Multiple Science Curriculums?

[Wheres Toto]

I never thought I'd have this problem with having too many science programs, especially since I definitely want secular resources.

 

When we first started playing around with homeschooling last year, I purchased a couple Evan Moor books - Giant Science Resource Book and Science Experiments for Young Learners. They worked well with the unit study approach we were taking then. Things were a little random but that was also fine since the kids were (are) so young. But, I started wanting something with more of a scope and sequence.

 

When I first started looking for a more complete curriculum, I loved the look of REAL Science Odyssey - Life Science but since we had just done a unit on the Human Body and Insects, I wasn't sure how much of it we'd use (I do have the Try Before You Buys and it looks like the type of thing my kids really like). Then I heard about BFSU. I love the idea of how it connects the different disciplines of science for a better understanding of the whole picture. I ordered the book and I have an outline of our sequence for the next year (or two years - I mentioned in another thread how we alternate doing History and Science so timing isn't exact). I love a lot of things about BFSU but there are some topics that I don't feel it goes into enough detail including Weather, Space/Solar System and the classifications of animals - Reptiles, Amphibians, etc. So, I've been thinking of getting RSO to fill in some of these blanks but would need both Life Science and Earth/Space Science. I've also been thinking about Intellego Unit Studies.

 

So, does anyone use multiple science curriculums or am I just insane? Keeping in mind that this is probably for the next two years at least (possibly three). DH and I both have Science degrees - his is Chemistry while mine is Biology but with an Environmental emphasis so it included a lot of Earth Science/Geology. Science is definitely a big thing in our house and so far, the kids love it.

[GoVanGogh]

Science is definitely a big thing in our house and so far, the kids love it.

Same here. :lol:

DS has taken an outsourced class using Apologia 'Flying Creatures' and we have used their 'Astronomy' book at home.

We have also used Evan-Moor workbooks.

I have made up our own unit studies on insects and volcanoes.

We have used "Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding" by Nebel.

Currently we are doing chemistry with Elemental Science and I plan on using her physics program next year.

Botany - we cover constantly in the garden, though I really want to spend a semester on it later.

I have Beautiful Feet guide for 'History of Science,' plus --- um, well, too many science books to count. :tongue_smilie:

DS says he wants to be a scientist when he grows up, so I want to make sure he is well prepared. :lol: That's my excuse anyway. Really - I was a journalism major with an earth science minor... I regret not majoring in a science so I am reliving my education through my son.

[Paula in PA]

Well, I don't use multiple curriculums, but I do tend to add a lot of extra resources to whatever we're using for the year, plus lots of living science books, plus extra experiments/projects. :D My dd gobbles it all up, though.

 

So, no, I don't think you're insane.

[mammaofbean]

there are so many different subjects encompassed in "science". dd is 5, we do animal studies using a variety of sources and we do world book science. there is no reason we can't do snakes and electricity in the same week as two different subjects. we also have all sorts of science experiments to pull out as we like, and rock collecting, and weather tracking, and whatever else we add to our day.

 

one of the things we like best about homeschooling is more time for science.

[kalanamak]

 

So, does anyone use multiple science curriculums or am I just insane? Keeping in mind that this is probably for the next two years at least (possibly three).

 

Well, I'm only 4 days into 3rd grade, but we have already done 1, 2 and half of book 3 in Adventures in Molecules and Atoms, a third of RSO chem, and over half of Van Cleave's Chemistry for Every Kid. I've got three more books in the mail, a kit, and I bought Mebane's more advanced books, like "Water and Other Liquids" and "Salts and Solids". I did get a 6 week head start when we got tired of astronomy. :D

 

I am planning on doing chem for 6 months, physics for the next 6 months and then use 4th grade for some more detailed bio, earth science, chem and physics (perhaps work through the snap circuits in a more methodical way, but I get a bit rampant every time I look at Home Science Tools).

 

Part of why I'm doing this is because I get a stomach pain over simplifying history so much for this young age. I'd rather solidify science, geography, places, etc rather than trying to make kiddo understand why the Crusades took place. I will focus on history beyond the ancients and Vikings, etc. when kiddo has more insight into human behavior. I am doing a "history of science" track, whenever I can find a decent book. Tonight was Bell and his talking machine.

 

So, while the WTM advises 3 hours of history per week and 2 of science, we do 2 of history and 4 or more of science, often "science Sundays".

 

Have you done dissection yet? Kiddo loved it. I got the cow bits at Home Science Tools and they were not too stinky.

[Rosie_0801]

Grr. Double post.

