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RSO vs Apologia vs Sonlight Science?


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I am trying to pick what science I want to use this year. My kids' favorite subject is science, so I want to pick one that they will really enjoy and still learn a lot. I am trying to pick between Real Science Odyssey, Sonlight Science C, or Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 (I already own). I do not mind using secular curriculums...so that is not a deciding factor. I like reading good books so Sonlight appeals to me, and my kids would enjoy the activity pages. I already own Zoology 1, so that would save me from having to buy another curriculum. Real Science Odyssey is the one that probably appeals to me the most. I like the looks of the lessons, activities, student pages, etc. What keeps me from this one is I would like living books also. Does RSO have any suggestions in the curriculum for living books that can be used to supplement?

 

Which science curriculum would you go with?

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  • 2 months later...

:lurk5:

 

I started this year with RSO Life. My first grader loves science as well. But he did not like Life science so I ended up switching things up early in the year. RSO does have books suggestions but they are not living book suggestions. I am trying to decide what to do for next year for science as well. I like that SL is all planned out and comes with supplies etc. But it looks like it might be on the light side not sure. (This is the crazy part of hs trying to decide between curriculums)

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My dd loves Science too. I have used Sonlight for the past three years and she really likes it. She loves the fact that we study different things through out the year. For the past year she has also done Apologia Science through our co-op (as I said she loves Science). We did Astronomy and now Swimming Creatures. I do not think doing Apologia alone would be enough for her in a year she would want more. We would probably have to do two books a year.

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I really enjoy the Apologia for reading, but I think RSO is better for experiments. I love that RSO is pretty much an "open and go" curriculum as long as you have the materials on hand. I rarely have to go out and buy things for it. RSO does have reading suggestions in it. I really enjoy both so much that I couldn't decide myself. We are currently doing RSO Earth&Space and Apologia Astronomy together. So I guess I say do both! Next year we will be doing Zoology 1 as our main science and chemistry 1x a week.

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I haven't used RSO but have the other two. I think it depends on how young earth you are. We did SL D and hated it. We jumped around from topic to topic, filling in questions. The experiments had nothing to do with what we were reading and they were very cumbersome. I decided to switch to Apologia because I thought that although they were young earth, they would give a very prejudicial view of evolution and I could work with that. Unfortunately, they don't do that in the elementary series. We have loved doing Human Anatomy and Physiology with the lapbooks. It doesn't have any young earth things, just some paragraphs about early Hebrew laws and how God made it that way and about how important it is to think about how Jesus shed his blood for us in the blood vessel lesson. We aren't finished with the book yet.

 

Unfortunately, I bought the Astronomy book and kit from CBD last year on deep sale and it is very young earth and I just don't want to teach that way. I think I found a buyer though. I am looking for something to do with my kids that will be in 6th and 4th grade next year. I have been looking at Real Science 4 Kids, RSO, etc.

 

So, as I said, it depends on what you want to teach your kids and what worldview you want them to learn. It also depends on if you want to be more focused on a subject or have a lot of variety. I just found with my dd that jumping around didn't teach to her style of learning.

 

HTH

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm going back and forth between RSO and Apologia for next year. We've done Apologia Astronomy and are now doing Apologia Flying Creatures. We really enjoy it, but we get... well, kind of bored of studying the same thing all year. I love the depth of information it gives, but I only have a 6 and 3 year old right now, so it's not like they need to learn it all right now :) I have seen some people suggest combining RSO with Apologia. RSO is very heavy on the labs/experiments, and Apologia is very heavy on in-depth information, so it seems like they'd be a good balance. Apologia does have some good experiments, but I haven't been too impressed overall with them. One thing I'd miss if we only did RSO is the Biblical perspective of Apologia. I can always tie that in myself, though. I really like the look of RSO and think we may try it out next year. Couldn't hurt!

 

Lezli

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