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MPH Singapore or Real Science 4 Kids? Help! I can't decide!...


Melora in NC
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I'm shopping for next year (probably actually starting this summer), which will be 5th grade for my (then) 10 yr old ds. We haven't done a lot of science, so I want something Good and Thorough for next year. Real Science 4 Kids looks terrific -- I was thinking of buying Biology, Chemistry, and Physics -- But it is expensive. I was just poking around on Rainbow Resources (I have terrible trouble taking the last step of placing an order, and as a result my order just keeps getting Bigger!), and noticed MPH Science. We like Singapore math, but is their science wonderful? The price looks good, but even so, once I add all the activity books, workbooks, textbooks, and teacher books, it looks like a year of science is $66.75? And is it just me, or do the MPH books look a little Young? I want something colorful, that ds will find appealing, but I don't want it to seem "babyish."

Are the activities and experiments for MPH stuff that we can do without much prep, and are the materials easy to come by? Are the grade levels about right on target?

If MPH is highly recommended, I will probably try it, just because it is so much more affordable, but Real Science looks so good -- could someone please help me decide?

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My 5th grader is doing Real Science-chemistry. I found it surprising that a curriculum that looks so simple could go as in depth as it does. I didn't expect that level of understanding to be presented. Even better, my son actually retained the information. The textbook is beautiful and colorful. I think any kid would find it appealing and inviting. My son gets excited anytime I pull it out because it is anything but dull. I wonder if you could find it used. The lab book is consumable so you'll probably have to get that new. Real Science also has a website. When I was purchasing it, the publisher's price was a little cheaper than Rainbow's so I bought it from the publisher.

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Singapore Science is very easy to use.

 

- Almost all the materials can be found around the house.

 

- The labs are not absolutely essential to the lessons. I recommend that you get the activity/lab book and pick and choose which you want to do.

 

- The only thing I felt like I wanted in MPH 5 was a good microscope (for a few lessons) and I knew I was going to have to buckle down and get one of those before high school anyway.

 

- The texts are very short and simplistic, however, the tests, workbook, and "Higher Order Thinking" skills more than make up for this. In general, like the math program, they cover few topics, aren't very wordy about--it's questions that pack the punches.

 

- Singapore science is one of the few subjects that my son can do independently of me. Woo Hoo!

 

-I bought the Teacher's Notes for MPH 6 and while they were useful, I saw that it wasn't something that I needed to have. I won't buy them for the other levels for the younger children.

 

- The activities, workbook assignments, tests, and Higher Order Thinking Skills assignments all put together still do not constitute 180 days of lessons, perhaps 90. This left us plenty of time to do outside reading in science topics a la WTM style.

 

-One drawback in the 5th grade are the references to native plants in Singapore, "What is the reproductive method of the blah blah blah" and we'd have no idea what plant this was, so it would behoove anyone to review the assignment before giving it to the child and look these things up online first. It seemed like MPH 5 was non-stop plant reproduction and reproductive plant parts. We saw a lot of drawings of plants and the kid was expected to figure out why two plants couldn't reproduce or could reproduce, or what stage of the life cycle some plant was in.

 

The second half of the program was all about circuits and was wonderful to use this at the same time we were playing with Snap Circuits. My son learned how to draw simple circuit diagrams and when we hit the section of our New Math book that taught Logic and Switching Circuits, he needed to explanation at all to understand that. If you end up doing MPH I'll send you a copy of that lesson.

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We used RS4K Pre-Level 1 and My Pals are Here 3rd grade last year. I liked both programs. I have heard that the RS4K is uneven at Level 1; chemistry is strong, physics not so much, and biology weak. MPH is a continuing program so that each year builds upon the previous. Consequently you are not going to hit all of the topics in a year the same way as RS4K.

 

The MPH text is light on facts but the workbook and activity guide force a child to really think about and apply the information that is presented. I have found the activities easy to do at home with mostly household items. We did need to do some research on Asian flora and fauna but I considered it to be a great practice in Internet search skills. We did 3 in 42 weeks at about 2 - 3 days for 20 minutes per day. I anticipate stepping this up to 4 days a week in 4th grade.

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