Struggling 7th grade reader and science student (attention God's Design users)...

[Greta Lea]

I'm looking for a science program that my 7th grade can read indepdently. He's struggles with reading, but also is just not a science type person. Even when I read aloud science topics he doesn't comprehend like he does with history and bible.

 

We buddy read Apologia Astronomy, but he did NOT enjoy it. He needs a straight forward, just the facts kinda book. He likes spouting off facts that he's learned.

 

What reading level would you say God's Design (Life Science) is? He needs a 4th-5th grade reading level, short readings with very BASIC info.

 

thanks!

[Milknhoney]

Just started God's Design for Life with my 1st grader last week. This curriculum is designed for multiple grade levels, and each lesson has two reading sections: a very simple and basic section for the younger kids and a more in-depth section for the older ones. I would think that a 7th grader should be able to handle the more in-depth reading, since the idea is that you would start your second cycle through the set in 5th grade. The reading section is still only about 1 to 2 pages. Then there are highlighted boxes with more information or more advanced experiments that you could choose to do or not. And, he could always jump back to the more basic section for early elementary if it is all too much.

[elegantlion]

We used Exploring the World of Biology for my ds part of the year. He too struggles with reading and is about at a 5th grade level. There are also other books in this series. What I liked is that he could take a day or two to read the chapter and there is short quiz at the end of each chapter. We would do the quiz orally, which helped me grade his comprehension.

[Stacy in NJ]

We used Exploring the World of Biology for my ds part of the year. He too struggles with reading and is about at a 5th grade level. There are also other books in this series. What I liked is that he could take a day or two to read the chapter and there is short quiz at the end of each chapter. We would do the quiz orally, which helped me grade his comprehension.

 

Does the book include any hands on experiments?

[elegantlion]

Does the book include any hands on experiments?

 

No. We did nature study for our experiment time this semester.

[siloam]

I'm looking for a science program that my 7th grade can read indepdently. He's struggles with reading, but also is just not a science type person. Even when I read aloud science topics he doesn't comprehend like he does with history and bible.

 

We buddy read Apologia Astronomy, but he did NOT enjoy it. He needs a straight forward, just the facts kinda book. He likes spouting off facts that he's learned.

 

What reading level would you say God's Design (Life Science) is? He needs a 4th-5th grade reading level, short readings with very BASIC info.

 

thanks!

 

Greta,

 

I am not sure that God's Design would be a perfect fit, but it would be a lot closer than Apologia.

 

GD has less depth than the Apologia counterparts, though that isn't difficult to figure out. GD has on book on Biology and Apologia has 3 books on animals alone, then the Body book and Botany.

 

All the books have a main lesson that is about a page long. A little shorter in the life books, and a little longer in the Physics, but not overly so. Then they have a section for older kids to read in blue. About half the test questions come from the older kid section. The vocab list on the first page of each lesson, then in color in the text. Each book has its own glossary in the back, so I can make my dd write out her vocab cards (big plus for me). Each lesson has questions, designed to be done orally. I type them up and have my dd write up the answers. I actually let her self correct them with the answer key and then she studies off of them. There is generally one activity per lesson, and sometimes more because the older child section will have its own worksheet or experiment. Again the worksheets are often key and show up on the tests, though the experiments seem to be less important.

 

If you start with the Life books I think they would be exactly what you want. The earth book, Weather specifically, has some concepts that are a little tough. I haven't read the Chemistry books, but the Physics didn't seem too tough except for the fact that everything is taken up a notch. The reading, more vocab, more experiments, need to do some calculations.

 

My oldest is an auditory learner and I have her read them out loud to herself.

 

Heather

[Stacy in NJ]

No. We did nature study for our experiment time this semester.

 

thanks. :001_smile:

[mereminerals]

Each series of God's Design varies on the grade levels recommended. Some are from 1st-6th grade, where others are 3rd-8th grade. It is easily adapted for different ages. The newest edition is in color and might be more appealing if the child is reading it themselves. I read it aloud to my dc's.

[Cinder]

He needs a straight forward, just the facts kinda book.

 

 

 

GDS is just this--straight to the point, just the facts. Not chatty. Just the way ds2 likes it. He did the earth science set last year for 6th and the life science set the year before. I think you might do well to start with either of these. Maybe mix and match within these depending on your ds's interests. My ds thought some of the experiments/activities were a bit "young" for him so we skipped some of those.

 

Cinder

[jetzmama]

I've tried the blue and orange series of GD. Blue (earth sci/astronomy/weather) when they were younger... way over their heads, but some of the activities were really fun. I think the newer format would help with which parts to read. Did EcoSystems (orange) this year and they found it very dry and boring. Have had a friend who raved over the Life as a supplement for her 4th grade girl.

 

Did Apologia in 4th for oldest... he's a strong reader, so he did it independently, with me being available for narrations & to check notebooking activities. He was sick of it after about 2 chapters.

 

Did Apologia again in 5th...but used a lapbook (we're using Knowledge Box Central, but there are several good ones out there for Apologia). Bingo! I thought this would be more time consuming, but it is actually taking less time because they enjoy the hands on aspect.

While I read, they jot down the facts in their mini-books, then attach them to the lapbook when they are done. Somtimes they finish a few minibooks, other times it takes a few days to finish just one... depends on how the minibook is set up and what it covers. I did do all the cut outs and organize the templates before we started... huge help in the daily time factor.

 

Sorry for the long post! HTH!