Heather in VA
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Posts posted by Heather in VA
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I started this year with RS4K Chemistry. It's taking almost no time and we will be done with it soon. I had considered continuing with the program but I don't think it's what I want. So now I need something. I have Science Shepherd Life Science on my shelf but I hadn't planned on using it until next year because it might be too much for an 11 year old. I looked at Apologia General Science, CPO Physical Science, and Exploration Education Advanced. Apologia seems so wordy. The only samples I can find are of the first module and there is so much history in it. Also, I am a Christian but get turned off if ever other sentence is 'gee isn't it great that God made molecules." I don't know how much Apologia is like that but I've heard other Christians say it's too much for them. CPO seems ok but maybe not super easy to use in a home setting. Exploration Education looks fun but I don't know how deep it really is. I don't want to end up with something else like RS4K that has really good information... just not much of it. This kid really likes science but her math is behind so down the road I have to be careful about getting into science she can't do because of her math. I am working on it but it's possible she won't be able to start Algebra until 9th grade.
If I don't do Science Shepherd Life Science this year then that's what I will do next year.
Any thoughts as to how to proceed? Any other ideas I don't have listed here? Anyone really love (or hate) anything on the list? I also considered Rainbow. I've used it in the past and its' good but it's more money than I have right now. Most of the science budget went for the high schooler and the college tuition.
Edited to add that I need something that is already pulled together.. I don't want a bunch of spines with lots of trips to the library and a lot of work on my part to compile. I don't mind working to teach it but I don't want to spend a lot of time putting it together myself.
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I would agree with mommy2alyns. Stop by and watch more to see if the lack of coach is typical or if it was something unusual. As they get higher in the levels they will have more independent work with stations but there should always be a coach watching even if they are working on another station with another gymnast. Level 4s and 5s tend to be too young to do much without constant and direct supervision. They just don't have the attention span or gymnastics awareness to know what they are doing and whether or not they are doing it right. My daughter is a level 9 and she does do things seemingly on her own but her coaches are never far away and are always watching. We often joke that they have more eyes in the back of their heads than moms do :-). I would also pay very close attention to what they are doing without their coach because I would be concerned about injury. For example, our girls never work on their bar releases unless the coach is right there but they work on pirouettes, giants, etc while their coach is on another set of bars.
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I bought the text on eBay for around $30. So far the only other thing I've purchased is a $1.29 bottle of water with a spigot. Most of the required materials can be found around the home or improvised in some way.
The text is great, but the real meat, IMO, is in the student activity sheets etc found online. I went through each one and printed off the ones I found to be " best" for my son, then cross referenced each with the corresponding chapter. At the same time, I made a list of anything I might need to buy or put together for each observation and lab. It sounds like a lot of work, but it went pretty fast.
I just downloaded the text pdf and now I'm trying to figure out where to get the student activity sheets. Can you tell me where online I can find them? I am going to use Physical Science. I keep finding all kinds of different things and I'm not sure what I should get.
Thanks
Heather
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Please note that all of the colleges my daughter applied to did not consider Physical Science as a high school course. It's not that you can't take it in 9th but if a school is expecting 3 or 4 years of science they will expect it to be in addition to the Physical Science course.
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Flashmaster!! Best math related thing I've ever purchased.
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This. I have been through all three current books (though we did not do the workbooks, just read from the TE). I have not noticed a mention of predestination, but I agree that God's sovereignty has come up. I'm not reformed, but I'm comfortable with the sovereignty point of view, so it hasn't been an issue. I really liked the commentary, particularly in the NT book, and have been looking forward to the Acts book.
What a good idea. I've wanted to do these books but have been hesitant to add another writing subject to my already easily exhausted and phobic writer and I didn't want her to start dreading Bible studies because of it. I love the idea of just reading the book. THANKS!!
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Moving beyond the Page has kits to go with their science.
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If you've read these books, which do you recommend if you have to choose one? Either way particularly good (or bad)?
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Well we didn't find Challenge to be much of a Challenge so we left. We ended up with Omnibus for a few years and then Biblioplan which is where we are now. (the Challenge child has graduated).
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They have a couple - I know I saw the Sentence Composing for Middle Students and Paragraphs for High School. Their search engine is weird so there might be more that aren't coming up.
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Ahh... that explains why I couldn't find it when I tried to get it at Rainbow Resource. I saw it at amazon but wanted to try RR because I needed the $50 free shipping. I didn't realize it was new. I plan to use it next year with W&R. I think it will be a nice compliment. Guess I'll be getting it from Amazon.
