R.E.A.L Science

[SpiritCatcher]

I want to order this but I am a bit intimated looking at all of the supplies and other books (mainly the books) I may have to purchase. For those of you that use this program is it a hassle to track down books?

 

Do you recommend the hard copy or did the ebook work for you?

 

Thanks!

[Mom in High Heels]

I downloaded the ebook and printed it off myself. It's cheaper (though it does take a lot of paper and black ink) and you can have it in hand instantly. I have not bought or tracked down any of the other books. I found the info in the book itself and the links provided enough. The other books aren't necessary, just suggestions. The books (I have Earth and Space and Chemistry) are very full. I honestly don't know how we would add much more to it.

[Spryte]

We're using R.E.A.L. Science Life, and love it thus far.

 

The only hassle tracking down books has been finding the Usborne Illustrated Enyclopedia of the Natural World - it's out of print. We found a used copy. Honestly, now that I have it in hand - I don't think it's entirely necessary.

 

I find that we do the lessons and experiments and some extra reading from our own selection of books, maybe find some science related videos, and it's enough.

 

As for the supplies - I found a supplier that had gathered most of the supplies into one lovely shipment. That saved a lot of time in tracking down the various components. If you want that source, I'll try to find it for you. Or maybe someone else here will know offhand.

 

We have the hard copy of the book - but I think next time around I would just print my own. I ripped everything out of the book to file weekly anyway!

[SpiritCatcher]

I would love to have the info for a supplier ~ that would save so much time and hassle :001_smile:

 

Thanks!

[Allearia]

I really haven't found it necessary to get any of the books at all--they really aren't tied in. More of an extra. I did get a few with Life but never used them and didn't bother to get any with Earth/Space and Chemistry.

[MadsandLilysMom]

I would love to have the info for a supplier ~ that would save so much time and hassle :001_smile:

 

Thanks!

 

I am not sure if this is the same source the OP used, but Home Science Tools has kits for R.E.A.L. Science already put together.

 

http://www.hometrainingtools.com/r-e-a-l-science-odyssey/c/2055/

 

Laura

[Mallory]

The new name for this is R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey (RSO).

 

homesciencetools.com has kits for it as well as many other science programs, but I think Pandia Press has links to thier vendor which has a few supplies available.

 

I also don't think any of the specific books are necessary. I have only done the Life and Earth ones, so I don't know for sure about the Chem. I do think some living books are nice for most units, but most of the topics are so available in childrens' librarys, even not very good one, that I don't worry about the specific books. I just look up worms or rocks and go pick a couple that look good.

 

My copies are printed, but then I hate reading off of the screen!

 

I do think one of the biggest problems is the age recomendations. I don't know how many or how old your kids are, but I recommend Life for K-2nd, and Earth up to about 3rd, I have heard that Chemistry is harder and not to use it before 3rd. But there is too much writing in Life and Earth for my K-2nd graders, so often one copy of a lab sheet was enough for both boys.

[Aoife]

We will be using RSO and so far reading through it I LOVE it! I bought the ebook so I can print them off for all my DC so it saves me lots of money in the long run. The supplier you can buy a kit from is Home Science Tools. What I did was download the PDF order form so I could see exactly what was in the kit then used their quick order form and the product IDS from the PDF to order only what I knew I didn't have so I saved time and money :D Really doing it this way only took maybe a max of 10 minutes and I saved about 20 bucks by not buying things I knew I already had on hand. Extra book wise, they are supplements and are not necessary for the course. We love supplements but we like to choose our own and then align them which is not hard to do at all. We use the library and the books we have amassed from amazon if we want to go in depth into anything.

[Mom in High Heels]

 

I do think one of the biggest problems is the age recomendations. I don't know how many or how old your kids are, but I recommend Life for K-2nd, and Earth up to about 3rd, I have heard that Chemistry is harder and not to use it before 3rd. But there is too much writing in Life and Earth for my K-2nd graders, so often one copy of a lab sheet was enough for both boys.

 

This is why we have both Chem and Earth and Space. We started the year off with Chem, but it was really advanced (Indy is 3rd grade) and just too much. We've switched to E&S and it's more appropriate for 3rd IMO. I bought my supplies from the supplier listed above too. They are quick to ship and everything comes in one handy package.

[Spryte]

That's it! Homesciencetools... the kit came with most of the RSO supplies. Made it much easier to get things ready for the year.

[SpiritCatcher]

Thanks all!

 

I am going to buy the e book later today.

[BatmansWife]

Do you need to buy the pack of student pages, or is that for more than one student? I'm just trying to figure if the student pages are already included in the "big book" ~ teachers manual (or whatever it's called). I looked at the kit for the Life at the site that was linked. Seems a little pricey for that stuff.

[Mom in High Heels]

Do you need to buy the pack of student pages, or is that for more than one student? I'm just trying to figure if the student pages are already included in the "big book" ~ teachers manual (or whatever it's called). I looked at the kit for the Life at the site that was linked. Seems a little pricey for that stuff.

