Anyone combine My Pals are Here with something else?

[Chez J]

The samples look so "light." I like how the coordinate by "theme." But, it doesn't seem like enough substance from the sample. Is it? I'm comparing to starting PH Science Explorer earth science in 4th grade. I love the look of PH, but worry that she'll forget everything about earth science by 9th if we do it in 4th.

 

Thoughts?

 

Lesley

[A.J. at J.A.]

Are you talking about the My Pals are Here Singapore Science? If so, trust me they are meaty! We use the Text/Activity books and also add in the homework book and higher thinking skills. Together they are a very comprehensive and thought provoking set.

 

Blessings,

Angela

[Chez J]

And tell me how they compare to the full program? The samples don't really seem meaty to me.

 

http://www.singaporemath.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/sp_mphst34_2.pdf

 

This is an example from their sample for book 3A.

 

Thanks for input. I like the idea of how they approach science as systems.

 

Lesley

[rafiki]

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[BillieBoy]

Are you talking about the My Pals are Here Singapore Science? If so, trust me they are meaty! We use the Text/Activity books and also add in the homework book and higher thinking skills. Together they are a very comprehensive and thought provoking set.

 

Blessings,

Angela

 

:iagree:

We also use the extra homework book and higher thinking skills book. I'm loving this program. I encourage my Dd to "go for it" if she is extra interested in a particular topic and in those instances she grabs her Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia or I'll search for something on United Streaming/Discovery Education. I also have some Usborne science books at her disposal. But otherwise I feel MPH is plenty meaty. I am one of those overboard, overkill, "there's no such thing as enough" homeschool parents. :willy_nilly:

[Chez J]

I didn't dig into the teacher's manual because I was turned off by the textbook.

 

Do you use the teacher's manual or the teaching notes book? Which one will have options for a "long-term" project that requires planning? This is a feature of PHSE that I really like.

 

Thanks,

 

Lesley

[Colleen in SEVA]

We combined MPH 3A/3B (the old way it was organized) with RS4K Pre-Chem one year.

 

I also have the new 3/4 combo set, and the teacher's manual provides so many web links and additional activities, it worked out to be 80 lessons in the books, so easily a full year of stuff to do (either 2 lessons per week, or spread each lesson into 2 days and do 4 days per week).

 

We switched to PHSE, I like both programs but there is a big step up between programs! In looking at what else you are doing, I'd say you could do PHSE but plan to take 4 years (4 books per year).

[rafiki]

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[rafiki]

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[Chez J]

How would it go to use in 4th grade: MPH 3/4 4 days a week for the first semester, then a semester of, say one or two small biology books from PHSE? Then, 5th grade: MPH 5/6 4 days a week for a semester, then say one or two small Earth science books from PHSE. Then, 6th grade: Interactive science A with Singapore for a semester, then one or two small chemistry books from PHSE. Then in 7th grade: Interactive science B with Singapore for a semester, then one or two small physics books from PHSE.

 

It would give us a view of science as a collective study to see how it all relates, but still lets me us PHSE for an indepth study.

 

Would that just be nuts?

 

Lesley

[KAR120C]

How would it go to use in 4th grade: MPH 3/4 4 days a week for the first semester, then a semester of, say one or two small biology books from PHSE? Then, 5th grade: MPH 5/6 4 days a week for a semester, then say one or two small Earth science books from PHSE. Then, 6th grade: Interactive science A with Singapore for a semester, then one or two small chemistry books from PHSE. Then in 7th grade: Interactive science B with Singapore for a semester, then one or two small physics books from PHSE.

It's been a long time since I used MPH, and a different edition, so I'll let the others field that part, but Interactive is a big jump in both workload and style. The texts are textbooky-er, the practicals take longer, there's more math and the workbook assignments are more substantial (both in length and challenge). It can be done fast, but I think it loses something that way. Actually I'd say the same about MPH when we used it.... we did schedule it quite a bit faster than it's intended... but I think you get more out of it at a more leisurely pace.

