I first heard of Bridgeway Academy when this review opportunity came up. Since then, I have seen/heard their name much more frequently. And with good reason, they offer many opportunities for Christian homeschool families. They offer a full range of classes for all ages kindergarten through high school (even adults seeking their high school diploma!). They are accredited – which can be very important based upon where your family lives and your learner’s future plans. Their options range from record-keeping only (great for those in states with tough requirements for this), textbooks (such as the Bridgeway English that we reviewed), and online courses (which other Crew members reviewed — see the end of the review for the link). You can pick a main subject or semester’s worth or get your complete School Year in a Box. They are flexible to your learner’s needs and abilities using placement tests and customizing course selections (you’re not bound to the same grade level) to get the best fit.
Bridgeway English is three individual books comprising a complete overview of grammar and writing. The books, Focus on Grammar, Focus on Writing and the Teacher Answer Key are each $23.33. Focus on Grammar is Book 1 and Focus on Writing is Book 2. The books are set up to use sequentially – completing all of Book 1 prior to Book 2. The labeling of each unit (PAK) carries from one book to the next – PAKs 1-6 in Book 1 and PAKs 7-12 in Book 2. The student books contain all the student needs; no teaching is expected from the parent. The Teacher Answer Key is exactly as it sounds, answers. Each page is a smaller view of the two page spread of the student book with answers filled in. The answers are not all completed (for some there are many possible correct answers) and they are in the same black that the page is – making it a bit difficult to check quickly. There were only a few instances I have needed to use the answer key to confirm what I thought was the right answer — but it sure has been handy when it was needed!
I am using this with our 7th grade daughter. She is strong in Language Arts and has often worked above her age. We have also done most of her work in this area by unit studies, built around literature. Because of this, I wanted to be sure she has a complete foundation in grammar skills before she gets into higher level courses. Bridgeway English is perfect for a situation like this. It is also good for an older student, needing remedial help or to brush up before tackling college-level work.
The approach is not a “dumbed-down” take on English, but an incremental, thorough covering of the skills. Each lesson builds on the previous lessons, so you don’t want to skip around. This is not long, boring worksheets though. There are interesting bits sprinkled throughout (Tremendous Tales) that add some humor or trivia. “Aloha” shared some interesting information about the Hawaiian language while another gave a look at the legendary character of Pecos Bill. Also, short quotes like “Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom” – Thomas Jefferson and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (which was repeated within the same PAK, one of a few formatting quirks that were noticed but not troublesome). These are the sorts of things your student will come to you to share – those things just “too neat to keep to myself”.
Each of the units has three parts with a review at the end of each and a self-test at the end of the unit. There are also tests for each PAK. These are located at the back of their respective books and the only sections that are perforated for easy removal from the spiral bindings. We liked the full spiral binding so that the book can be left at the page being worked on. There is no continuous number system (each PAK has its own page 1, etc.) or table of contents, so it can be difficult to keep your place (and assign work) without using additional tools. We used colorful little self-adhesive flags for marking each day’s work.
With Book 1’s focus on Grammar, the topics covered are “. . . subject and predicate, fours types of sentences, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, compound sentences, noun functions, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and prepositional phrases, conjunctions, interjections, and grammar review.” Book 2 covers “. . . clauses, sentence variety, subject/verb agreement, grammar and mechanics, writing skills, rules of capitalization, rules of punctuation, proofreading, editing, letter writing, business writing, study skills, critical thinking and reasoning, and learning about fact versus fiction.” Because of the sequential nature, we have not done much work in Book 2 though we did work some on the sections covering proofreading and editing. My daughter enjoys doing this and thought it fun.
Most of the sections were short enough and straight to the point so the task of completing assignments was (almost) enjoyable. It is easy to adjust the pace for your learner’s needs. Each PAK is of varying length, so breaking it up to work on so much for each day wasn’t as simple as 4 pages per day, etc. With our handy little flags though, I went through a week’s worth or so at a time indicating where to stop. If she wanted to work ahead, she could (and did for some of the earlier sections). We could easily use this for the whole school year. Add in some literature and further writing practice (it is only covering writing skills, not so much writing assignments) and you have a complete language arts course.
To see what other Crew families thought of this course or one of the Learning Labs from Bridgeway Academy, be sure to click through the graphic below.
