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Frustrated with Real Science Odyssey Life


Cindyz
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I'm frustrated with Real Science Odyssey Life's book list. Many of the books on the book list are very old and out of print and are also not available at our library. Our library is very extensive and has most things, but it does not have most of the books that are on the book list for this program. I wish I was able to get my hands on these books because they are books that I remember reading as a child. If I search on Amazon for these books, I can usually find more modern books with these topics but then I'm spending all of the time and researching for things that I thought I had paid someone else to do.

 

Yes, I know these books are supplementary books, but we usually try to use most of the supplementary items listed for the curriculum we use because it helps to round out a topic or can be used to deepen understanding. When I paid for the program I paid thinking that the book list would actually be usable.

 

Sorry for the vent but it's frustrating when you end up spending hours at your computer researching items when you could instead be spending that time teaching your child if the program was actually up to date with their listings.

 

:001_huh:

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I understand. :grouphug: I had the same frustration with their chemistry program. I even posted here a few times asking other RSO chem users for book recs but I never received replies.

 

However, I still really like the program (enough to buy biology for this year) and what I ended up doing instead was using the NOEO book recommendations. NOEO has fantastic recs, you really can't go wrong with any of them. The don't line up perfectly like the RSO ones likely would have but with the chemistry I had fairly good success making things match up without spending too much of my time.

 

I second the pp about emailing PandiaPress about your concerns. It would probably help them since they are continuing to write books and their physics one is supposed to be coming out sometime this year or next.

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Yes, I emailed them and Kate said they were supplemental to the program and not needed. :confused:

 

I do still really like the program. I just really wish they would update their book list because there are other books out there that aren't out of print that could be used.

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Yes, I emailed them and Kate said they were supplemental to the program and not needed. :confused:

 

Wow. Really. :001_huh: That's not the "customer service" answer I would expect to hear. That's too bad. Perhaps the author doesn't realize how important living books are/can be to us WTM or CM mamas. :confused:

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Yes, I emailed them and Kate said they were supplemental to the program and not needed. :confused:

 

Really??:glare:

 

Wow. Really. :001_huh: That's not the "customer service" answer I would expect to hear. That's too bad. Perhaps the author doesn't realize how important living books are/can be to us WTM or CM mamas. :confused:

:iagree:

That's enough to make me rethink my future plans to use RSO. Too bad, I read the author's article on teaching science (science not doctrine or dogma, etc) and was really impressed.:(

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I still like the curriculum...enough that I'm willing to search for alternative books and continue using it. It would be nice if they updated their book lists though because I do feel that supplemental material is important especially at this age. Everything is so new to them that it's often a LOT of information for them to absorb and reading various books throughout the week really helps their understanding.

 

This is our first year full time home schooling and I'm finding that there is just no perfect curriculum. Most of it is "good enough" with some tweaks. :D

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If you have a good library can't you just go the 500's and browse? Do you really have to research on Amazon or can you just look up plants or mollusks or cells in your library?

 

Here is a list of dewey decimal numbers

570 Life sciences

574 Biology

575 Evolution & genetics

577 General nature of life

578 Microscopy in biology

579 Collection and preservation

580 Botanical sciences

581 Botany

582 Spermatophyta (Seed-bearing plants)

583 Dicotyledones

584 Monocotyledones

585 Gymnospermae (Pinophyta)

586 Cryptogamia (Seedless plants)

587 Pteridophyta (Vascular cryptograms)

588 Bryophyta

589 Thallobionta & Prokaryotae

590 Zoological sciences

591 Zoology

592 Invertebrates

593 Protozoa, Echinodermata, related phyla

594 Mollusca & Molluscoidea

595 Other invertebrates

596 Vertebrata (Craniata, Vertebrates)

597 Cold-blooded vertebrates Fishes

598 Aves (Birds)

599 Mammalia (Mammals)

 

Oh and anatomy in the 600's

611 Human anatomy, cytology, histology

612 Human physiology

 

 

I agree that for Chemistry it can be a little harder, but usually animal books are easy to find even in not so good libraries. I've always found myself having to leave books that I thought looked good (I mean, how many jellyfish books do we really need this week?).

 

Of course I've always found specific book lists way to hard to track down books for so even with SOTW I just go by topics and pick up what our library has on the shelf.

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