brasilmom Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 Greetings, In the process of finishing curriculum for the upcoming school year, I have decided to go with R.E.A.L science program for my child. However, I am not sure of few things. First, are all 3 books (Life, Earth & Space, and Chemistry) part of the first grade? Is the program meant to be use during the elementary years or only first grade? If for first grade only, then do they have other programs for the following elementary years? If not, what did you use after that? Does the program requires a lot of investment on kits or other materials? Is it easy to adapt/use household items to complete experiments? Where did you order the program from? What is the best place to get a discounted price? Since we live in a very cold climate, for those of you in the same environment how do you go about during the winter when there is not much you can do outside? Any further information you can share will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Be well Miriam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama2two Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 Mirian, Each one (life, earth and space, and chemistry) is meant for one year, so you have three years of elementary school science. The chemistry one is meant to be a little more difficult, but I think you could use any that you wanted for first grade. You can download a free sample for any of them and it includes their supply list to give you an idea of supplies Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 We used the RSO Earth and Space science. We loved it! I have used quite a few science curriculums in the past and Real Science is the only one that I have enjoyed doing. For the earth science you do not need any kits and I think all of the other levels are the same. They have a supply list with items that are easy to attain. They have a good book list that you can use with the library. I bought my program through Rainbow Resource. With the earth science program, we did the weather portion in the fall, space in the winter and are now doing rocks in the spring. I would think the life program could be sectioned off the same way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrshomework Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoforjoy Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 We're doing the Life Science volume right now. So far, so good. The samples available, IIRC, contain about 6 weeks or so of free lesson plans (maybe more). So you can get a sense of how the program would work for you. In terms of materials, it's very reasonable, for the most part. Nearly everything can be found at a grocery store or dollar store, if you don't already have it at home. The one exception is some of the animal labs: for some you need a snail, or worms, or roly-polys. Depending on where you live, they could be a bit of a pain to come by. They do give some advice on finding them, though. You could probably shift the lessons around so that they were season-appropriate without any real problems. If your weather is warmer when you start, you could save the human body unit (which is first) and do the plant section and the animal labs that require warmer weather, and then save the rest of the animal unit and the human body lessons for when the weather gets cooler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccouch Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 With the earth science program, we did the weather portion in the fall, space in the winter and are now doing rocks in the spring. I would think the life program could be sectioned off the same way. Absolutely! The life science year is scheduled as Human Body, Animal Kingdom, Plant Kingdom. I switched this up, however. We did the first couple of lessons to set the stage ("What is Life" and "Cells," I think). We then moved into the Animal Kingdom for the whole Fall semester. I started in January with the Human Body and made it almost all the way through all the major body systems when spring was upon us here in Texas. I paused with our studies on the body and jumped into plants and made good use of the gardening and planting that we were doing in our own yard. We finished that section of the book, and are now back to the human body. We only have the nervous system left and I'm extending our studies and spending a week on each of the five senses, bringing in lots of extra reading and experiments for each sense. (Do forgive this detailed explanation ...but, I hope it helps someone.) I love how easy it was to schedule this year as best suited us. Obviously, there are some times when the lessons build upon one another and it wouldn't make sense to alter the order, but for this year, it worked perfectly! When we begin Earth & Space next year, I fully intend on moving the schedule around if we need to - - particularly once I check out the schedule at our local planetarium! LOL! Best of luck to you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallory Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 While the things for Life we just picked up, I think Earth really benefits from a small rock collection and a cheap weather station. I haven't done Chem. It will have you construct a weather station from paper cups and plates, but I think we spent more time fixing our equipment then measuring the weather. Or you could even just skip the equipment and just mark down what you see or feel. What I am trying to say, is we got really bogged down by the weather lessons, when we should have been outside watching the weather ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brasilmom Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 Wow, thanks all for the help. I am preparing an order with Rainbow resources so I can get the supplies next week (hopefully) and get moving with that. Ah, another question, at the Rainbow resource, when you order the Life level 1, does it come with the worksheets, or I have to order them separately? It does not say it clearly.... Thanks again. Be well Miriam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoforjoy Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Wow, thanks all for the help. I am preparing an order with Rainbow resources so I can get the supplies next week (hopefully) and get moving with that. Ah, another question, at the Rainbow resource, when you order the Life level 1, does it come with the worksheets, or I have to order them separately? It does not say it clearly.... Thanks again. Be well Miriam I ordered from the Pandia Press site, and got the ebook, so I'm not exactly sure about Rainbow Resource, but the worksheets are pretty much the program; there's not a separate text and worksheets. So I'd assume you're going to be getting the worksheets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamachanse Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 The notebook pages, worksheets, and teaching information is all in the book. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 The notebook pages, worksheets, and teaching information is all in the book. :) Yes it will all be in the book. The separate student pages are for those that would prefer not to have to make copies of them. You could also order the book from RR and the student pages as a PDF from padia press if you'd like to have a hard copy book. I bought the ebook of the whole thing and just printed out the teacher pages for me in the summer and then print the student pages for the kids as we go, but I have a awesome laser printer that is pretty cheap per page so YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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