Edited August 5, 2010 by Rosie_0801

[Rosie_0801]

Do you read the BFSU yahoo group? I wouldn't be surprised if the topics you have mentioned are to be included in the next volume, or the one after. I suggest you ask on the yahoo group. No one will know better than the author :D There isn't any need to pack absolutely everything into the K-2 book is there? There are more years to come, after all! Or do you have specific plans for grades 3-8 so you need those things covered earlier? (Not being snarky, I'm curious!)

 

I am intending to supplement BFSU heavily myself though. I've got two kids close in age so I imagine I'll be going through the book twice because #2 will be a bit young first time around, and want to use different books and experiments so I can combine them without #1 getting bored by repeating.

 

I haven't used it yet, as evidence by my sig line, but a friend and I have been buddy planning it recently. Thanks for the Intelligo link, I haven't seen that before.

 

Rosie

Edited August 5, 2010 by Rosie_0801

[Wheres Toto]

Do you read the BFSU yahoo group? I wouldn't be surprised if the topics you have mentioned are to be included in the next volume, or the one after. I suggest you ask on the yahoo group. No one will know better than the author :D There isn't any need to pack absolutely everything into the K-2 book is there? There are more years to come, after all! Or do you have specific plans for grades 3-8 so you need those things covered earlier? (Not being snarky, I'm curious!)

 

I am intending to supplement BFSU heavily myself though. I've got two kids close in age so I imagine I'll be going through the book twice because #2 will be a bit young first time around, and want to use different books and experiments so I can combine them without #1 getting bored by repeating.

 

I haven't used it yet, as evidence by my sig line, but a friend and I have been buddy planning it recently. Thanks for the Intelligo link, I haven't seen that before.

 

Rosie

Yep, I'm on the BFSU Yahoo group (I love my internet.:D)

 

There are a few reasons I'm thinking more of supplementing the K-2 book rather than waiting (or asking) what's in the next one.

 

One - I think when we hit the brief overviews in BFSU (species, evaporation/condensation, weightlessness in space) it would be a logical point to throw in the rest of taxonomy, weather and space - in fact, knowing my son he will insist upon it.

 

Two - I like having some of the lab sheets, etc. already laid out for me. I like BFSU but it's a lot of working getting things set up and there is overlap between it and RSO besides the areas I want to expand upon. I will admit I have a decent selection of lab sheets/worksheets from my Evan Moor books so an additional purchase is probably not completely necessary.

 

Three - Even if we take three years to go through all this, my kids are still within the age range for BFSU K-2. My older homeschooling child is just turning 5 and my younger just turned 3. I anticipate being able to use all these materials for two run-throughs (with some alternate experiments, etc.) before needing to move up a level. We're starting early (because ds LOVES to do school) but I don't really plan on accelerating unless he completely masters a level (which I see happening for math maybe but not science when there are so many things to explore).

 

Thank you for the replies. Nice to know that if I am insane, I'm not the only one. ;)

[Capt_Uhura]

No you're not insane....or else, we all are! :lol: I have so many science curricula it ain't funny. DH and I are both scientists and the apples didn't fall too far from the tree. But I also have two history buffs so it makes it hard to get it all in sometimes! The next level of BFSU should be ready soon I think and will likely cover the topics you're wanting.

[Satori]

I have several secular science programs.

 

Although I loved BFSU, we were failures at implementing it. I still plan to get the new book coming out this year though, even if it is only myself that reads/uses it. We switched to RSO Life and love it! We also just did a body unit so I was wondering if we should skip that part and do it later, but I decided to just continue with it. I'm thinking of adding RSO Chemistry, as that is a current big interest for my daughter, but wondering if we'd be better to wait a year.

 

We have Singapore Start Up Science and Child's Play Science (meh). I have the Evan Moore Giant Science in PDF that I recently realized I had purchased a year ago. We've got Elemental Science, but I wanted something that is secular to the core and more to it.

 

Anyway, we're having so much fun with RSO that we could possibly go through the entire series (written so far) rather quickly. If that happens, I might use Nancy Larson Science, which looks fun and thorough. It looks secular, but if it isn't, someone let me know. :)

[Donna T.]

So, does anyone use multiple science curriculums or am I just insane?

 

No, you are not insane! We are almost always using multiple curricula here. Neither my husband nor I have a strong science background but our boys just love it. I have always tended toward using "complete" curricula... like My Father's World and Heart of Dakota. We use the science in those programs but have found that "complete" curricula sometimes (usually) means "light" science. We really like Sonlight because our kids love the books and it's such a simple program to use alongside other things. So, we are usually doing that plus other things.

