BJU Press Focus on Fives Review – Homeschool Review Crew

Disclaimer: I received a FREE curriculum kit of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in
exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I
compensated in any other way.

I’ve heard many wonderful things about BJU Press Homeschool over the years as I researched homeschool curriculum for my own children. I think it’s especially popular in our area as they are based just over an hour south of us in South Carolina. BJU Press Homeschool is a company that provides homeschool curriculum and textbooks that are biblically rooted, inspire joyful learning and that is based on sound educational principles.

This particular program, BJU Press Focus on Fives, is a kindergarten curriculum that includes all the basics your child needs in science, social studies, handwriting, phonics and reading to move onto first grade. My 5 year old was pretty excited about all the beautiful books and things that came in this kit. Included are the teacher’s guides, Focus on Five workbook, reading books, phonics practice, phonics and review cards, a handwriting book, a phonics flip chart, and a teaching visual flip chart.

I was a little overwhelmed as I pulled out all the materials from our box, but it’s important to note that several of the books you pull out are the teacher’s guides. The illustrations and colors for this curriculum are wonderful, it’s bright and welcoming with fun characters to learn along with.

This is what I liked about BJU Press Focus on Fives. I liked that there is so much included so that you don’t need multiple curriculums to get everything you need – this is especially important for littles. I liked that everything is included, you don’t really need to buy anything extra on top of what is included in this kit (with the price point of this kit, I think that’s great that you don’t need anything extra except for math curriculum).

This is what I didn’t like about BJU Press Focus on Fives. I am one of those homeschool moms that likes to open a book and get started, you cannot do that with this curriculum. There’s a lot of preparation involved, and while some moms like that, I’m just not one of those. The most prep I ever do for school is printing out PDF curriculum and organizing it for my kids. More than that, and honestly I’m turned off by it. I also felt that some of the information in the teachers guides is geared more towards a classroom setting or teaching multiple children, and I felt a bit lost in our first few lessons together. My daughter became frustrated because it was taking me so long to figure out what we needed to do next, even though I had thought I prepared everything prior to starting. It’s just a LOT of information and prep work for one child, especially with multiple children using different curriculums.

I believe this would be great for an only child or a classroom based setting, or if you don’t mind some prep work before getting started. While I don’t think this is a great fit for our family, that doesn’t mean it won’t be a great fit for you! If I had more time to dedicate to this curriculum kit, it may have worked out better for us, but having something that works for our entire family seems to be a better fit.

There are also some videos coming out in July 2020 that go along with this curriculum, you can view a sample of that HERE, which may give you a better idea of how this curriculum works.

Be sure to head over to our link up on the Homeschool Review Crew’s blog (by clicking the image below) to see what other homeschool families thought about BJU Press Focus on Fives curriculum kit! I’m interested to see how others implemented it into their curriculum!