BFSU is a really solid program. We used Vol. 1 in 2013-14, with my then 1st grader and 5th grader (first year homeschooling, 5th grader had NO science in PS). I feel like they learned a lot without being overwhelmed. The main drawback was planning time...the book is written to the parent/teacher, not the child. On a good week, I had scanned the lesson ahead of time, made some notes, and kind of prepared how I would present the lesson. Other weeks, I didn't plan ahead and kind of had to wing it. This school year (2014-15), I thought the grass was greener elsewhere, and did Biology for the Logic Stage from Elemental Science. It had a lot of positives, namely that the kids look at the list of things they need to do in their student book, they do them, and then we just discussed it. But, they both feel like they got more out of BFSU, and they got kind of tired of spending the whole year on Biology. We all really liked how BFSU ties all the different threads of science together. So we are going to do BFSU Vol. 2 for the 2015-16 school year. I've already started looking through the lessons and planning so that I'll be ready for next year. For example, for each lesson, I found the corresponding pages in our Kingfisher and Usborne Science Encyclopedia, and wrote those page numbers right into my book. Next I will go through and note any other books, videos, etc, that pertain to that lesson.

Great discussion. I just ordered and received Science Matters recently, and am looking forward to digging into it as soon as I finish up my current self-education book (History of the Medieval World).

I signed up for a free copy of Newsademic, printing it out now for the kids and I to peruse. Thanks for the recommendation. Updated: I printed off our free copy, and it looks pretty interesting. I had my husband scan through it for appropriateness while I milked cows last night, and he approved and handed it off to my DS8. He thinks it's fantastic! I don't think my DD12 has been able to pry it away from him, I may have to print off another copy :glare: . I went ahead and signed up for a year.

We have a chest freezer and a fridge in our garage, and in the summer I don't notice them working any harder to keep cool than the fridge and chest freezer that are in our kitchen. We don't have air conditioning though, so maybe ALL of them are working extra hard and I don't notice? I don't think so though, haven't noticed much of any difference in the electric bill between summer and winter.

:iagree: I guess we don't take things like this seriously. My kids know better than to say anything like that when someone else is serving a meal or out in public, but at home with just the four of us, we can joke around.

Award for breaking the most desk chairs by leaning/tilting/rocking while doing schoolwork...I think DS is up to 3 chairs this year. Most dramatic performance at the mention of that most terrifying of grammar concepts-the prepositional phrase...DD acted like she was having a heart attack And the award for the farm animal most used as an excuse to escape school work (IE: "I know I'm supposed to be doing my math, but I just want to check on my chickens")...several nominees for this award...the dogs (everyone's excuse), the barn cats (again, everyone's excuse, especially when they had kittens), the ducks (DS's excuse), the chickens (DD's excuse), the 4-H steers (DD's back-up excuse), and my milk cows (which are my excuse when I need a few minutes to regroup :leaving: )

We use the Usborne Science Encyclopedia and the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia a lot for this. It has worked out fine for us. Sometimes I also find videos online about the particular topic.

I'd say the horse guide could work for a 3rd grader, but would be a little much for a 1st grader. Of course the first grader could just listen to the stories and not be required to write out the definitions and draw maps and such.

4-H. If you do non-animal projects, or small animal projects like showing a dog or cat, the cost is negligible. Market animals cost a lot more (cattle, sheep, pigs, etc.), but they sell the animal at fair for a lot of money.

My DD used the History of the Horse study guide this year (6th grade), and really enjoyed it. She will be using the Western Expansion Study Guide next year, and my DS will be using the History of Science guide next year for 3rd grade. I've already purchased these and paged through them, they look pretty good to me :)

Well, I have milk cows, chickens and ducks, beef cattle, a large veggie garden, and lots of berries (fruit trees too, but they're new, so not producing yet). We have the ability and equipment to convert the well to hand-pump. I don't have a woodstove (not a lot of excess wood on the prairie), but we've discussed putting in a corn stove, and I do know how to cook outside with cow chips (like the pioneers did with buffalo chips). I would have to can a lot of meat...right now I can tons of fruits and veggies but freeze all our beef. The real challenge would be protecting all of that from less prepared people. We have plenty of "firepower" to do so, but it is a fairly large area to protect. Something to keep in mind for those that say the know how to garden, but don't currently...it takes time for a garden to grow, and failures of at least some of your crop is common even for experienced gardeners. Hopefully you have plenty of food put up to eat while you wait for your garden to produce :)

