ItoLina Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I am looking for secular k/1st science curriculum suggestions. My son takes after dh (a wildlife biologist) and is extreemly into science, especially life science. He is constanly asking me to do more science stuff. I on the other hand am not the "sciencey" type at all. So, I feel like in order to do more than I am currently doing (reading science books from the library and doing random experiments from books and the web) I will need a bit of handholding and something that is sort of laid out for me. My son is only almost 5, but he is pretty amazing when it comes to his vocabulary and ability to comprehend complex ideas that we read about in books and discuss. He grasps concepts that I feel should be pretty over his head. I don't really have much to compare it to, but I feel like he is advanced for his age in this area. So, I feel like he could probably handle something a little more rigorous in science, especially given his interest in this area. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you. Tamara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 (edited) Nearly everybody who's secular & rigorous likes Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, so that's a good first try. (It irritates me, but I think I'm the only one who doesn't like the content) The Lawrence Hall of Science puts out GEMS guides for K and up. You could start working through their sequence. This is an excellent science education, I think those who have done it would argue even more thorough than BFSU. But rather a lot of work for you to get the materials together. MontessoriRD puts out curriculum manuals. He would be well-served by the "early years" botany or zoology; I would save their elementary level for after you've done the ages 3-6 books, even for a bright Ker. This is a very unusual route, for a WTMer, but a very systematic and good one. There is also Pandia Press' REAL Science, about which I mainly know that it is used by secular families. -- sorry for the lack of links, we're in a bit of crisis mode here and have only a few moments. hope this, and what everybody else posts, helps! ETA: don't forget videos. Schlessinger Library Video company puts out an excellent "All About ... '' series: hit the "More" button under the list if you don't see about 40 or so titles. They are great for an advanced Ker, and based on standard science: Big Bang, evolution, the whole deal. Magic School Bus, etc. also popular but Button LOVED these, which we got from the library. Edited March 10, 2012 by serendipitous journey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItoLina Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Nearly everybody who's secular & rigorous likes Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, so that's a good first try. (It irritates me, but I think I'm the only one who doesn't like the content) The Lawrence Hall of Science puts out GEMS guides for K and up. You could start working through their sequence. This is an excellent science education, I think those who have done it would argue even more thorough than BFSU. But rather a lot of work for you to get the materials together. MontessoriRD puts out curriculum manuals. He would be well-served by the "early years" botany or zoology; I would save their elementary level for after you've done the ages 3-6 books, even for a bright Ker. This is a very unusual route, for a WTMer, but a very systematic and good one. There is also Pandia Press' REAL Science, about which I mainly know that it is used by secular families. -- sorry for the lack of links, we're in a bit of crisis mode here and have only a few moments. hope this, and what everybody else posts, helps! Thank you! Very helpful in giving be a "short list" to look at instead of the endless number of things that pop up when I google. I hope things settle down for you and thank you again for responding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Elemental Science has a K program to simply introduce them to science and do some fun experiments. I haven't used that level but have experience with their grammar stage biology and have just started earth and space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Sometimes the R.E.A.L. Science stuff can be hard to find. Pandia Press is the publisher, and all of their courses can be bought directly from them in PDF form or from other sites linked from there. They also have generous samples available in the "try before you buy" section. They also publish History Odyssey, which is a secular expansion of SOTW with activities and such that might interest you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItoLina Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Sometimes the R.E.A.L. Science stuff can be hard to find. Pandia Press is the publisher, and all of their courses can be bought directly from them in PDF form or from other sites linked from there. They also have generous samples available in the "try before you buy" section. They also publish History Odyssey, which is a secular expansion of SOTW with activities and such that might interest you. Thanks for the suggestions. I had looked at R.E.A.L. Science and really liked it but wasn't sure if it would be too hard for my 5 year old (since it says it starts at a 1st grade level). What do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItoLina Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Elemental Science has a K program to simply introduce them to science and do some fun experiments. I haven't used that level but have experience with their grammar stage biology and have just started earth and space. Thank you. I hadn't looked at this before. I am looking forward to checking it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItoLina Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 ETA: don't forget videos. Schlessinger Library Video company puts out an excellent "All About ... '' series: hit the "More" button under the list if you don't see about 40 or so titles. They are great for an advanced Ker, and based on standard science: Big