If Elemental Science did NOT work for you, then why and what'd to switch to...

[BethG]

If Elemental Science did NOT work for you, then why?

 

What'd you switch to that you liked and why'd you like it?

 

[Irishmommy]

We made a valient effort of thebChemistry, but it just didn't work for us. My son wanted to know the how/ why behind everything and it justwasnt there, and it has been too long since I've had chemistry to explain anything. I've found that we do much better with a well- written spine and then supplement with great books. We switched to REAL Science Odyssey for my little and am switching to CpO Life for my older. I would use RSO upper level courses, but they are not out yet. I will say that the ES products are well done and work well for many people, it just wasn't a good fit for us.

[black_midori]

My then-6yo and I both found Elem grammer biology to be quite dull & it didn't teach what I had expected. For instance, I figured mammals would go into great detail as to what made a mammal a mammal - instead, it went into great detail about LOTS of mammals. Read 2 pages on zebras, color a bunch, write a little. Read 2 pages on elephants, color a bunch, write a little. Repeat. Again. Again. We finally got fed up and quite - too much like busy work, with all that cutting and pasting and coloring! The "experiments" also didn't tie very well with the material at times and they were kind of lame.

 

We switched to using Young Scientist club kits, living books recommended by Noeo Science, and just recently I bought Real Science 4 Kids as a more "spine" like contribution (but we haven't received it yet, so I'm waiting anxiously to see how it goes!).

[Satori]

Elemental Science was one of our first ones we tried, but didn't last long. I also didn't like the "read the two pages about a camel" stuff.

 

Tried BFSU, and it is an excellent program, but was too hard to implement for our family.

 

What we ended up loving was REAL Science Odyssey - Life. It was fun and easy to do. There were cool projects for studying the human body. For animals, we actually learned starting from the simplest animal and learned about cnidaria, echinoderms, and so much more. Now that was what I was talking about, not just boring mammals. We were even inspired to go on a family trip to Oregon to check out tide pools. We're now studying plants and our lesson was learning all about flowers and the different parts which I somehow never learned (or forgot) before. Today we're heading out to buy a flower to examine it more.

 

RSO introduces a page of text to read and then has a few lab activities with worksheets included. You could use it just like that or go into more detail with more books/videos, as we've done.

[warneral]

I have Elemental Science grammar Bio, Earth & Chemistry. I printed out Bio and Earth. I don't think the Bio will work for us. It is a little too basic. I want a broad view with more vocab and structure. So then we printed out Mr. Q's classical science. IT is beautiful and complete, but I didn't like how it was laid out. I'd love charts with kingdoms to show how it all is laid out. It also seems to be a little OVER our heads! Oy. So then we got RSO bio and we are starting that. I think this is up our alley. Especially since it is our first year of HS. I need to keep science easy and this fits the bill. I already have additional books (that I purchased for Elemental Science) to help beef it up. Since I bought ES downloads it is basically a sunk cost since it is illegal to sell. I *might* try the earth science when we get to it, but I'll probably go with RSO again b/c of its straight forwardness & ease of use.

[warneral]

Also note that if you go with ES you will need to purchase or borrow quite a few books so see if you can look at the book list to determine total cost.

[FairProspects]

We tried Elemental Science Intro to Science. It was just too basic for us, lots of coloring (which my boys abhor), and the experiments were really just demonstrations that my 6 y.o. could predict the outcome for before we began. Many were things we had already done in our free time as part of life, like playing around with a compass on a hike, gathering and pressing leaves, etc. I got tired of looking ahead and seeing more experiments that we had already covered in some form.

 

In retrospect, I should have realized that the Intro level was not the right placement for us, but looking at the other levels, there is just too much cut & paste to work for us.

 

Also, the "discovery" factor that I hear so many scientists talking about is missing. This is one area where I depart from WTM philosophy. My 6 y.o. already intuits laws like gravity, force, Bernoulli's law, etc. He wants to know why they work, not that they do.

 

We switched to Supercharged Science, which has been perfect for us so far because I can tailor the content & experiments to our needs. I do add more books to explain the concepts covered after we work on experiments and figure out why something does or doesn't work and how to tweak it. It has the "mess around in science" aspect that I've been looking for and allows the kids to be scientists and work it out themselves. It is expensive, but we have found the content and experiments to be second to none.

[ABQmom]

We did Biology last year and liked it fine, but I can understand why others are saying what they are about it. If your child loves science and wants to learn a lot, it might not be the program for you. If your child hates to color, cut, and paste---again, probably not the program for you. If you want in depth study about the topic, then you would need to supplement.

 

We liked it because science isn't our strength around here, but the kids like to read about science topics. I also liked it for the narration part of it. I wanted to do more narration with content area subjects, and Elemental Science helped me achieve that goal, and kept me on track with that.

 

We did get tired of studying about all. those. mammals. We just stopped and took a break from science for awhile around Christmas time. When we picked it back up, we went into the human body and enjoyed the rest of the curriculum. For a first grader who doesn't really care about science and loves to color, cut, and paste, it was a perfect fit.

 

HTH you make your decision!

[boscopup]

We tried Elemental Science Intro to Science. It was just too basic for us, lots of coloring (which my boys abhor), and the experiments were really just demonstrations that my 6 y.o. could predict the outcome for before we began. Many were things we had already done in our free time as part of life, like playing around with a compass on a hike, gathering and pressing leaves, etc. I got tired of looking ahead and seeing more experiments that we had already covered in some form.

 

:iagree: Same experience here with Intro. I think it'd be good for a preschooler, but first grade is a bit old for that program, I think.

 

We're using BJU science a grade ahead right now, and we are learning things (like what makes a mammal a mammal ;)). It's a bit textbooky, since it is a textbook. :tongue_smilie: My goal at this stage is to just try out every science I can and figure out which one I actually like to use on the next 2 kids. :lol:

 

We also tried RSO, but thought that was a bit easy too (Earth & Space for my sciencey first grader at the time). I would have liked a bit more detail and explanation. BJU is giving that for us right now, though it's general science, not the 4 year cycle.