lexi Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Ok, I was planing to do a combo of Apologia Astronomy and RSO Earth and Space this upcoming year. I like the read aloud aspect of Apologia and the hands on of RSO. Then I looked at the sample of RSO again. I noticed that some of the supplies it called for were things like condensed milk, cheese, and other food-related items. Ok, we have some major food allergies going on at our house and those items are NOT allowed in my house. So here is my problem and my questions........... How many experiments in both Apologia and RSO call for food related items? Are those particular experiments necessary to the program? Are there substitutions? What would I miss if I changed them? I try to avoid programs that have any type of food projects-the whole unit study of countries with recipe thing is a nightmare. I like to stick to non-edible things! So, are these good choices for staying away from science with food stuff? Can some who have used the program chime in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RahRah Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 I haven't used either program, but was really scratching my head to try to figure out what in the world you'd need cheese for with Earth & Space, so I went to the RSO website. From what I can see, they're using food in some labs that's easily sub'ed with other stuff, like play-doh....like making a model of the earth's layers as a pizza...easily done with play-doh instead of layers of food. Rocks and Minerals - heck, use the real thing - I can't see why cheese would show what is being explained better than the real thing, the rocks and minerals themselves! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llindseymomoffour Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 I would say to just have fun with it. You don't have to follow the book word for word with Science. Google some fun science experiments. It has been my experience that kids learn more about science while having fun then working from a book. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atozmom Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Flipping through my Apologia Astronomy book, I see only 1 food related activity that is supposed to be eaten. (homemade ice cream). The other 4 that I saw that involved food ingredients, do not have you eating them. One activity has you melting a chocolate bar, but not eating it. There is one that involves dropping pebbles into flour to show what craters look like. And 2 that involve salt dough (flour, salt and oil) for modeling. Sorry, can't help with RSO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexi Posted July 20, 2011 Author Share Posted July 20, 2011 Thanks for the Apologia help.......Guess I better learn how to make dairy-free ice cream before we get started. My concern was not only with eating the finished product, but just having to touch it. One of my children is so sensitive that just touching certain things break her out in hives and can trigger anaphylactic shock. It makes sensory tubs and hands on projects really stressful..........Maybe we can find gloves.......:glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atozmom Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 If it is dairy that she is allergic to, you can just skip the ice cream activity. There are plenty of other activities throughout the book that skipping one would be no big deal. I would think you could substitute the chocolate bar with something else that melts easily. We have a problem with dyes here. We have to skip all experiments that have you adding dyes or using food with dyes if I can't figure out a substitute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atozmom Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Oh, and the notebooking journal has other activities that are not in the book. Not sure how many would be food related. However, if you emailed the author, I am sure she could help you with that. She is on the Apologia Elem. yahoo group quite a bit. You should be able to do the same for RSO. There is contact information on the website and they have a yahoo group too. Although I don't think it is very active. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexi Posted July 20, 2011 Author Share Posted July 20, 2011 If it is dairy that she is allergic to, you can just skip the ice cream activity. There are plenty of other activities throughout the book that skipping one would be no big deal. I would think you could substitute the chocolate bar with something else that melts easily. We have a problem with dyes here. We have to skip all experiments that have you adding dyes or using food with dyes if I can't figure out a substitute. Thanks! I could get dairy free chocolate but the ice cream is tricky. We can't do dyes either. There's a lot we can't do and it can sometimes be frustrating when trying to plan an activity for them. Seems like so many things revolve around food! The kids love "doing science" and my hubby actually does science experiments with them every Thursday night. They've been doing science with water and have gotten interested in space with some of the read alouds we have done. So, I was trying to find some things with fun projects that he could do with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aconnolley Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 You can make dairy free ice cream with coconut milk. I made some for myself last night. For a regular batch, I use two cans of coconut milk. (check the cans as some have other added ingredients) I use 3/4 cup sugar, a tsp of vanilla, and a pinch of salt. You can make lots of other flavors, but this is a basic recipe. If your child isn't allergic to coconut, it might work for you. :001_smile: Angela Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexi Posted July 20, 2011 Author Share Posted July 20, 2011 You can make dairy free ice cream with coconut milk. I made some for myself last night. For a regular batch, I use two cans of coconut milk. (check the cans as some have other added ingredients) I use 3/4 cup sugar, a tsp of vanilla, and a pinch of salt. You can make lots of other flavors, but this is a basic recipe. If your child isn't allergic to coconut, it might work for you. :001_smile: Angela Thanks so much. I've read recipes for coconut ice cream.........but yes, we are allergic to coconut too!:tongue_smilie: No coconut at our house. We can't have soy either. But we have tried hemp milk and my daughter can tolerate that. I need to figure out how you can make it into ice cream. This weekend I just made a 3-hour round trip to get her some hemp milk ice cream from a store. She loves it and I am very excited we can eat ice cream again. But it is so expensive and a long drive to be able to buy it! I need to learn how to make it......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aconnolley Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Thanks so much. I've read recipes for coconut ice cream.........but yes, we are allergic to coconut too!:tongue_smilie: No coconut at our house... Ah! Too bad! :sad: I have bought rice milk ice cream before, which was pretty good, but quite expensive. I think that the reason that coconut ice cream turns out so well is the fat content. I would think that it would be harder to make a creamy texture with something like hemp or rice milk. Maybe by adding eggs?....but those are probably off limits too, huh? I hope that you can figure things out. We have gluten and dairy intolerance issues around here so I know (at least a little bit) how difficult it can be. I am trying to modify some activities/recipes myself for our curriculum. Btw, we love Apologia science around here with or without the experiments. :001_smile: Angela Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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