Okay, awesome, cbollin. It sounds like I might go with it! I need to talk with the mom who is currently teaching Physical Science. By switching to 3rd edition I may just be signing myself up to teach 3rd edition Physical Science next time around! Lol! Thank you for your time and help! 🙂

Thank you, cbollin! That was super helpful. I've read Jay Wile's review a couple times now, and I'm not really sure what to make of it. I know he's coming out with a competing middle school book, so my only thought is to take what he says about this new edition with a tiny grain of salt. Of course he probably can't wholeheartedly recommend another curriculum,,,he's going to think his own is best, right? 😉 Anyways... I very much appreciate your thoughtful responses to his points. I would require the notebook for my co-op class, as it looks like a wonderful tool to help the students learn how to take notes well. I also like the schedule, and I hope that it will be compatible with our co-op schedule. I was pleased to hear of your experience with the videos, too. I'm considering getting them for myself as an aid to my teaching. I haven't taught this type of science before to a class, and I'm thinking I could use all the help I can get! I'm thinking that watching the videos may reinforce in my mind the concepts from the book and aid me with my own presentation of the material. And I always like having a visual of the way the labs are set up and conducted. Another question... As I read through the first module according to the schedule, I read all about the first experiment and its results. However, the experiment wasn't to be conducted until the following day. So when we actually do the experiment according to the schedule we will already know exactly what the results are from having read the textbook and its discussion. I also noticed this same thing with the first Explore More. It tells the student to do a small experiment, and before the end of the paragraph, the results are given. Are these Experiments and Explore More activities set up the same way in the remainder of the chapters...where students will know what happens before having conducted the experiment? (Or if so, maybe it's not a big deal? My son is doing Apologia's Physical Science (2nd edition) right now and he says he always knows what will happen in the experiments and he's not bothered by it.)

I'm considering teaching Apologia General Science 3rd edition at our co-op next year for our middle school science. Has anyone used this new edition? Are you enjoying it? Would you recommend it? Trying to decide between the 2nd or 3rd edition, but with the 3rd edition of Physical Science coming out, I'm leaning towards the 3rd edition of General Science.

I'm so glad to hear the ice cream is helping your numbers! Kind of crazy, huh?! Now if only I could be as controlled with my eating now... The hunger of breastfeeding has totally thrown me off. That and having 4 young kids and homeschooling. Hee-hee. I'll save all that for another post. :)

Breakfast was on the lower side of carbs. 2-3 scrambled eggs in coconut oil. About a cup of berries with canned coconut milk (or heavy cream!). I had very low energy mid-pregnancy onward regardless of how I was eating. My OB had me add a higher dose of iron, B6 and B12. I added magnesium citrate to that to help keep my body moving with the iron (TMI!). Those supplements REALLY helped my energy. I wasn't bouncing off the walls, but I could at least function at a normal level. Average total daily carbs: 15+15+30+30+30+30=150 Some days higher, some days lower. I think one just has to try different meals and snacks and be sure to measure that 1-hr post-prandial blood sugar (and 2-hr if needed, and fasting of course), and then tweak what's eaten as needed. Pregnancy does strange things to the body. Diet may or may not control the blood sugar. If it doesn't, praise God we have drugs that can help!

I think you were directing your message at me since I posted a typical day's meals, so I thought I'd reply. I have read Dr Fuhrman's books Eat to Live and Eat for Health. Dr Furman has helped a lot of people, and I don't want to discount his work. It just isn't for me. I tried following his advice for a while. What ultimately challenged me was that to eat the way he recommends one has to avoid salt. I had great difficulty with that. I absolutely agree about vegetables being important to health, and I eat lots of them. I do believe now, though, that a lower-carb, higher-fat diet makes a lot of sense. And, my body & brain feel good when I eat this way!

That sounds sooooo yummy!

