chirowife Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Is anyone familiar with the Rainbow science for middle school? I looked at the info on the website and it looks good. My daughter is going into 8th grade next year. Would it be a problem if we skipped some parts of Rainbow (Life Science since she just studied it, and Earth Science which she studied all of last year...)? She will finish BJU Life Science this year. We liked the BJU and she is doing well but we are looking for something different next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen+4dc Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 We're doing Rainbow Science here this year. We are almost done with the first section: the "Red" section dealing with Physics. Chemistry is next. I do not enjoy science and have had a very hard time making experiments happen in the last couple years so I bought Rainbow since it was billed as fairly independent and it included absolutely EVERYTHING the kids need to do the experiments. That being said, here are my impressions: Pros: * simple short lessons that can be done independently *experiment materials are all there and the experiments actually work (most of the time) *science actually gets done on a regular basis now Cons: *I don't know enough about science to answer the kids' questions and the teacher's helper doesn't give me enough info to adequately explain concepts that I don't understand. I have turned to a good friend who is an engineer to answer my questions so I can then answer the kids' questions. Between this good friend and youtube we're doing okay. But, if you don't have a good foundation in science this might not be the best program for you. YMMV:) Hope this helps you at least a little. If nothing else it bumps you up so maybe someone else will see it and chime in.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in FL Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 I['m using it with my seventh grader and I am pleased with it. However, I can't just drop it to my child to do - I find that I need to keep up with him - reading the teachers guide and even the lessons sometimes so that I can understand and Intelligently discuss it with him. If you do a search for rainbow scinece here on the boards,you will find one of the common complaints is a lack of retention. There are quizzes that you can print out from the website. I found that if I discussed the lessons and labs with my child - he does much better on the quizzes. I have to keep remembering that this is the dialectic stage - so discussions with my child are an important part of the learning process!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyBC Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Yes, just purchase and do year one, which teaches Physics followed by Chemistry. Year two covers Biology and Earth Science, so you can decide then whether to purchase that portion and revisit those topics, or move on to something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musicmom Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 :iagree:Doing year one, Physics and Chemistry could work very nicely for you. Both my kids did Rainbow Science and enjoyed it. It worked well for them and for me. It's on my "would do again" list of curricula! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 That's why I ended up not using it--we had just covered a fair amount of it, and needed to focus on biological sciences. It seemed pretty rough to pay all that and then only use part of it. I went with Science Explorer instead, and that way we could target just the books that we wanted to cover. I found that retention was not great with that either unless I was directly involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 I follow the WTM schedule for science. So, we do each subject as a full year. Is rainbow science something that could be split up between the two years? For example, could I get physics and chemistry and just spread it out with supplemental readings and other stuff in year 7 and 8? If it teaches sequentially, then I could flip my physics year with the chemistry year. That wouldn't be a problem. I have always wanted to know this, lol. And how christian is is? We are very secular around here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyBC Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 I think you could get past the Christian viewpoint for year 1 - it's fairly low key then, and the few times it does come up could easily be a way to introduce and contrast opposing viewpoints. It would be much more difficult to use from a secular viewpoint in year 2 (origins of life), IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Ok, so year 1 is chemistry and physics and year two is life science and earth science. I had them reversed in my head. Ok, that is fine. I am doing life science in 5th grade and earth/space science in 6th grade. So, I don't need year 2. Could I take year 1, physics and chemistry, and pull it apart into two years of study? It would be used for 7th and 8th grade, which is the target age group. I would plan to supplement with some WTM resources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyBC Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 (edited) Well, I know that *we* could. We tend to poke along around here. :-) So yes, I think you could use Rainbow year one over two years and have a great spine with solid labs and access to quizzes; interspersed with field trips (the author includes suggestions for those in the Teacher's Helper) and supplemented with other WTM resources. Definitely. Edited January 19, 2011 by KathyBC attempting to maintain verb tense agreement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chirowife Posted January 19, 2011 Author Share Posted January 19, 2011 Thank you all for your input. It does seem like a lot to pay for only half but I do have a 5th grader who would be able to use it in a few years so that helps. I also wanted to make sure it would prepare her for high school science - she wants to be a vet (this week anyway....). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Well, I know that *we* could. We tend to poke along around here. :-) So yes, I think you could use Rainbow year one over two years and have a great spine with solid labs and access to quizzes; interspersed with field trips (the author includes suggestions for those in the Teacher's Helper) and supplemented with other WTM resources. Definitely. Thank you so very much! I have been wondering about this. I guess we like to 'poke along' here but I call it 'taking time to really explore the subject.' But, I suspect it looks exactly like poking along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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