 

If you want to supplement, I think I'd do it concurrently -- get library books on interesting topics, or expand on a section -- rather than speeding through and then doing something else. Your mileage may vary of course, but that would be my suggestion.

[rafiki]

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[KAR120C]

Singapore Interactive and Prentice Hall Science Explorers? Especially how the transition from MPH to one or both would be? Which would you consider your core if you did decide to use both?

 

I have the Earth Science text (and it might be an edition or two out of date - ISBN 0-13-050622-2). I've not used it, but I've looked at it pretty closely. Compared to Interactive, I'd say:

1. The text is a bit longer and wordier, but it reads kind of like a magazine article -- lots of pictures, captions and sidebars.

2. The emphasis is very much on content. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but may or may not be what you're looking for. For instance, there are a lot of vocabulary words for each chapter. A lot. And most of the questions in the workbook relate to the vocabulary words.

3. The Guided Reading and Study Workbook is closely related to the text, which I think is good, except that compared to Interactive in particular the questions are extremely straightforward (again, not necessarily bad, but in our case not what I'm looking for). So for instance, in the workbook it asks "An area of wave-washed sediment along a coast is a ______" and if you go to the section indicated (each bit of workbook is linked to 1-2 pages of text), there's a sentence in the text that matches exactly: "A beach is an area of wave-washed sediment along a coast." In fact it looks like if you zipped through the text finding bolded words, you could answer all the questions in the workbook without reading the rest of the text.

4. There is a lab manual, and it looks fine.

I think my main reason for preferring Interactive is the workbook questions. You really can't just look up the answers for Interactive workbook questions - they are frequently put together from information in the text, plus what you learned from the practicals or what you know from common sense. Even the straightforward questions in Interactive aren't taken verbatim from the text -- like one I'm looking at here (in a section on chemistry): "A spoonful of sugar first melts, then turns into a black solid upon heating. Explain why the second change is a chemical reaction but not the first change." And later in the same section: "a. Explain why energy is both absorbed and released in a chemical reaction..... b. What determines whether there is a net transfer of energy from or to the surroundings during a chemical reaction?" The text has discussed chemical changes and energy transfer, and the experiments have been related, but there's no page that says "The net transfer of energy from or to the surroundings during a chemical reaction is determined by ___". It's something you have to put together from what you've read and what you've done in lab.

 

Singapore has much less emphasis on vocabulary at all levels.... There are new words of course, but they aren't the major focus. We're heading into the high school books next year, and while I still really love the materials and plan to use them until we run out, I'm glad DS is hitting them a little early so we can follow up with US materials. There are certain areas that I think he would be expected to have seen before when he gets to college, that Singapore doesn't emphasize. For instance, he was talking about doing a science fair project next year on algae, and when we pulled the texts off the shelf to see what they had on the subject, there is nothing under "algae" in Biology Matters. The US texts we have (nothing remarkable - just standard high school and introductory-level college texts) all have pages and pages.

 

I think both approaches are valid, so long as neither one is entirely to the exclusion of the other (you can't really do this without some new words, and it's not science if it's only new words). Singapore definitely leans toward making the kids think through what they've learned and put it together to answer questions. PHSE misses a lot of opportunities to do just that, leaning more toward vocabulary questions and finding answers in the text. I think for my purposes PHSE goes a little too far in the vocabulary direction and not far enough in critical thinking, but it's not a bad program -- there are situations when that would be fine. Also, I think PHSE is what we generally expect science to be in US schools. It's not my ideal, but if you went through nothing but PHSE in late elementary and middle school, especially for a kid who isn't looking for a career in science, you'd have covered what they're expected to know and they could keep up with most PS science classes if they went back to school at that point.

 

Hope this helps!

[rafiki]

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[Colleen in SEVA]

I've read that the Singapore 7/8 science labs are harder to do at home, has that been your experience? That was one of the main reasons we switched to PHSE, but now I'm wondering why we didn't just stick with MPH longer. :)

[KAR120C]

MPH is making him think and "I" like that, but will that be too much for a non science child when he reaches Interactive? Part of me says to stick with texts in areas they are not passionate about.