Or it may have been because the package was smaller! :lol:

It's Trader Joe's "just a handful of Go Raw Trek Mix" in 10 individual bags. One bag has 210 cal, 14g fat, 16g carbs (3g fiber), and 7g protein. It has raisins, cashews, walnuts, almonds, and filberts. They have other kids of trail mix in individual bags that you might be interested in, but that's the one with raw nuts. Be sure to check the label on the Trader Joe's ice cream. I didn't buy that kind for some reason...it may have been that the sugar and carbs were higher than other brands of ice cream??? For instance I know Costco's vanilla ice cream is much higher in sugar than other brands, so I never buy that. I don't know where you are but I've bought Kroger Deluxe (not always the best ingredients), Breyers, and Tillamook. I hope it works for you! It was quite crazy to tell people I HAD to eat ice cream before bed...doctor's orders! :)

This would be a typical day: Breakfast: scrambled eggs (plain or with veggies) in coconut oil, berries with coconut milk Snack: Trader Joe's Go Raw snack packages (15 g carbs each!) - 1 or 2 Lunch: Meat of some sort (chicken, turkey, beef...) with Weight Watchers garden veggie soup (no potatoes or pasta) or salad with high-fat dressing; fruit and grain (rice/quinoa) or beans measured to 30g carbs total Snack: Health-Bent's Paleo Banana Bread with Chocolate Swirl...15-30g carb portion adding fruit or yogurt or more dark chocolate if needed. :) Dinner: Meat of some sort, cooked veggies with butter, America Test Kitchen's Family Cookbook Black Bean Soup (15g carb portion)...(or 15g beans/sweet potatoes/rice), fruit (15 g carb) Right before bed: 1 c full-fat ice cream (approx 30-35g carbs), 2 tablespoon nuts My numbers were always good eating this way. I love Dr. William Davis' book Wheat Belly, so I tried very hard to get in the carbs but to avoid the blood sugar spikes. I did my best, but I wasn't perfect. I think one reason the diabetes folks didn't poo-poo my lower-than-recommended-carb count is that I was eating healthy foods. They saw I wasn't in ketosis (I measured that once a day in the late afternoon before dinner), and my numbers were good. I tried to keep the carbs low at breakfast (15g or less) with just berries. Then at meals I added about 30g of carbs with fruit, beans, sweet potatoes and/or grains. I had nuts for snacks generally. Hope that helps!

I forgot to add, that I had to eat REAL ice cream, not low-fat! Yum, it was great! I also prefer to eat lower carb in general as I feel so much better. The gestational diabetes folks wanted me to pee on the Ketostix to prove I wasn't going too low on carbs since I did not want to eat all the carbs that they suggested. They were satisfied that I wasn't in ketosis (a whole other topic!) and I was pleased to not be eating all the carbs they wanted me to.

We love watching the videos together! My son has done Primer & Alpha and now he's in Beta. He gets sooo excited to watch the video at the start of the lesson! And, if he doesn't catch on right away, we do go back and watch the lesson again on subsequent days. Easy. No prep work. And I skim the Teacher's Manual while he's working. :)

So, I've been a lurker for a while on these boards, and this post got me to join! :) I had diet-controlled gestational diabetes with baby #4 (she's 9 mos now). My Diabetes Educator and the Dietician recommended I eat 1 measured cup of ice cream with 2 tablespoons of nuts right before bed. Not a bowl of ice cream, just 1 cup. And the carbs should be about 30 grams per cup, so no crazy flavors loaded with candy! And this was to be right before bed, not right after dinner, and not an hour before bed....right before bed! And the nuts are important. This totally got my fasting numbers back in range. They had been in the upper 80s and 90s. I know you said you are trying to avoid dairy, so I'm not sure if you would want to try this. I don't drink milk, but I do enjoy yogurt, cheese, and butter. As for my meals, I aimed for 30g of carbs (not including veggies) per meal and 15-30g per snack. If I remember correctly I was eating about 120g or 150g of carbs per day. Baby was born just fine with no issues!