MFW ECC users....have you switched the science?

[Samiam]

We'll be using ECC with 8th, 3rd, and tag-a-long K5.

 

8th will be doing Apologia, so no issue there.

 

But wondering about the included science of ECC with 3rd and K5. I have heard over and over that the POE book is "dry". I have looked it over, and read a bunch of it, and yes, it is going to be a bit over 3rd's head, and waaay over K5. I would have to do major paraphrasing, and add in alot of book basket science books. But that being said, I do love how the topics tie into the country studies.

 

I have Elemental Biology, has 20 weeks of Animal Studies, so some very similiar topics, ie habitat, etc that MFW ECC science covers. This program is more along the lines that will interest both 3rd and K5. (It also has several weeks on Plants and Human Body, but we won't cover those this year)

 

 

So I am pondering if I should just skip the MFW science and do Elemental Biology. In the end, Elemental will be easier to implement, I think, for me. But I worry that they will miss out in the interesting elements that the MFW science brings to the country studies.

 

Overall, I need it to be as easy as possible because of how busy our schedule, school and life, is.

 

Sooo, my question is, did you switch out the science of MFW ECC, or use it? Thoughts on it?

[chontaveal]

Bumping this because I want to know as well.

[tkdkidsmom]

We have are not up to ECC yet, but I have a thought. The MFW table of contents lists the weekly science subjects so it might be easy (depending on your library) to pull books related to the different habitats and ecosystems and just add that to your Elemental Science (love the look of this too) studies in a relaxed way like in book basket or read-aloud time instead of trying to use POE.

[pdalley]

Two weeks in and I'm ditching it. Not ECC but the science. I'll use it to supplement but I don't like the way the text reads and I think it's way too hard for the youngest (4th). The other two are using General and Physical with Apologia.

 

I think we'll look at the topics but not with that book as the sole source.

[Spetzi]

We did read all of POE, but I did not have my 9 yr old do most of the activity sheets. We completed some of the suggested activities.

 

In general I'd describe it as "fine." It works, it's not painful, it's not terribly time consuming, we didn't find it boring. I liked that it went along w/the regions we were studying (for the most part.) Even though we completed other science programs, I took the time to read about the ecosystems in POE. I think it's worthwhile.

 

ETA: My girls enjoyed The Complete Book of Animals which is an easy, colorful read. It divides the animals by continent so it works very well w/ECC. Just another easy way to add in something fun that would go along w/ECC if you wanted to scrap POE.

Edited July 10, 2011 by Spetzi