Another science ?: Anyone use just the rec's from WTM?

[SewLittleTime]

I've looked at so many science curriculums. I want to move to more of classical cycle. I want to combine my kids if possible. I want some meat. None of the programs I've looked at seem to fit our needs. I'm back to leaning toward using the WTM recs and putting together my own schedule.

 

If you used the WTM recomendations for books for grammar stage science, can you share about your experience with that?

[ProudGrandma]

have you looked at Nancy Larson's Science?? We love it here at our home.

[SewLittleTime]

I haven't, but I will! Thanks for the tip.

[Dolphin]

We are doing Chemistry TWTM way for my 3rd grade son. We love it. My dh is a research chemist and he loves it. It has a lot in there, it is easy to follow, and it is fun. There is no pretty packaging or anything like that, it is a cheap book, with great content. I spent the money I saved getting this. We have been very happy and plan on doing physics TWTM way next year.

[SewLittleTime]

I spent the money I saved getting this. We have been very happy and plan on doing physics TWTM way next year.

My son looked at that and said, "Cool, can I blow stuff up?" :lol:

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[Mama Anna]

We've done three years of science as per WTM and dd has really enjoyed it! I simply bought the encyclopedias/experiment books recommended and divided them up as suggested by the weeks of our school year. I'm not sure how thorough I've been, but I'm not looking for an absolutely comprehensive program for grammar stage. I know that dd7 now loves science, we're building a good foundation, and that's what concerns me.

 

Note: I planned things over the summer before each year in pretty good detail to make sure things would be easy and go smoothly during the year. I also added a six-week (or so) unit on physical geography (names of oceans/mountain ranges/rivers, etc.) at the end of the second grade year. I also tried to reserve library books on most of the topics as we prepared to cover them.

 

HTH!

 

Mama Anna

[SewLittleTime]

This is encouraging. Going to reread the science sections of the WTM. That might help some.

[boscopup]

I just finished putting together a plan for the next year and a half-ish, sort of using WTM recs but not quite... We're going to do biology and earth & space (kind of mixing the two since we didn't do any biology yet and we're in first grade now), but I'm not using the recommended spines. I hate Usborne encyclopedias and the like where you get little snippets of information. I want a whole book on the topic or at least a substantial section with a good narrative.

 

I also wanted to go more interest-led. So I asked my son what he wanted to study. I guided him a bit (he's 6), and he selected some animals to study, we'll throw in some plants (at garden time), and some human body. For E&S, we'll do weather and astronomy. He didn't want to do rocks. That's fine. We'll hit those later. He LOVES weather, and I plan to use RSO for that part. I'll use Apologia for astronomy (but break it up so we're not doing planet after planet after planet). We'll use a couple Apologia books for spines for our animal studies, and I've selected a lot of books from the library on each subject to really round out our studies.

 

I'm quite excited! :D So it's a plan, it's interest-led, it's not scheduled, but it is planned. I have no clue how long it will take. If we finish before the end of second grade, we'll just find something else to do in the meantime or work on whatever the plan is for chemistry or physics.

 

I'm also throwing in some BFSU early on, partly because I don't want to buy anything until I place my big curriculum order in April or May.

 

And experiments... we'll do some, but not every week or anything. Weather will be experiment heavy because of RSO. We'll probably do some experiments in astronomy too. Probably not so much in biology, beyond the garden stuff. Experiments tend to be what cause me to avoid science, so I'm letting go of the need for experiments at this age. If there's an experiment that he really wants to do, we can try it. But I'm not going to kill myself trying to do an experiment every week. I'd rather just get good books on the subject and soak in information. When he's old enough to do his own experiments, he can do all the experiments he wants. :)

[KrissiK]

We are. We're on the earth/astronomy science year and it's been going well. It's pretty easy and my boys have been loving space.