BJU Press Homeschool Online Curriculum 9th Grade

We use a boxed Homeschool Curriculum from Bob Jones as our core curriculum. And we have been very happy with it for over 10 years.

As a homeschooling parent of an only child I thought it might be helpful to share the details of what we’ve used for homeschooling over the years and how it has helped (or frustrated) our daughter.

We used BJU Press Online Homeschool Curriculum for 9th Grade

About OUr 9th Grade Curriculum

We used BJU Press Homeschool Online Curriculum for 9th Grade. We’ve used it with great success each year of our homeschooling and decided to use it for our high school years beginning with 9th grade as well.


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If you purchase during a convention or special sale you can get some great deals on BJU. When we were ready to purchase this was what we ended up with…

  • Cultural Georgraphy
  • Algebra 1
  • English 9
  • Physical Science
  • Bible 9
Our line up of BJU Press Homeschool Textbooks for 9th Grade

There are 3 versions to choose from, Online Video Course, DVD Video Course, and the Textbook kit (parent led).

We went with the Online Video Course which comes with online access to the course along with text and quizzes, eTextbooks, printed textbooks and other materials.

The DVD Video Course comes with the lesson DVDs, printed textbooks, tests, and other needed materials.

The Textbooks Kit comes with Teacher’s Editions, Printed Textbooks, and Printed Material such as texts and handouts.

Using Bob Jones Online Curriculum for 9th Grade

I like the online access that we get with the Online Grace kit. In the past we had always used the DVD Course but we switched in the 8th grade to using the Online Course. Why? Because I used to get really confused with all the different DVDs and putting them and in and pulling them out. I admit it. I wasn’t very organized about it and that frustrated my daughter. It was recommended we try the Online version and so we did.

In my login I have access to all the classes and videos, a calendar, testing, and the homeschool forum. I also have access to the Teacher’s Editions. As much as I appreciate not having to do all the teaching having access to these has come in hand many times. Sometimes I’ll opt to teach a chapter or use the Teacher’s Edition to help my daughter gain a deeper understanding.

One of my favorite parts of the Online Version is having the day’s printables added to each day’s lesson. You also receive many of the worksheets needed already printed so don’t worry. In the past it would make quite a bit of flipping through pages to find the ones I needed.

We also have access to an online forum where we can ask the teachers questions and connect to other homeschoolers. I don’t use it that much. I’m not a big forum person.

On the student side my daughter has her login where she can access all her classes, see her calendar, and ask questions or say hi to other homeschoolers.

There are a few things l could see that could be improved with the Online Access but I’m pretty happy with it and all it contains.

Now let’s take a look at each course included with the 9th Grade Kit (because you can purchase each subject separately.

A Closer Look at BJU Algebra 1 for 9th Grade

9th Grade Algebra 1 Third Edition is taught by, one of my daughter’s favorite teachers, Bill Harmon. Bill Harmon is engaging and humorous. He explains Algebra in an engaging way and adds a touch of humor to each day. After taking pre-Algebra in 8th grade Sweet Peanut has a good foundation and is doing well with Algebra 1.

These Algebra lessons start with mostly review up to Chapter 6. Review consists of Real Numbers, Variables, Equations, Solving Equations, and Relations and Functions. and then Linear Systems, Exponents, Polynomials, Radicals, Quadratic Expressions, and Rational Expressions.

Algebra contains several opportunities for getting comfortable with the material. After years of using Bob Jones Homeschool I’ve found it most helpful for Sweet Peanut to do really pay attention to the examples. As opposed to previous grades there is less math homework much to her relief. I have her do the odd numbers from each day’s lesson and that seems to suffice.

If your student is struggling or needs a little help Bob Jones has online resources to help with this subject.

Do I get to sit back and watch her learn? Well actually we have had a few situations where I had to step in and help to understand a lesson. While I did pretty well in math (in high school) myself I did have to take a quick refresher so I could help her out. This has only happened twice this school year.

Algebra 1 is presented with a Christian worldview.

A Closer Look at BJU English for 9th Grade

The 9th grade English curriculum from Bob Jones Distance Learning is broken up into two semesters.

Writing and Grammar for 9th grade is a one semester course. It’s taught by Mrs. Vick which is also one of my daughter’s favorite teachers. I think we first met Mrs. Vick in the 4th grade.

Writing and Grammar comes with a text book with 15 chapters of work. Your child will cover more on sentences, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections, verbals, clauses, agreement, spelling, capitalization, punctuations, library skills, study, skills, and composition skills.

While a lot of this may look like review your child will be given snippets from books, speeches, and historical works to dissect.

Literature is the Second Semester course. Where you child will study snippets of great literature and dissect them.

I feel like getting a head start with Bob Jones’ excellent Language Arts courses are what have helped my daughter have a better understanding of the Russian language. Her choice for a second language. Looking so deeply at the parts of speech of the English language helps her to understand the special nuances that make up this, super hard for me to learn, language (I’m talking about Russian).

