MPH 5/6, CPO Life, Elemental, So many choices

[Trez]

My ds(10) is starting home school next year and I have been waffling back and forth with respect to a science curriculum. My son likes to use workbooks but also enjoys hands on learning.

 

I am looking for something that is fun but at the same time structured. My concern with respect to MPH 5/6 is that it will be all workbook learning with not much of the fun side of things. My concern with ES Biology (Logic Stage) is that my other son and I have used books such as History Odyssey and the jumbled layouts of the Kingfisher Encyclopedia are a distraction in understanding the information. I am afraid that the books ES uses may have a similar style.

 

Does anyone have insights that might help to steer me in one direction or the other?

 

Thank you

[jennynd]

MPH 5/6 is that it will be all workbook

 

this is not true.. if u get activity book. they have a lot fun stuff

[Trez]

Thanks for putting my mind at ease with respect to MPH. I love Singapore Math and my eldest has done a mixture of Singapore Science (Interactive Science) with the text recommended for PS. I like the information presented in the Science text but it can move along quite quickly through subjects. Also, while using this level of Singapore Science I found the 'fun/experimental' side lacking so I was a little worried about MPH.

 

Theresa

[ondreeuh]

We did MPH 3/4 this year - all of it in one year. We had PLENTY of time to do side projects and take frequent breaks. I really like MPH, but it did not take up much time at all. We read the "textbook," did the activities in the activity book, and did the homework and HOTS pages for each unit. Their bit about the human body was very very basic and we spun off on a 6-week human body study using Bill Nye videos, library books, and a Scholastic activity book. The upside to this was that we could cover everything at least in a basic way and dig deeper where we wanted to, but the downside is that it took a lot of planning on my end to beef it up.

 

I assume that 5/6 is paced similarly, so I would plan on doing it all in a year and supplementing with extra research, movies, and projects.

 

We are deciding between CPO, Elemental Science, and Science Explorer for next year. My husband will actually be teaching science to 5th-9th graders next year (including my son) so I'm trying to figure out what will work best for a multi-grade small class, and I think all of them could work. While Elemental looks like so much fun, I'm not sure it will work to stay on one topic all year. I found I've liked the survey approach.