awoogala Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 GRRR. So frustrated. Had a bad year last year, so this year, I thought I'd go the easier route and buy curriculum that was more "done" for me. Purchased R.E.A.L. science, Life 1. Now, I'm trying to schedule the lessons. If I go in order, all these life studies that require live specimens are from November- March, which makes it impossible to obtain live samples the way you're supposed to (go out and collect them!). I'm thinking this might have been written for homeschoolers not on the east coast! :) Has anyone done this curriculum? How did you rearrange it so that it worked with a normal winter? Just looking for some ideas. My only plan is to order bugs and pay for them, or to postpone all the live studies for spring, which leaves me with a gaping 3-4 mth hole in my year of science! Thanks! :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhotoGal Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 That's a good question! When I roughly planned it, I have insects around February. But that doesn't make sense because the caterpillars, etc., won't be ready at that time, right? I also have it ending a couple months early. So maybe fit in a different unit study in the middle? I was planning on adding some extra "health" stuff around the time of the human body. So maybe I'll add some physical science in the middle and continue the animals in the spring? That is a little weird, though. I guess I could postpone the entire animal section. I have to look at it a little more closely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irishmommy Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 It might be fun to do some of the "critter" learning in winter, then re-visit in spring, when they already "know" about them. Does that make sense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awoogala Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 It does, but the first lab in most of them is to go and get the darn things, explore where/how you found them, etc, which makes me think it will be a LOT of rearranging and rewriting. Darn, this was supposed to be my "open and go" curriculum. Probably just need to put my big girl panties on and get to work rescheduling. :) The main issue is that I wanted easy, and I'm not getting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhotoGal Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I haven't found any of the curriculum that I expected to be "open and go" to really be that easy. Maybe it is once you've started, but I'm putting in a lot of work right now to figure them all out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Yes, I rearranged it. The sections don't have to completed in order. I would base it on your climate and availability of those things. I did not get a garden snail; however, just an aquarium one to observe. I would do this order if you live somewhere that will have birds to see the time of year it would fall for you. Units 1 & 2 Units 25-28 Units 19-24 Units 3-9 Units 10-18 You could also do this to put the animals this fall and both insects and plants next spring. Units 1 & 2 Units 19-24 Units 3-9 Units 10-18 Units 25-28 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lots of boys Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Thanks - I had this question too. We get lots of snow in the winter so no animals to be found :) . I am going to rearrange the lessons and I also got the Evan Moor Giant Science resource book to suppliment with some science workbook/pages in the middle of the winter along with lots of book reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I just moved things around and put the plants first, human body second and animals third, doing it this way we ended our year with a trip to the zoo for one of the labs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Kirkwood Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 You can totally do it out of order. Do the Human Body section in the coldest part of winter. That's pretty much what we did last year. But we also are really taking our time with this curriculum. In between lessons we do experiments (Science in the Kitchen-Usborne then on to Janice VanCleve's Icky, sticky or ooey gooey or something like that), just because my kids requested it. Do you have any nature centers near you that you could visit that may have some of the critters that the curriculum talks about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warneral Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 (edited) We are doing critters right now in Wisconsin and I have a hard time finding what I need! We had found land snails in June but not August. We decided the slugs would do :) Worms - we ended up getting them at a bait shop LOL. After a week of digging for worms in the heat of late July I relented! That said, it really has been fun! We did find tadpoles earlier in the summer and one or two turned into frogs only to disappear from our aquarium. We also have a billion pond snails in there! Best wishes. I like that this curriculum is easy to teach but finding the critters isn't always easy. We also find the need to supplement with library books and videos to learn more about the animals. By the way, I am putting off human body for winter. We *may* skip the plant section since the kids learned plenty about plants at public school (and I have no interest in them). They are completely separate topics so it isn't a problem to change the schedule. The author even suggests to do this. Edited August 17, 2011 by warneral Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awoogala Posted August 27, 2011 Author Share Posted August 27, 2011 Thanks everyone for the suggestions! My kids signed up for a life cycles co-op class to top it off, so we may just do earth and space this year after all! LOL If not, your suggestions all make a lot of sense.. I think I just freaked when I first saw it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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