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I don't know anything about Bookshark beyond what's been said here but another option if you are looking for secular 'in-a-box' and lots of literature is Moving Beyond the Page. It's different than Sonlight but also literature-based.
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If it's working... stay the course. If you feel it's not working then ask yourself what about it isn't working? Can you make adjustments? Can you add a supplement? Can you approach it differently? What can you do to make what is wrong better? If it just can't be done... then consider a change.
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Whether you need a writing program or not depends on whether you want the writing in R&S to be your writing program. If you want more writing instruction then you could use Writing with Skill or Classical Academic Press Writing and Rhetoric. There are more but these are my two favorites. The Bravewriter approach is excellent too, and can include literature, but it can be difficult to learn to implement. For literature it sounds like you will already be choosing literature to go with SOTW. So you can just have the beginnings of analysis type discussions with her about them. Talk about the plot, the setting, the characters etc. I use Center for Literature products to help me since I'm woefully inadequate to develop my own discussions. If you want more in-depth studies you could pick a couple of Progeny Press guides to go with your literature choices. No need for a ton at that age but a few might be helpful.
Spelling is completely up to you. Does she still need it? My rising 6th grader will be doing Vocabu-Lit next year as we transition from spelling to vocabulary. I don't always think a vocabulary program is necessary if you are already reading good literature but for this one I am going to use one for at least a little while.
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I'm not going to be able to talk you out of it because I wish I had done it with my now 11 year old and we are definitely going to do Spanish with Children starting this fall. The CAP programs are really good.
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I am using MOTL with my rising 6th grader. We are new with it but I am very happy for the first time every with math for this child. It is work in planning and teaching. There is no way around that but it's also an approach fully tailored to what your child is ready for and what they need, whether that be accelerated or slow and steady. The automated spreadsheet took me a few hours of playing with to completely understand but now that I do it's my favorite thing. It makes it completely doable. Like eviesmomma, I purchased mine used for $150 and the bought the support package from the company for $29 which includes the spreadsheet since that is not transferable. Best money I've spend on math maybe ever. And for this child I've spent a LOT of money on math.
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If you are looking for a more academic program that would include hands-on activities you might want to look at Moving Beyond the Page. It doesn't include math but I think that tends to be better since math is so individual for each student.
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I love the spreadsheet too. In fact I've been playing with it this morning and have figured out how to use Chart 6 for spelling. I just bought Natural Speller which is a plan for spelling but not a curriculum per se. Basically you design how you study the words, the concepts and the rules. So I'm using C6Data to enter spelling concepts and it creates a 5-a-day review for me for spelling too. How cool is that??
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I just have to say I am loving it. I was worried about the tracking but I got the automated tracking spreadsheet and I already feel like we are in the swing of it. My daughter is so much more engaged in the lessons and I'm seeing holes I didn't realize were there and finding she understands things I didn't think she did.
Very happy with math for a change....
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While I would agree about not overstressing, I *would* try to figure out what was different between this year and the last that caused their scores to drop, and look for a pattern of wrong answers etc.
If they'd been near the 50th percentile all along I wouldn't be at all concerned, but dropping from "awesome" to average is something I would investigate.
This is what I was going to say but Kiana beat me too it.
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Yes, that's something that's been vaguely brewing around in my head for a while, also. Any recommendations?
Well that depends on how 'non-religious' you need it to be. As I said, we are Christians but I steer away from programs that make 'Young Earth' the central issue of all things. We have used DIVE science in the past and like it. My oldest used it for Chemistry and Biology. She's now getting As in college as a nursing major. The program is a Christian program but we didn't find it overly so, especially in Chemistry. Also it allows you to either use it along side an "internet textbook' or your choice of textbook. For Biology we chose a secular college text (Campbell).
All that said - we have not used the Integrated Chem and Physics program so I can't vouch for it personally. Their first choices for accompanying texts are their "Internet Textbook' or BJU. BJU is very good but obviously religious. They also provide syllabi for CPO and Prentice Hall as other secular options. From what Ive seen the Internet text is pretty secular.
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Have you thought about doing a Physical Science program and then starting High school level courses next year? PHysical Science used to be a high school course but is not any longer and typically does not require the level of math that high school chem and Physics do.
8th Grade Physical Science - help, please!
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
Have you thought about DIVE Intergrated Chemistry and Physics? It is not secular but since you mentioned that you do use Christian curriculum I thought I'd mention it. I tend to shy away from 'in your face' Christian curriculum and DIVE is not that. You can use it with Internet links (they call it an Internet Textbook) or CPO which would both be secular textbooks or with BJU, Apologia or Abeka. They have syllabuses for all plus maybe a few more. The videos are lectures and videos of the labs and you can get a kit.