BP Tips and Tricks

Adapting BP for Any and All
Learning Types

Tips and Tricks Code Key:

SL – Tips for Struggling, Sensory and Special Learners

G/AL – Tips for Gifted and Advanced Learners

E – Tips for Everyone

One of the great things about BiblioPlan is that it isn’t one-size-fits-all. Not every child learns in the same way, and we at BP understand that. Our curriculum is easy to adapt for different learning types. What follows is a multitude of tips and tricks to help adapt our material to the unique needs of your students.

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General Advice for All Learners

People come in four main learning types: visual learners, auditory learners, kinesthetic learners and reading/writing Learners. Click “Read More” to see how BP products help you maximize learning for all four styles.

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Puzzled Reader
  • BP Family Guides are rich with book lists, movie lists, hand-on-activities, extra readings, audios and more to provide families with a multitude of options.
  • BP’s Remember the Days and Companion textbooks are not weighted down with dry, dull facts. Instead, they are history-rich and story-filled to increase interest and retention. Remember the Days is available on audio to help auditory learners.
  • BP’s many hands-on products help make learning enjoyable. From labeling Hands-On Maps to assembling Timelines, creating Crafts, Coloring, Notebooking,  and researching challenge questions in their Cool Histories, there is plenty to look forward to each week.
  • You Choose: BP lets you pick and choose the products that work best for your students. We recommend product bundles for each age group, plus extra products for enrichment; but you need not stick to those. Feel free to buy only what you think will help.
  • Pacing: BiblioPlan is built on a four-year cycle, with a year each for Ancients, Medieval, Early Modern and Modern; but you needn’t stick to that. Feel free to go slower or faster according to your students’ needs.
  • Relax: Don’t expect your students to remember everything they hear the first time they hear it. If you stick with BP, then you’ll cycle through each time period more than once. Consider your first time through an overview. You may be on your second or third cycle before the lights come on, and your students truly understand the flow of history. Cycling back through the years is a great way to improve retention and comprehension.
  • Be Creative: The links below offer numerous ideas to spark the creative teacher in you! Students love it when their teachers go off-script. Get yourself outside the box, teach creatively and bring wonder to your classroom!
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Struggling, Sensory and Special Learners

Another great thing about BP is that there is no right or wrong way to use it. Every product in our line can be used in a number of different ways. This is especially helpful for students who learn differently. Children with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, visual learning challenges, auditory learning challenges, sensory needs, developmental delays, testing woes and more have all found success with BP. Use the buttons below to find out how.

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Gifted and Advanced Learners

The fact that BP is so loaded with resources makes it a natural fit for students who have exceptionally high IQs, are exceptionally motivated, or both. Follow the links below to see how BP can help.

General Advice for Gifted and
Advanced Learners

Having fast learners is a tremendous blessing, but there are also pitfalls—especially in modern times, when negative influences have new opportunities to reach the young.

  • Mind your sources: Do not make the mistake of giving your fast learner free rein on the internet. We’re no book burners, but there are many websites that are deliberately designed to tear down Christian morality; and the young are especially susceptible.
  • Discuss, discuss, discuss: History is a subject that should be processed under the guidance of mature adults. Knowledge is great, but it takes wisdom to stay off false paths. For example, communism may sound wonderful when you read Marx; but it sounds terrible to anyone who knows what real Marxists are like. The best way to impart that wisdom is through constant discussion.  
  • “Independent” doesn’t mean “alone”:  Don’t assume that a child who can work independently doesn’t need the benefit of your experience. Encouragement, involvement and teacher interest are just as important for fast learners as they are for struggling ones.
  • Push out, not up: Be careful how far you push your fast learners ahead of grade level. Just because they have the ability to read higher level books doesn’t mean they’re mature enough to handle them. They may encounter material that they aren’t emotionally ready for; and they may also burn out. Instead of pushing them up, try pushing them out to a wider range of reading—including books from lower levels.
  • Mind your workload: If your students are doing higher level work in other subjects, then be careful how much extra history you tack on.
  • Set realistic goals: Fast learners often have too-high standards. They may set goals that are impossible to attain, or start projects that are beyond their ability to finish. Parents and teachers can help by suggesting more realistic goals.
  • Let kids be kids: Gifted and advanced students need time to play and daydream just like other children. If every moment of their day is filled with study, then they miss opportunities to create and explore in their own areas of interest.

How BP Benefits Gifted and
Advanced Learners

The simplicity of BP makes it easy for fast learners to work at their own pace. There are also two BP products that are especially useful to fast learners.

  1. The Family Guide identifies so many resources than even the most avid readers struggle to use them all. For each week of study, the Family Guide shows how other history textbooks line up with BP’s—so that avid readers can study the same topics from different points of view. The Family Guide also provides a large and diverse literature list, including plenty of primary sources—so that avid readers can quench their thirst.
  2. BP Cool Histories provide weekly bonus questions to get students researching and writing. For every level except Littles, the Optional Bonus Question/Activity sends them hunting for answers they can’t find in our texts.

    The buttons below offer a multitude of tips for adapting BP
    to the needs of all learning types. Choose a button and dive in!

    Buy BP Tips and Tricks Ebook

    Hundreds of ideas for adapting BP
    all in one convenient Ebook