If we use Spectrum or Apologia, do you all think that is adequate for an average student? My dd LOVES horses, and she is science oriented. I think she will choose a science-related field, so I want to pick courses that will support her interests. She has not decided what she wants to be. I want to choose wisely. I would feel so irresponsible if I "wasted" any high school year by choosing a class that didn't fully prepare her. This is what I find to be tricky. If we went with PH, how do you use it? How do you know what to do and what to leave out? I still do not feel like I understand which curriiculum has the edge. Spectrum has great experiments and is to-the-point. I think you could say that it wins the prize for depth. PH has more coverage. It might win the prize for breadth. Apologia? So many complain that it's not enough and is chatty. I don't know. I am very thankful to be able to discuss this with all of you.

Julie, is there a distinction between Spectrum and high school science? Or, is Spectrum considered high school science? The remarks I've read about Spectrum have been great EXCEPT that it sounds like it's not enough. IOW, it only gets part of chemistry done. Some combine this with The Teaching Company's DVD's, but then that sounds very expensive. I like what I hear about Spectrum, but I'm concerned that it is not complete.

Thanks, Holly! :lol: I'm laughing at your request because high school chemistry is soooo far into the future. I know the time will just fly by, though, and that's why I'm "worrying" myself about it now. From what I read, Spectrum and Prentice Hall are neck-n-neck. Then there is Apologia which has a love/hate relationship among homeschoolers. Abeka and BJU are also reputable companies. We are actually using BJU 7th grade Life Science. It is tough since it's our first "real" textbook class. I'm looking at it for more than science: It's good for us in learning how to study and test too. I think I've gotten my $400 out of it! It has been awesome! My dd isn't as excited about it, however. She might be burned out by the end of the year. I've read that BJU science can be overwhelming, but since I've been so thrilled with Life Science, I'd be willing to keep it on the list. I go in circles with choosing a high school science since it's so closely dependent on math. You really have to plan them together.

Faith and Teachin'Mine, Thank you so much. I think it makes sense to study chemistry and then biology, but now I'm beginning to see that this ONLY works in conjunction with the right math. We will be doing Alg. I in 8th grade, but I was thinking about studying geometry in 10th. From reading other posts, it sounded like geometry would benefit chemistry as well. No wonder chemistry is written as a 10th grade class- that way a student would have a better grasp on a wider range of math. I might have to re-think the order of science or at the least wait until we get there and see how math is when we get closer to 9th grade. Ok. Now, I'd just like to know chemistry favorites. Maybe I'll start a poll and ask that. I would still LOVE to hear from any of you who have done chemistry before biology. Thanks, everyone!

We are 2 years from high school, and I'm trying to understand what to do for science. I understand the reasoning behind the physics first movement (physics, chemistry, biology), yet I am not completely comfortable with this. "Conceptual" sounds great because it helps a student understand, but I just can't ignore the importance of being able to do the math behind the science. That said, I do like the idea of doing chemistry in 9th to prepare for biology since biology has a chemistry base. BUT.... I really don't know what chemistry would be good for a 9th grader. (DD will have Alg. I in 8th grade. Math is getting done, but doesn't come easily.) Spectrum Chemistry and Prentice Hall Chemistry seem to be the most popular as I read the science threads. I also know of Apologia, but is there anything else to choose from? Spectrum sounds very home school friendly, yet Spectrum and Apologia sound like they suffer from the same problem: They are only complete IF they are followed by an advanced class. I realize that chemistry "usually" is taken in 10th, yet I want to find a "complete" 9th grade chemistry that covers enough chemistry to prepare for biology and to prepare for PSAT and ACT testing. I would also like it to be home school friendly. See, I want it ALL! :D Does this exist? 9th chemistry 10th biology 11th physics 12th advanced science based on career choice If you were going to study science in this order, what would you choose for chemistry? (Just as an aside, I'm trying to determine the same for biology, and have found Shepherd Science looks interesting..... still a long way off from choosing.) Any help would be so greatly appreciated!!!

Thank you, Chrissy! I have seen this curriculum mentioned recently. I does look wonderful! I wouldn't say I have a bad speller at all..... yet, it is common to have misspelled words frequently. IOW every paragraph written has a couple or so words that are misspelled when I know she should know better. The problem might also be in the lack of proofing her work. If she proofed her work, she would be able to spot and correct most of her misspelled words. So, I think we just need another year of spelling practice and proof training. I am definitely still:bigear:. I appreciate all the input!

Thank you, Charlotte! We have both sets of EftRU, and can definitely incorporate them. I used Vol. 1 with dc a couple of years ago, and we have not used Vol. 2 at all. They loved EftRU. We also have and enjoy playing Rummy Roots.