 

It says to buy the student pages if you have more than one student and are doing the paper version. If you download the ebook though, you just print off as many copies as you need.

Yes, the stuff on hometrainingtools.com is a bit pricey, but IMO, it's much easier than tracking each item down. If you think you could gather most of the supplies though (and you probably could), you can order items you can't find separately.

[In2why]

They give so many options for books to go with each lesson that I never have any problem finding something great at the library.

 

In the front of the book there is a list of suggested books that can be read. There is also a list of materials needed for each lesson and the vast majority of it are all things that can be found around the house, or cheaply found. We are doing Earth, Space and Rock this year and I think the only thing I had to specifically purchase was a rock kit. Even there I bought the Usborne kit instead of the one you can purchase from them, and it works fine.

[golfcartmama]

We just finished RS4K Pre-level I Chemistry. It was fine, but clearly not hands on enough for us. Anyway, I really wanted to do 'biology' for the rest of the year. Do you all think that I can do the Life RSO with a 2nd grade science minded child? It sounds great, but I really don't want something too simple for him. Or, should I skip bio this year and head to the Earth/Space one?

 

I'm trying to decide between ES and RSO.

 

Thanks!

[Mama2two]

We just finished RS4K Pre-level I Chemistry. It was fine, but clearly not hands on enough for us. Anyway, I really wanted to do 'biology' for the rest of the year. Do you all think that I can do the Life RSO with a 2nd grade science minded child? It sounds great, but I really don't want something too simple for him. Or, should I skip bio this year and head to the Earth/Space one?

 

I'm trying to decide between ES and RSO.

 

Thanks!

 

I have a very scienceminded first grader and founded that neither RSO and ES were enough on their own. We are actually doing both (plus some science in a nutshell kits) just combining the two. Satori has also done a good list of picture books for Life.

 

http://satorismiles.com/curriculum/rso-life-additional-resources/

[jenL]

We're doing RSO E&S this year, and I've just used my local library to track down some of the suggested books and/or choose other books related to what we're studying (ie. weather). There are many great books not on the list that supplement fine.

[Mallory]

It was fine, but clearly not hands on enough for us. Anyway, I really wanted to do 'biology' for the rest of the year. Do you all think that I can do the Life RSO with a 2nd grade science minded child? It sounds great, but I really don't want something too simple for him. Or, should I skip bio this year and head to the Earth/Space one?

 

 

I have a very scienceminded first grader and founded that neither RSO and ES were enough on their own. We are actually doing both (plus some science in a nutshell kits) just combining the two. Satori has also done a good list of picture books for Life.

 

 

We did Life when mine were in K and 1st and enjoyed it, but even then I don't know that we got much out of it. We did Earth and Space for 1st and 2nd and it was okay too. I don't know that it is a much harder level though.

 

If it helps I planned our biology for this year. Here is a thread where I posted how we are doing it http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199456&highlight=biology

[Maverick_Mom]

I'm using Chemistry with ds #2, and so far it's very user-friendly. We haven't used any of the supplemental books -- the lessons and activities seem to be sufficient. And in terms of the supplies, they're pretty much the kinds of things one would have around the house.

 

But I like the idea of the kit from Home Training (Science? -- can never remember their exact name) Tools -- anything that saves me time and helps me stay organized is okay by me!

[nd293]

We are using RSO (there are a couple of "Real Science" programmes out there, so it pays to differentiate) Life, and have not bought any extra books. Ever now and then I set dd loose with the Internet to do some extra research. I think this is the fourth Science programme I have tried, and the first that has worked. It is very hands-on, lots of fun but so easy to use. A busy parent's dream programme. I bought the e-book, and only print out the student pages - I simply read the instruction pages from the screen.

[kristavws]

I do think one of the biggest problems is the age recomendations. I don't know how many or how old your kids are, but I recommend Life for K-2nd, and Earth up to about 3rd, I have heard that Chemistry is harder and not to use it before 3rd. But there is too much writing in Life and Earth for my K-2nd graders, so often one copy of a lab sheet was enough for both boys.

 

:iagree:

 

You may also want to take a look at Elemental Science.

 

krista

[SpiritCatcher]

DD is 10 and DS, 7 ~ I am hoping to use this with both of them at the same time. DD has not had much science at all so I hope this will be a good starting point.

 

Thanks!

[kristavws]

DD is 10 and DS, 7 ~ I am hoping to use this with both of them at the same time. DD has not had much science at all so I hope this will be a good starting point.

 

Thanks!

 

 

My oldest will be 10 next month, and my youngest is 7. I honestly did not think that RSO Earth would "be enough" for my boys. We decided to go with Elemental Science, and are supplementing it with several Science in a Nutshell kits. So far so good. I did use RSO Life with them when they were younger, and it was a good fit, but I think it would be rather boring for this age range.

 

HTH,

Krista

[Mallory]

DD is 10 and DS, 7 ~ I am hoping to use this with both of them at the same time. DD has not had much science at all so I hope this will be a good starting point.

 

 

Like I said before, I wouldn't recomend either Life or Earth and Space for a 10yo. The Chem is supposed to be harder.