corbie Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 We used K12 Science 3 last year. It was thorough but dry. My younger dd would roll her eyes every time I brought it out. Older dd loves science and thought it was ok. We still haven't finished the book. I do think they learned a lot, but I want them to enjoy science more. I have looked at Pandia Press but worried it might be too simple for my 5th grader. I looked at Rainbow Science (colors) but thought it might be too complicated for my 3rd grader. Any ideas for making one or the other work or other suggestions for science curriula? I have to say that science is not my favorite subject to teach. Maybe I just haven't found the right program. I loved science in hs and college. I think many programs have messy experiments that don't really teach anything. Thanks for any ideas or input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athena1277 Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 Check out the science program by Answers in Genesis. I'm starting it this year with my dd. It looks pretty good and can be used on several age levels. It is a Christian worldview, so if you are going secular you might not like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tohru Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 Apologia's elementary science (Astronomy, Botany, Zoology) is pretty good and you could use it for both children. I'm not sure if you're looking for a secular curriculum or not, but we edited Apologia for secular use. The activities go along with the lesson pretty well. We actually skipped over a few of the experiments because ds didn't want to do them, but he still understood the content w/o it. As for Pandia, I have no experience. We used Rainbow Science for only a few chapters and ds thought that the experiments were kind of lame.... but that might be his age now. Edit: Apologia General Science for middle school has the experiments on CD so they can watch it if they don't want to do it, which is a plus for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corbie Posted July 4, 2009 Author Share Posted July 4, 2009 Jadeone80 - I actually have Botany but forgot about it. We did it a few years ago. I just remembered it. The girls want to try out a few other books from the series. We are looking at Astronomy, Zoo2, and Zoo3. Any experience with those? We got through most of Botany but got bored with the same topic. I think I need to get two books, so when we hit that wall, I can switch. The method itself was very pleasant to use. The readings short and projects simple. I'm assuming the other books follow suit. Have you used the other books? Any better than another? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tohru Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 We actually didn't do Botany because ds didn't want to study flowers for an entire year. lol Astronomy was good, however we went through it pretty quickly. I think it only took us a few months. He doesn't like doing experiements, so it goes faster for us. The Zoology series seems like it has more variety. Flying Creatures covers birds, bats, flyng reptiles, and insects. We skipped around in that book, studying migration when birds were migrating and insects in the summer. Swimming Creatures we haven't done, however I have the book and the TOC has: whales, seals and sea cows, aquatic herps (turtles, snakes, frogs, salamanders), primeval reptiles (have no idea what that is), fish, sharks and rays, crutaceans, mollusks, cephalopods, echinoderms, and cindarians. Switching between the series sounds like a really good idea. I liked the series because of the language and pictures. We did try other curricula, however I can't remember which ones off the top of my head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 What about the Christian Kids Explore series if you don't mind Christian? I am looking at using it with my ds when he hits 3rd grade. His sister will be starting high school, so I'm going to use the books that correspond with her topic so at least they will be on the same subject. She is doing Rainbow for the next 2 years. It is written for junior high students, so it could be above your kids levels. I'm considering trying to bring ds along with us in it by just listening, watching and helping a little with experiments, but I'd love a young child resource to go along with it for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winoelle Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 Apologia's elementary science (Astronomy, Botany, Zoology) is pretty good and you could use it for both children. I'm not sure if you're looking for a secular curriculum or not, but we edited Apologia for secular use. The activities go along with the lesson pretty well. We actually skipped over a few of the experiments because ds didn't want to do them, but he still understood the content w/o it. As for Pandia, I have no experience. We used Rainbow Science for only a few chapters and ds thought that the experiments were kind of lame.... but that might be his age now. Edit: Apologia General Science for middle school has the experiments on CD so they can watch it if they don't want to do it, which is a plus for us. I was just wondering how you made Apologia secular? I was looking it over and it is really interesting to me, but it looks like you would have to really re-word a LOT to make it secular. I only looked at Zoology though so maybe other topics are less difficult? Noelle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tohru Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 I was just wondering how you made Apologia secular? I was looking it over and it is really interesting to me, but it looks like you would have to really re-word a LOT to make it secular. I only looked at Zoology though so maybe other topics are less difficult? Noelle I have no fear of owning my books and taking black markers to them. lol Most of the highly religious stuff is in the first and last chapters. I marked out entire paragraphs in a few chapters, some pages just had a sentence here and there, and sometimes just crossing out a word and replacing it with another made it acceptable for us. Even though it sounds like a lot of editing, the majority of the pages had no need for editing. It made it easier to read to just bypass all the religious stuff. The rest of the content was pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corbie Posted July 4, 2009 Author Share Posted July 4, 2009 Amy - I looked at the CKE series, but I've read a lot of bad reviews. How do you like Rainbow Sci? They are coming out with a version for 10-12 yr olds. I was thinking about it. Re: Apologia series being used secular - We are Christian, so that's not an issue for me. I do get bothered, however, when religion is too much part of a science curriculum. I didn't find Apologia to be too heavy on references to Christian beliefs. If reading aloud, one could easily skip over a sentence or paragraph without hurting the integrity of the unit. I have seen some Christian science programs that are so heavy with Christian content that one wonders if they're teaching science or religion. I do not feel that about Apologia, at least from my experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyK Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 Thanks for the description of what had to be marked out to make materials secular. I was wondering if anyone could give me guidance about the following: I don't mind using Christian materials as long as they don't use the Bible for historical or scientific facts. I'm fine with references to God, bible verses etc. Would either of these programs work with that in mind? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tohru Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 For Apologia, it seems like most the information is based on commonly accepted scientific facts. There are a few statements tossed in that use the scientific information to support certain biblical beliefs, however we just crossed those statements out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyK Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 That's helpful, since they sound like good materials. Appreciate it.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 We use Pandia (REAL Science Odyssey) and it's not so much that the science would be too easy, but just too bare. I heavily supplement the program with Usborne books to flesh it out and my son is just 8. However, I like to do it that way, because I prefer to customize the program to our interests and our schedule. We did Life Science last year and I have planned out Earth Science for next year. The Chemistry is better for an older student IMO - I'll probably do that for 5th grade. You can download samples of Life, Earth & Chemistry from Pandia which basically gives you the first quarter of each program. It's a very good way of seeing what it's all about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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