Bang, evolution, the whole deal. Magic School Bus, etc. also popular but Button LOVED these, which we got from the library. Thanks for mentioning these. We do use these videos too. Our library has just about all of the "All About..." series and my son does enjoy them. He absolutely LOVES Magic School Bus. I have been able to find most of the complete episodes on youtube and my mom is in the process of recording them for us every Saturday morning off the Spanish tv station where she lives (we are a bilingual family), and I think we have checked out every Magic School Bus book ever written from the library at least twice...I even started requesting some through interlibrary loan because I wanted something new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frugalmama Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 For K, we just watched and discussed Magic School Bus episodes. For 1st, I went with a Catholic program called Behold and See 1 that we really liked. While it's printed by Catholic Heritage Curricula, it's pretty secular - just a mention of god here and there so far. Beautiful artwork and great experiments too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Thanks for the suggestions. I had looked at R.E.A.L. Science and really liked it but wasn't sure if it would be too hard for my 5 year old (since it says it starts at a 1st grade level). What do you think? Any science at this age is going to have you do the heavy lifting. My dd2 was in K when we used it for her. She didn't fill out the forms obviously and we did not do all of the experiments, but we did talk about what we observed and what it could mean. She really enjoyed the text of the course as read aloud and got a good bit out of it and the experiments that we did do. The human body and plant units were extremely popular. In the latter, you'll be planting things and talking about the hows and whys. She still talks about it. :) When ds comes to the biology level, he'll actually do a blend of R.E.A.L and Elemental Science. I think ES's animal unit is stronger but will add R.E.A.L.'s classification to the mix and then use mostly R.E.A.L. for human body and plant study with some readings from ES. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 BFSU! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen Becker Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Another vote for Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding. We're using that for K and I really love how it's a broad, solid base. I felt like a lot of the science curriculum I looked into was very scattershot -- Let's make gack! Let's raise butterflies! Let's taste-test flavors! -- but they weren't knitted together into anything that made _sense_. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nscribe Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 A subscription to Nat Geo for kids was a huge hit at that age with mine. Not so much a curriculum, but she looked forward to them coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sctigermom Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 My son is 5 (6 in may) and we just started real science odyssey. We love it. I write the journaling but he tells me what to put. Our 4 yr old dd joins us, but she doesn't really "get" it. My son is very science/math orientated and I think we could have started this in the fall with no problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen500 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 BFSU, if you can make it work for you. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItoLina Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I am really leaning toward BFSU. I really like how it is all connected together. It makes a lot more sense to me than the the more traditional way that I was taught science. I admit that I am a bit intimidated by the fact that I will have to do a bit more planning and figuring out on my own (this is a result of my own inadequate science education and consequent lack of confidence in this area), but I am going to talk it over with my dh and see what he thinks and maybe he will help me a bit with the planning at first until I get confident. The fact that their is a yahoo group makes me feel more at ease. Thanks again for all the responses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sctigermom Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 We use Real Science Odyssey. My oldest is 5 (6 in May) and his little sister 4 joins us. He is able to really get the material (big idea and small stuff). His sister gets the big picture (in the book they have it listed like the big picture of this lesson is to differentiate between things that are living and non living. The small stuff would be knowing that living things grow, breathe, reproduce, ect) We love how hands on it is and do the experiments all together. My kids think the experiments are really cool and I think that has a lot to do with how much they remember. My dd is a young 4 ( just turned 4 in January) and I will be doing this book again with her when she is older to make sure that she really gets it. I think that if your child is very mathmatical and science orientated or an older 5 yr old that they won't have any problems with it. The lessons also give you extra books to read and websites to check out so you could take as long as you need to really get the lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WIS0320 Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 Core Knowledge. The Baltimore Curriculum Project has some really good free lesson plans based on the units. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALB Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 Elemental Science has a K program to simply introduce them to science and do some fun experiments. I haven't used that level but have experience with their grammar stage biology and have just started earth and space. :iagree:We did their Intro program last year with a 5 and 3 yr. old, and it was a huge hit here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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