A Closer Look at Cultural Geography for 9th Grade

Cultural Geography for 9th grade takes a comprehensive look at the physical geography and the culture of each country in the world.

This is my favorite class because I love learning about different cultures. The current teacher for this 9th grade subject, Mrs. Bullock, is a familiar face as well and brings her enthusiasm to the table.

Some things your student will be required to complete, along with quizzes and tests, in this course…

  • An essay for each chapter
  • 2 projects

Missions is touched on a fair bit in this course. And your student will also learn effective study and note taking tips.

This is an information packed course so if I can offer some tips as to how we used it this might help you as well.

After reading through the Teacher’s Manual (which I do for each subject) I realized one of the goals of this course is to improve your student’s essay writing (you heard me right essays not culture). So for this course we focus a lot on the essays assigned in each chapter.

While my daughter got a good overview of most of the cultures in the world she is not an expert on any I wouldn’t expect her to be.

Also to help your child study for the chapter tests focus on the objectives for each day’s lessons. Each chapter contains a lot of information so if you find them getting overwhelmed focus on getting the general idea of each region, the geography, and study the lesson objectives for the quizzes and tests.

If a certain topic spikes a deeper interest in your student by all means veer off and dive deeper.

A Closer Look at Physical Science for 9th Grade

Physical Science for 9th grade is a combination of physics and chemistry. This course does include labs but we opted not to do the ones with this class and did a few individual ones from various companies.

This course is more of an overview of these two concepts and the scientists behind them. We branched off a bit at times to study the scientists further.

Physical science is covered in 21 Chapters and includes studying matter, chemical reactions, compounds, sound, motion, light, energy, the periodic table, thermodynamics, electricity, and magnetism to name a few.

We took it easy on this course this year because we also did supplementary material with other programs.

Physical Science is also taught by Bill Harmon.

Wrap Up

As if this writing we’ve finished up our year BJU Press Online Homeschool for 9th Grade. This is probably the first time I’ve edited the program to work as much for my daughter as I did.

Apart from Algebra and English I felt like the 9th Grade Curriculum with BJU Press was more of an overview of concepts. An overview of world cultures and geography, an overview of scientific concepts. And that is how we approached this year. My daughter was nervous about entering high school so giving her license to sit back and just take it all in was helpful.

We also fluctuated between parent led and video online school. With access to the teacher’s manuals that was painless and gives my daughter a break from so much computer time. We usually do this for a few weeks out of the school year.

I’m in the process of ordering 10th Grade for our 2020-21 homeschool year right now. A few of the courses have been updated and I’m excited to see the new changes!

For more information on BJU Press Homeschooling Online Curriculum for 9th Grade check it out here => BJU Press 9th Grade Online Kit

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7 Comments

  1. I am considering using this in the fall for my 9th grader. I was wondering if you could answer a couple of questions. 1. How much homework would she have on average. For example is it a couple of hours of videos, a couple of hours of reading and couple of hours of homework? Just trying to get a feel for the load. And 2. do you know what the difference is between the distance learning and the academy. Thank you so much for your post. It was very helpful.

    1. Hi Amanda. Has your 9th grader homeschooled before? In my opinions BJU Homeschool is a little more rigorous but it’s worth it. After taking a study skills course (also reviewed here) I had my daughter pre-read for her classes, watch the video, and then do the homework. Every student is different and you need to take into account their strengths and weaknesses. Being more disciplined about her schooling made my daughter’s days go faster. It was an interesting experiment. She is also a bit of a perfectionist which trip her up and add to her workload. Keep in mind the box is there to guide you not to make you a slave to it. Meaning edit the workload based on the student. English Literature is a pretty intense course. We opted to do some of the workload orally to keep it manageable. If your student is college bound this is an excellent curriculum.

      #2 The difference between the regular distance learning BJU and AHE (Academy of Home Education) kind of depends on your child’s future. Although you don’t need the all the bells and whistles that come with AHE to enter college for some families it makes them feel more secure. You’ll get report cards (you also get these with a BJU Press online curriculum purchase), an official transcript, graduation ceremony (on BJU campus so travel costs are on you), option for earning dual credit, and a few other benefits. You can read about them all here. If your child were a future BJ University student this would be a great plan. There is an application fee and an accreditation fee. It also might make it a nice transition for any university. On the other hand I do know several homeschool graduates, with college degrees, who, while using BJU curriculum, never signed up for AHE. My hope is for my daughter to join their ranks.

      I hope this was helpful. If you are still on the fence about AHE called BJU and ask if your student can still apply and enter AHE in their junior or senior year. In the past you had to start in the 9th grade but I’m not sure if that still applies.

        1. My daughter opted for later days so she would start leisurely around 11. A habit I haven’t been able to break yet. She had about an average 7 hour day with all homework and reading.

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