If my kid hated science, I might not do Singapore... but on the other hand, critical thinking is an excellent skill for any kid's education.... Only it might be something that a non-science kid would do better getting elsewhere. kwim? How's that for a non-answer. ;)

 

I've not looked at Science Detective at all, so I can't say... but what we've done so far to keep up with the content/vocabulary stuff is mostly just checking out science books from the library, and reading science magazines (I like New Scientist especially), and doing a science fair project every year - which of course requires background reading in whatever area..... The interesting thing about testing - once you get to the ACT or the Explore (8th grade ACT-type test), the science section is more analysis (critical thinking!) than fact. DS has always done extremely well on the science section of those tests, and I think Singapore helped quite a bit. The ACT science questions are not all that different from the Singapore questions -- they're comprehension without verbatim answers in the text.

 

But overall the only time I'm really concerned about content is high school. Middle school and elementary science is so variable that there isn't really too much of a standard to meet. But when you've done high school Biology and called it high school Biology, there are certain things they think you should have covered. If you ask me again in a year I might be clearer... As we're doing Biology Matters I plan to supplement in whatever way seems appropriate to prepare for the SAT2 test in Biology... so that should cover all the bases right there. But my planning is all very seat-of-our-pants, so it's hard to say how it will play out until we're done.

[Chez J]

How beefy are the labs in MPH compared to PHSE? I love the chapter projects and the "target skills" they have in the PHSE books.

 

Is there a comparable component in the supplements or the teacher's manual?

 

What about adding reading from Apologia? The first chapter in zoology discusses classification, there are chapters on plant cycles, and such.

 

Thanks,

 

Lesley

[KAR120C]

I've read that the Singapore 7/8 science labs are harder to do at home, has that been your experience? That was one of the main reasons we switched to PHSE, but now I'm wondering why we didn't just stick with MPH longer. :)

We skipped a couple and we adapted a couple... but really they're not bad at all. When you get to high school level, the Chemistry labs really are too much for home I think (and I've only looked at the Physics enough to say that it's going to take more looking -- I think several will need some adapting or they would be tremendously expensive). High school Biology is going to be fine -- lots of houseplants, some dissections, and a ton of enzymes. But Interactive wasn't bad at all.

 

So I'll say it's not just open-and-go, but it's definitely doable. The chemistry parts of Interactive are probably the hardest, and I would highly recommend the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments as a helpful resource for the things that aren't explicitly laid out in the Interactive books (like mixing your own dilute acids, and proper chemical disposal). There are experiments that call for a datalogger, but they're frequently very easy to adapt -- instead of plugging in an automatic thermometer, I don't see any reason why DS shouldn't have the experience of having to sit there with a stopwatch and a pencil and fill in a table himself. But then I'm a meany that way. ;)

[KAR120C]

How beefy are the labs in MPH compared to PHSE? I love the chapter projects and the "target skills" they have in the PHSE books.

 

Is there a comparable component in the supplements or the teacher's manual?

The labs are really good in PHSE -- and I like those chapter projects too. The Interactive labs aren't exactly the same.. but each chapter (in my edition at least) has "Think Tank" and "Exploring Activities" sections that might be similar to the PHSE chapter projects.

 

It's hard to compare, since the only PHSE I have is Earth Science... which is the one topic that Singapore doesn't cover in their science books. (I've been told that they cover it separately as Physical Geography, but I've not seen those books myself.)

 

But I do think the PHSE labs are good. As you get into the high school levels of Singapore I think the differences are bigger -- more of the Singapore labs are of the "Here's your question and here are your materials. Come up with a plan and carry it out" variety, which is lacking in most of the other curricula I've seen, but then we're comparing different levels, so that's not completely fair.... But my main issues with PHSE are with the text and the workbook, rather than the labs.