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Your favorite & not so favorite science curric's


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I am trying to figure out what to use for science for my middle 2 girls. They are 3rd and 7th grade's. They both love hands on, like workbooks/textbooks, but also like "lots of books" ie. WP, SL, that type of thing.

I have looked at NOEO, Real Science 4 Kids, the WP programs, Apologia, Abeka, and some others on homesciencetools.com

Tell me your likes/dislikes please....

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You could always use Ellen McHenry's Elements program and round it out with more books on Chemistry, such as A Drop of Water and The Mystery of the Periodic Table, and a science kit like Thames and Kosmos's CHEM2000. This will feed your eldest's mind. Your youngest will learn a lot too.

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When my girls were in elementary school, I didn't follow a prescribed plan. I used 4-H resources, videos, living books, field trips, unit studies, and lots of hands-on projects for their science education. The did some co-op classes, too. Some I taught, some others taught. Now that they are in jr high and high school, they are top in their classes.

 

That said, my favorite elementary science curriculum is the Apologia series on botany and zoology, for grades 3/4th through 6th. I don't care for the preachy aspect so I skip that part...your mileage may vary. ;)

 

For 6-8th grade I like Rainbow Science. It is a good introduction to basic science with a lot of neat hands-on experiments. Plus, everything is included in the science kit.

 

In 8th grade, my oldest took a class that used Bob Jones Life Science and that was a great class. The text can be difficult to read but it is chick full of info and a good prep for Biology (which she just finished).

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We have used Apologia General Science, Physical Science, and are working on Chemistry, SL 4 on Electricity and Magnetism, SL 5 Anatomy and Physiology, Lifepac Science 5, and R.E.A.L. Science Earth and Space (L1).

 

The hands-down winner for most popular with my ds is Pandia Press' Real Science Earth and Space. It was a little easy for my 5th grader but it's well-layed out, the experiments are simple, fun, and effective. We especially like the weather and the rock study. For me, I like that it's secular but does not have a ps textbook feel.

 

We are neutral on SL's science. They are easy to implement because you have a schedule, teacher notes and you can order a science kit to go with it. My boys like science so they weren't bored. However, both ds did the electricity part together and felt it was slow going. I just think that's because Mom didn't initially give them each their own set of batteries and wires. :o Dumb Mom, dumb! Swimmerdude loved the anatomy and physiology part of SL 5. He happily filled in worksheet after worksheet on body parts and watched internet videos of internal anatomy views. He asked some tough questions after reading Almost 12 (sexuality from Christian viewpoint) but his major consensus afterwards was "Well, I suppose I'll have to do it it when I'm married but that doesn't mean I'm going to like it.":D We skipped the YE Dry Bones book and the Survival Skills.

 

Mixed feelings on Lifepac 5. First-boring!!! However, the material is challenging and my ds learned a great deal from it. Because we home school from a primarily secular viewpoint, I did not do the unit on Noah and the Flood. I also wasn't thrilled to have questions like "God sent Adam out of the Garden of Eden and told him to do something. What was Adam's responsibility?" For me, this isn't science. I would estimate about 1/4 - 1/3 of the material covered is religious studies versus straight science. However, I knew that going in. If you come from a strong Biblical perspective, you should be happy with this program. If you have a secular perspective but can work within the Christian framework, you could still find happiness with the science.

 

Apologia - older ds did this. We obtained our books, kits, and schedules from SL so implementation is a breeze. Ds reads the material, answers On Your Own questions orally, answers study guide questions as he reads and then does a closed book test. We do experiments together because Mom loves them as much as the kids do. I like the layout of the books and the material cn be challenging. I don't like Dr. Wile's condescending tone with those who disagree with him, but again, that's a perspective issue.

 

When we started home schooling, science was the area that worried me the most. It's not my strong point. However, my boys have done very well in testing. I'm not so sure that has to do with a particular curriculum but the fact that we do science faithfully for 4+ hours per week. It is now the subject I look forward to the most; but, I do have to read all the material to keep up with the boys.

 

HTH!

Edited by swimmermom3
Defective keyboardist
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The hands-down winner for most popular with my ds is Pandia Press' Real Science Earth and Space. It was a little easy for my 5th grader but it's well-layed out, the experiments are simple, fun, and effective. We especially like the weather and the rock study. For me, I like that it's secular but does not have a ps textbook feel.

 

I'm going to check this out for ds9. I completely agree with you about SL and LifePac, so I think the Pandia Press option could be a great fit for him. (I haven't tried Apologia or R.E.A.L. Science... yet....)

 

Thanks! :001_smile:

 

Cat

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I like the new WTM recs for logic stage science. Tons of new kits - lots of Thames and Kosmos recommendations. The only thing I would add to those recs would be more reading on the topics.

 

If you have a particular area of study in mind, I have book lists for different areas of science. I also have been putting together a workbook for the past couple of years, made up of work pages from things like McGraw Hill's Complete Book of Science, pages from Enchanted learning, and other things I've found online. In this way, each week, I have written work ready to go to reinforce the topics he's reading about.

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For elementary, we have used BJU, Apologia (didnt like the elementary guides very much), Noeo, BF, and various "delight directed" materials.

 

For Jr High, we are very pleased with Apologia.

 

If dc likes lots of books, then maybe BF History of Science would be a hit.

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I have used and really like Real Science 4 Kids.

 

I just purchased Apologia General Science for my 7th/8th grader. I think it is going to be a really good fit.

 

Disliked a lot Noeo Science. It was journal pages and a list of pages to read each day from various books. We did it for less than a month before selling it.

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