Thanks, Holdoll! I'm beginning to lean towards Megawords only. We definitely need the spelling practice, and I think we'll still have time for Jensen's or something similar for test prep in high school. I've read on TWTM about vocabulary, but I don't see anything that seems to be overwhelmingly popular..... well, MCT and Megawords maybe..... certainly not Jensen's. Some like it; some don't. Thanks again!

Thanks, Kim! I've always been drawn to Jensen's Vocabulary, but I really am most interested in vocabulary that will prep us for those pesky high school tests. Maybe Jensen's isn't the best for that. So..... What do you all use for vocab test prep?

Anyone else?

Wow.... Will Megawords be enough for vocabulary? For an 8th grader? I love it for spelling. I have just always thought we would need somethig for vocabulary to start preparing for PSAT, ACT, and/or SAT testing.

Would you chose one of these or use both in 8th grade? We used Spelling Power for 2 years, but I don't feel like we learned spelling rules adequately. We changed to Megawords this year to learn them. I want to use Jensen's in order to learn roots. Other 8th grade classes seem to be looking like this: Lial's Alg. I CPO Physical Science TPS English I for composition Analytical Grammar Season 3 Megawords and/or Jensen's Voc. LLfrLotR (orally with ds gd.6) Medieval History Rosetta Stone Spanish year 3

That's ok!:001_smile: Thanks for updating!! I still like the looks of CPO physical. The main problem is the expense of it. I think I would choose to do Foundations of Physical Science and use the E-Book. I have NO idea how much this E-Book is or how to get it. But, I do know that to get the book and experiments is around $2000. Ouch! For a bit of good news, however, I read on TWTM that you can use "Reader's Digest How_____ Works" to SUBSTITUTE the CPO experiments. Someone else shared using The Way Things Works by Macauly. So, there may be a way to avoid using their expensive equipment. After I do some more research, I'd like to start a new thread specifically about how others have used CPO Physical Science (Foundations.... not middle school). I think most people have used CPO for life or earth science. I haven't read as much about CPO Physical Science.

We use Apples and Pears. It's open-and-go and it bases spelling on morphemes. There are no spelling lists, but A&P teaches spelling rules and uses dictation. There are 4 books. At 2nd grade, I'm thinking we can complete one book in a year.

I completely agree that even one class of DVD's from BJU is a huge bite to chew. I think that's why I'm trying to streamline so much. I guess you saw Tammy's note that there are no pre-made outlines. Bummer, huh! Jennifer, I haven't checked yet, but Tammy mentioned the teacher CD. I think there might be reviews/summaries that could be helpful. Have you looked yet? I will definitely do that over the weekend. I printed some of the teacher CD out before school started, but reviews/summaries don't seem to be consistant. IOW... some chapters have them on the CD, and some don't. Then again, I only printed out just a few chapters. I certainly will have to check that CD again.

We use Lial's BCM for pre-algebra. It's not spiral, but it is written TO the student and covers basic math VERY well. It has a chapter on basic algebra. It's an excellent review before doing Alg. I. We've covered fractions extensively, and we've used order of operations many times. There isn't an chapter on order of operations, but they do explain it and expect the student to use it. Although I haven't used it, I've heard that CLE has a newly reorganized Alg. I curriculum. We use CLE 5th grade math, and it is wonderful. CLE is spiral, and it gets wonderful reviews on TWTM Forum.

