BusyMom5 Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 I had good intentions for science. I have lots of great books, and I had a general idea what I wanted to do for the year. The problem is that I have so many things going on with so many ages of kids, I just don't have the time to put activities together like I had planned. I think I would prefer to just get a written curriculum that I can follow. My kids are 6th, 4th, 1st (and a 3 year old). I want something that will give plenty of info for 6th grade, but still be interesting enough for the little guys. History is History Odyssey Level 2, but the little have enjoyed it and learned a lot. I'd like something like that! Secular or mostly secular if possible. Does such a thing exist? I did look at RSO, but worried that Bio 1 wouldn't be enough for my 6th grader. I also looked at Noeo Physics 2, but wasn't sure if the littles would find it interesting. Thoughts on those 2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Personally we found Noeo a bit boring and the experiments were very uneven in Chemistry II. Noeo is basically reading from an encyclopedia interspersed with some living books, which my ds didn't find all that engaging. Did you see that RSO has a Biology II, that might be a more appropriate level for your oldest 2. I'd rather aim at the older ones and let the little ones engage where they can than go too simplistic for my oldest. My daughter tags along as she is able with science but at this point her science is fairly informal, we read from science books a few days a week, she watches shows about science a few days a week and we take daily walks and do informal nature study. We'll start with more formal science next year in 3rd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Sixth grade to 1st grade covers a pretty broad age/ability range. I think it's going to be difficult to find something dead on for both. It will likely be a tad easy for the 6th grader or a tad difficult for the 1st grader. I've had that same span and we approached it two different ways. One year (actually two years), we did delight directed science. I needed to focus my energy and teaching time on other areas and this was a great way to promote their individual interests, let me have science exposure and discovery and yet reserve most of my teaching energy time for more structured subjects. One year, oldest ds did a project on raising quail. We met with a biologist who specialized in that Ds read all about raising quail and was given about 10 eggs, got an incubator, candled the eggs, journaled the progress, watch them hatch, built a brooder and went on to raise several generations. Dd (4th grade) researched square foot gardening, built the raised beds, improved the soil, planted, ect. Mostly, I connected my dc to resources -- to people or books or online resources for their research. I helped buy materials, guided their journaling, supervised the project but it was unstructured and child directed. Two of our favorite years. I could also recommend Exploration Education. The lessons are online and your 6th grader should be able to read them to/with your youngers. it will be a bit much for your 1st grader, but great for the 4th and 6th graders. The lessons for both are exactly the same, except that there is an extra day's reading for the older and some extra hands-on projects. They could all make the projects together and your 6th grader should be able to do it independently as the directions are superbly laid out online. Very easy to follow. Only issue might be a hot glue gun. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeegal Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 You could check out Elemental Science. It includes suggestions for increasing expectations for older children and decreasing expectations for younger ones. Actually my suggestion would be to do logic biology this year. It's aimed at 5th and 6th graders, and I used it with my 4th grader a couple of years ago. They also have a biology lapbook you could use with your 1st grader and 3yo that correlates, mostly, with Logic Biology. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 I would focus on your oldest, oldest two if they can work together, and add in some library books on some of the topics you cover that oldest could read to the first grader as enrichment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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