Annabel Lee Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 How many of you that have used or are using R.E.A.L. Science (Pandia Press) Earth & Space used the recommended spines and additional reading books (some are marked "highly recommended") that are listed at the beginning of the program? I'm just wondering how much I can get away with not buying. :D I have The Usborne Encyclopedia of Planet Earth (not internet-linked) and the Usborne First Encyc. of Space. There are alot of additional resource suggestions listed on pages 11-14 of this R.E.A.L. program. I'm thinking about getting 1 main general Science Encyc., 1 general illustrated dictionary of science, 1 main spine ea. for earth & space, and then just using whatever my library has of these titles plus whatever related books I already own (but not necessarily the exact titles) for the rest. Do you think we'll be missing out on alot by doing that? My library is very hit-and-miss about what they have. I don't mind buying a few things, but it would add up to hundreds of dollars if I bought the whole list! TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs. Frankweiler Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 :lurk5: (I have the exact same questions! Thanks for posting this.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasha Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 We are getting ready to start R.E.A.L. Earth & Space so I don't have an answer for you...yet. However, I'm going to go to the library tomorrow and take some time to look up most of the books on the list for unit 1. My library is generally very adequate so I'm expecting that I'll be able to find at least the highly recommended books. If you'd like I'll look over the books and let you know if I think they are not-to-be-missed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 Well..... I had a list of stuff I was gonna buy from their recommended things (about $150 worth) and dh said we just couldn't spend the extra money. So I have only been using my library (and the next towns library) and its worked out great. I don't know how good your library is, but you might want to see what they have first. They might not have the exact books, but might have something similar that would work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2koh Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 We just started Earth/Space this week and will be using the library and the internet. There were quite a few links in the front of the manual. We'll see how this goes in the beginning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto4girls Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 We started trying to add in all the books, etc., and it got to be too much. We had too much other reading to do in other subject areas and with four kids... I just couldn't swing it every time. I'm glad I didn't spend a lot of money (I had initially put all the books I wanted into my Amazon cart and then realized how expensive it would be so I didn't place the order.) So I changed it up. I have lots of science books (I always hit the used sale at the library) so I ended up grouping them by topic. I would then look to see if we had one (or more) on the topic and put it out on our display shelf; the kids read it when/if they were interested. They have a notebook where they write down anything out of books they read that interests them (think The Common Place Book from the Lemoniny Snicketts stories) and this seemed to work well. It took the pressure off of "having" to include them. I think that we actually read more books this way. We also looked things up online if they were interested in the topic. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annabel Lee Posted August 9, 2009 Author Share Posted August 9, 2009 We are getting ready to start R.E.A.L. Earth & Space so I don't have an answer for you...yet. However, I'm going to go to the library tomorrow and take some time to look up most of the books on the list for unit 1. My library is generally very adequate so I'm expecting that I'll be able to find at least the highly recommended books. If you'd like I'll look over the books and let you know if I think they are not-to-be-missed. If you are going to be looking at the books anyways, that would be great! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 I'd get a few of the resources but no way do you need the whole list! We're doing space first, and UFES and a few library books have been perfectly adequate. I have Earth Atlas for later (on Tara's rec) and the Magic School Bus books. I'm holding out for the new edition of the Usborne Science Encyclopedia, but I'm surprisingly finding a lot of good resources at the library. R.E.A.L. is so activity and experiment oriented - don't overdo it on the books (and believe me, I've been tempted!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truscifi Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 We just started Earth and Space, so I don't know for sure, but I only bought the Usborne first encyclopedias for earth and space. I plan to hit the library for anything else. Ds is very visual and likes all the illustrations in the Usborne books, so I think he will continue to use them for a while - which is why I went ahead and bought them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcara Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 I didn't buy any books. I get as many books from the library as they have from the list of suggested books. We do 2 days per week of science from the R.E.A.L. book. On another day of the week I have my dd choose at least one of the library books to read. Usually she's read most of them already during her freetime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarlaS Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 The reason for the really really long list is so you can find a couple of books per unit to read in addition to the lesson. I have several of the books already, and do plan to buy as many of the highly recommended ones as I can. I'm only buying books I think my kids will read more than once. If it's not interesting enough to read twice, why bother owning it? I don't see the need to read more than 1-2 books per unit either, and a few similar from the library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annabel Lee Posted August 11, 2009 Author Share Posted August 11, 2009 Thanks ladies. I don't know what I was thinking - that is a ton of reading. I went ahead & did what I was contemplating - I ordered a general science encyclopedia, a science dictionary, and am going to use the earth & space spines I already own. I have a few of the additional books on hand, but will just get whatever the library has for the rest. I spent a few hours on my library's website checking out what they have & don't have from the REAL list, and they had more than I thought they would. What did our mothers' generation do w/o boards like this? Oh, decide for themselves, that's what! :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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