From Jennifer: To summarize your comments.... 1. take book notes 1st before watching DVD (so we'll continue this...) 2. just listen carefully to DVD and try not to do so much note-taking --This makes sense because I've noticed none of the testing covers lecture info; it's all from the texts. 3. watch all the dvd's, then do assignments Sweet home alabama: We are also doing open book tests, so glad to know you are doing that, too. DD failed the first 2 quizzes and made C's on the tests and she is normally an A student. So I decided to make these open book to help her confidence. Plus, if life science is a "survey course" as BJU markets it, then my understanding is that the student is not expected to master it like they would bio, chem, physics. What about assignments? How do you all discern which you do? Or if you do all of them, please tell me how in the world do you fit it all in? My dd loves to read and I was planning to have her read some great books to accompany history. She is so busy, with just the basics of the DVD's that there isn't time to do much else. Has anyone else found this to be true??? From Sweet Home Alabama: Jennifer, thank you for asking your original questions. I have been comforted by the responses. Using BJU science this year was has been a huge bite to chew, and I'm very relieved to know that someone else is facing some of the same challenges we are facing. I'm going to try to implement the three points you outlined above. I'm eager to hear about the pre-made outlines as well although I haven't seen anything like this in my books. I am VERY glad to hear that you all use the text open book!!! What a relief to know that we are not the only ones!!! As for the other subjects, we are not doing any other BJU class as you are, but our subjects are taking up plenty of time. We do not do a lot of extra reading. I schedule just a little independent reading to go along with history. My kids read from the Usborn Illustrated Ency. and from Mystery of History Vol. I. They also read a children's historical field guide. These keep them reading something individually, and they reinforce what we're studying in history. The last two previous years, we used SonLight to study American history. My kids were reading all of the time. I credit SL for helping my kids to fall in love with reading. This year, my oldest (7th grade) is doing: Math: Lial's BCM Science: BJU life science LA: Analytical Grammar Season 2 Megawords Wordly Wise History: Biblioplan Anciencts with family read alouds Lit. Lit. Lessons from the Lord of the Rings (orally with sibling & me) For. Lang: Rosetta Stone Spanish They do not read historical fiction type books individually this year. Instead, we're reading only a select few to go with history. This way, we can use SWB's middle school writing for literature narratives on Friday. There isn't time for my kids to do the same kind of reading they did when we used SL. I felt terrible about this when I was planning this year. I've read many posts that urge middle school students to read, and read, and read! Well, as it turned out, we substituted reading quantity for reading quality.... IOW, we're reading carefully for details to see examples of well-organized and thoughtful writing. We're writing outlines and narratives and writing short narratives daily. I know it is important to read, read, read, and we have done this for two years. Now, for this year, reading large quantities is just taking a back seat so writing can take priority. I don't think this is a mistake..... there just HAS to be a give/take when planning for homeschool. I think it would be hard to impossible to do try to "do it all." There must be balance, and the student can't be overwhelmed. That is discouraging. There has to be an achievable level of success. Can you tell I've had my coffee?:tongue_smilie:

Rhonda, does your child take open or closed book tests? I've read that 8th grade BJU is quite hard. Do you plan to use BJU 9th grade physical science?

Can anyone else share anything else? I'm interested in this as well.

Hi Jennifer, We are using BJU Life Science in 7th grade this year. Although my dd has learned a lot, this is the class thatis the most challenging and takes most of our time. We watch the DVD's and stop/start just like you. Yesterday, however, as we watched, I realized some of the information Mrs. Vick was talking about was spelled out word-for-word in the text. Don't ask me why I haven't noticed this before. So, I'm thinking that we'll try to follow along in the book, highlighting along the way what is important. I would love for this to speed things along. When we started this class, it rocked our little homeschool world. This was our first "real" textbook experience (apart from math). My dd is having to learn how to study, follow the schedule, take notes, etc.... I don't know how others would feel about it, but we use an open book for most tests- not so much for quizzes though because that info is mostly fresh. (For testing, I'll have dd work the test through closed book, and then give her a certain short amount of time for open book if she needs it.) I bought our BJU science from a BJU consultant who told me that using it open book would be fine since it was our first hefty class. Using it this way at least causes the student to use the text as a reference tool to learn *how* to find information. This is also an important aspect of science. If nothing else, this class is a stepping stone to higher science that awaits us in high school. If I look at it as experience gained, then I can use it *however* I want to expose her to these science concepts. That is very freeing to me. I have a friend who bought the entire BJU DVD 7th grade level for her ds. She, like you, has found that it takes too much time to watch videoes and complete assignments. She is replacing LA with CLE/Abeka and math with Lial's BCM. She hasn't started history or lit yet. (We are using Analytical Grammar and Lial's BCM. ) You know, I have wondered where we stand as far as comparing ourselves to other 7th graders since using BJU Life Science. I've decided that maturity plays a huge role, and it's unfair to compare. No matter how we use BJU science we are certainly learning and growing. We are also certainly moving in the direction of being able to face the challenges of higher, more demanding classes, that await us in the future. Long ramble... but HTH

Thank you for sending this link, Heather! Has anyone used DIVE with CPO Physical Science? I don't know if I should try the DIVE with the high school text for 8th grade or just use the middle school text. The high school text *looks* more like 8th grade level. Can anyone share from your experience?

Thanks, Heather! I've never thought of putting DIVE with CPO. Do you know if DIVE lines up easily with CPO? I've read that it's written for BJU but it can work with a variety of texts.

:bigear:

Thank you, Debbie. PH seems to be a very popular curriculum too. I looked at it as well as others. I've finally come down to CPO, Apologia, and Rainbow. (BJU maybe into high school, but still scared it would be too much.) Now, I'm trying to make a final decision.