We pay $70 per kid per month for music lessons (30 minutes each week), so $140/month The kids will often pitch in some money for new music books, etc. from the money they make selling eggs My DD shows steers in 4-H. Our farm provides her a couple of steers for free, as long as the money made from selling the steer at fair goes straight into her college account. We don't have to buy feed for them, we already have feed for the other 1000 head of cows on the place. Basically it cost me less than $100 a year for show supplies, new halters, etc. Then she sells a steer at the fair for upwards of $3000, which goes into her college account, and the other steer gets eaten. So we're money ahead on 4-H. Next year DS will be old enough for 4-H and we'll do the same for him. Both kids have poultry-chickens for DD and ducks for DS. I usually pay for the feed because it means I have an unlimited supply of eggs. They sell some of their eggs to neighbors or at the local farmers market. Feed usually costs me less than $40 a month. A little less than that in the summer and fall when they can find plenty to eat free-ranging and they get the leftovers from the garden. It costs a little more in the spring when we have babies and I have to buy chick feed.

1. Serious spring cleaning/de-cluttering...I've gotten behind this year. This is already in progress, we got a lot done this weekend. 2. I'm signed up for several sessions of the WTM Online Conference 3. Rereading TWTM 4. Finish reading History of the Medieval World Finished!, purchase and start reading The History of the Renaissance World 5. Read The Story of Science and Science Matters Finished this too :) 6. Continue prepping/writing lesson plans for BFSU Vol. 2. 7. Pre-read some of the kids' assigned literature And all the usual non-homeschooling stuff...gardening, milking the cows, hopefully getting a second coop set up for our poultry, and helping DD get her steers ready for county fair in August.

Wow, these wackos should make responsible off-gridders, responsible homeschoolers, and responsible gun owners cringe. It sure makes me cringe. It's always the wackos that get news coverage and used as examples for why more control is needed. More control isn't needed, the didn't follow the law to begin with, so why would they follow stricter laws? Ugh...this irritates the heck out of me. My ducks and chickens have better shelter than those poor children :(

Preserved specimens are convenient for keeping longer, but fresh works fine if you use them right away. When I was in high school, I got a bunch of pig hearts from the butcher to dissect in Ag Class. In college, we got fresh cow uteruses for our animal reproduction class.

I'd recommend BFSU as well. We did Vol. 1 last year with a fifth grader and first grader and it was great. We switched to Elemental Science Biology this year because it required less planning, but have decided to go back to BFSU Vol. 2 next year. My kids got kind of tired of doing one science subject all year.

I'm interested to know the order of these as well

:iagree: I need to look into a keyboarding program for DD as well

I am signed up for: 1. How/Why Science Needs to be Taught Differently (Nebel) 2. Beyond Elementary School: Approaching the Upper Years with Confidence (SWB) 3. A Plan for Teaching Writing, K-12 (SWB) 4. Everyone can Teach their Children to Write (Bogart) 5. Nature Study (Dodge) 6. Problem Solving: A 21st Century Education (Rusczyk) 7. Teaching "Ramona Quimby": Homeschooling Your Intense Child (Freeman) 8. This Isn't as Easy As I Thought (SWB) I feel like $20 per topic is very reasonable, especially since the topics have 3 sessions each. I don't know what it costs to go to a normal Homeschool Convention, but the nearest one in my state is 8-9 hours away, in a city large enough that I wouldn't be very comfortable driving there. The nearest in a neighboring state is about 3 hours away, again in a large city that I have driven in and hate driving there. Plus I have to milk cows and do other chores morning and night, so physical Homeschool Conventions are pretty much out. I was so excited to discover this online conference, and my DH even agreed that it seems like a very reasonable price. ETA: Ooh I just looked at the agenda again and found a couple more free sessions to add: Maintaining Organization in the Midst of the Muddle (Mystie Winckler) and Put Away that Credit Card: Three Steps in Homeschool Planning BEFORE You Buy Curriculum (Pam Barnhill)

My kids have enjoyed Elemental Science this year, but they both said they miss BFSU (we did volume 1 last year), so it looks like we'll be starting Volume 2 this fall. We may still use parts of the Elemental Science.

We loved this book as well. As others have already said, definitely check out Starry River of the Sky.

subbing...mine will be in 7th this fall

I have one kiddo taking guitar lessons and one taking piano lessons. Luckily, we found a music teacher that teaches both instruments, so each kid has a half-hour lesson back to back one afternoon per week. We don't get a lot of school done that day, because while we are in town for music lessons, we also go to the library and do any shopping/errands that need done. We don't do any sports, everything I've looked into requires too many weeknight practices and traveling hours for games. We do 4-H, but that requires very little time away from home. They have a 4-H meeting once a month, and then county fair is one week long in the late summer.

Little Bear, Franklin, and Charlie and Lola were my kiddos favorites when they were younger

:iagree: We have ducks and chickens, and I have had fresh eggs with blood in them from hens that have not been with a rooster at all (meaning definitely no chick hatching).