking another English class, so his younger brother borrowed the English spot to get a DVD program for himself. The 8th grader is an auditory learner and this program truly helped him grasp English in a deeper way. The 10th grade student is visual and a list-checker. Having great notes on what video, test or quiz came next was a boon for him.

The DVD package program allows five subjects plus bible. The 10 grade bible program has topics and study materials from knowing how to share the gospel to understanding the work of the Holy Spirit.

Everything is provided in the package and you do get to fine-tune what you receive. You get the DVDs along with every test and quiz packet, the student workbooks and texts, and streams of teacher's information beyond the regular teacher's manuals.

This a relatively easy program to give to your teen: one in which you know that the instructors are skilled in the subjects they teach. The materials are excellent and the DVDs can add even more information not found in either the teacher or student texts. This is a great concept!

Disliked:
First of all, if you already have the Bob Jones books or other materials in the right publishing date, it doesn't matter. You still have to buy the DVDs with all the other materials. It is a package deal and no exceptions are made. You may keep the books, but you have to return the DVDs. If you loose the return slip, you must pay for shipping to return the DVDs.

As for the DVDs themselves, oh the inconsistency!!! Shame on Bob Jones! Some of the DVDs are professionally done. Some, like world history and English 8, have a teacher standing in a set and teaching as if she is teaching only to your child. When appropriate, a skit is performed to illustrate a point. These DVDs are well done.

Some DVDs, like the physical science DVD, are tape recordings of old satellite classes. I found it annoying that my kids had to fast-forward past 7-year old prayer requests and fumbling students who were trying to work the conference machines.

Along with the dated taped programs came a wealth of materials which were irrelevant because they described how to use the now defunct sattelite program. I paid for postage for a few dead horses in those reams of paper alone.

You would think a publisher as well-known as Bob Jones would offer materials that were consistently good. At the very least, you would think that they might offer a discount for the lesser-quality recordings or even offer to sell them to get rid of them so that they do not saddle future students and parents with that sad excuse for a video program.

The unit price was horribly high (almost a thousand dollars), but I expected great value and ease of use for both the students and myself. I don't consider such inconsistency to rate as a great value, nor was sifting through the papers to find what I really needed an ease to my time constraints. I can no longer easily trust Bob Jones for a consistent DVD program quality; that is most unfortunate. :(