 

Next year, we will be using the science in one Heart of Dakota program, plus two Sonlight science programs (one for each kiddo) and finishing up the last half of a Noeo Science program. That's the "official" stuff and we add in lots of other things on an informal, delight-directed basis.

[Tracy]

Dr. Nebel, the author of BFSU encourages everyone to use any and all materials that suit them. He says that everything is interconnected and if you get something more out of science by supplementing or combining, then he encourages it. I would just encourage you to make sure you not making yourself more busy, because that is easy to do when you start to supplement. But I think you can do just about anything with BFSU.

[plansrme]

one of the things we like best about homeschooling is more time for science.

 

Yep, same here. My first grader's best neighbor friend (friend goes to the local public school) was over here this afternoon, and they were comparing notes on their respective first days of school. My son was exclaiming over his science, that it's just awesome, blah blah blah. Neighbor friend looked at him blankly--he has no idea what science is. I find that so sad!

 

We use science whenever/wherever possible because they love it so much. I have a hard time not doing a formal reading program, so I use science comprehension workbooks to make myself feel better, and my 6 yo does them happily 'cause, well, they're science, not reading. ;)

 

Terri

[Mandarinmom]

We use K12 science as a base, CPO, Glencoe science, RS4kids, and so you really want to learn science both Junior and non-junior, depends what a topic. I found that elementary science curriculum feel to 'elementary' to me and my daughter. Another thing I found that new Apologia Anatomy and Physiology book has the most interesting and complete information compare to other elementary books. CPO is too short on facts and explanations. Even Glencoe, though it is Middle school curriculum. We certainly want to learn more than that.

[nova mama]

I really like the fact that Elemental Science is WTM-style, but I'm considering getting Classic Science because DS8 will probably like the worksheets. Plus, I am concerned that I may not always have time, and Classic Science is very kid-readable. So when I'm too busy for narration, I could have DS do Classic Science on his own.

[elise1mds]

For this year alone, I've got three different approaches: RSO, E=MC2, and BFSU. My son loves to study science on a daily basis, year-round, so I'm trying to tie all these together to help him get as deep as he wants to go. He's thrilled! I've got a lot of work cut out for me to keep up with him, but as long as he's retaining and able to truly understand what he's doing, I'm happy to let him go.

[Researcher]

 

We've got Elemental Science, but I wanted something that is secular to the core and more to it.

 

 

 

 

Can you give me more info on this? Is ES not secular? I was considering switching to ES from RSO and I have not found any information on ES not being secular.

 

Although I love RSO for the setup, it just didn't happen in our house because it is so experiment heavy. There were days that I just couldn't make it to the hands on stuff. Again, I really do like the idea and I like their experiment sheets and printouts for labeling the parts of plants, cells, etc.

 

I'm just hopeful the ES will still give us the material we need to cover while teaching the scientific method and we'll actually get it done!:tongue_smilie:

[Satori]

ES as a program is secular enough, I even own it. For some reason I got the impression that the author may not be secular "to the core" meaning that she would cover evolution, but I could be wrong! I'm extremely picky about science. I just want to be sure a science program I use will cover evolution at some point, and RSO mentioned they will.

Edited August 8, 2010 by Satori

[MissKNG]

Even though it hasn't arrived yet, I ordered Singapore Earlybird Science. I basically bought it to do "lessons on the fly" because it's a workbook curriculum. If my big girl wants to do science outside of Sonlight, I can whip a book out and work a page from there (doing a page in relation to what we are doing in SL).

[Researcher]

Thanks for taking the time to respond Angela! I know exactly what you mean and will keep that in mind.

 

I think I'll give ES Biology a whirl to see how it works for us. If not, I always have RSO to go back to.

[2cents]

We're multiple sciencers here too. :) This school year (started in summer) we have done herbology (Universal Class), astronomy, weather (JASON), forensics (Duke TIP) and this fall we're doing Apologia bio, Kitchen Chemistry (MIT)(many thanks to the poster who posted this cool course!), and primate studies...so far. The girls love the sciences so we go with it. We're eclectic with our sources and that makes it more interesting IMO.

[Halcyon]

We use BFSU for both our kids, and also use Young Scientist Kits for fun. I recently bought the Carson Dellosa complete book of science for 3-4 grade for my older to use as a spine. We also do experiments from Everything Kids Science Experiment Book...and lots of readers from the library. So, yes, we mix it up!