ga girl Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 My 6th grader will finish BJU Life Science this year (it's been a longgg year!). I'd like him to have a good generaly science experiance in 7th grade - fun, challenging (but not too much)- and that gets him ready for high school. I was thinking of Rainbow, but afraid it's not meaty enough. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumiller Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Connie, All three of my children did the 2 years of Rainbow in their middle school years. All three loved the program. I did too because it gave me everything I needed to make sure it got done. My children loved the way the text was written to them. I know for a fact that had I used a textbook for science, I would have killed their enjoyment of it. Is it rigorous? I thought it was but I'm not a science major. What I do know is that my children learned a lot and loved it. Also, each one transitioned into Apologia science with no problem! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 My 6th grader will finish BJU Life Science this year (it's been a longgg year!). I'd like him to have a good generaly science experiance in 7th grade - fun, challenging (but not too much)- and that gets him ready for high school. I was thinking of Rainbow, but afraid it's not meaty enough. Any thoughts? I think Rainbow is an excellent preparatory program. All my boys have used it and gone on to high school level sciences without problem. I would not use it for high school, though, as some suggest. We actually used it over one year because it isn't very time consuming. If you do it over 2 years you might consider adding in more projects and possibly adding in another program. We did Runkles World Physical Geography along with Rainbow. Together they created the perfect junior high level science program, IMO.:D And, FWIW, oldest son graduates from college this May with a Petroleum Engineering degree (named outstanding senior this year) and ds#2 is a mechanical engineering student. So if you are worried about science preparation for college, we obviously did fine with Rainbow. However, I'm not of the opinion that junior high school science makes all that much difference :001_smile: and it's best to choose something that your student will enjoy and a program that will get done.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amtmcm Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 We did Rainbow (Yr 1) in 6th and it was a perfect intro to Chemistry & Physics. The labs are excellent and that's where you get the meat of the lesson. Make sure you use the quizzes which are available for free on Rainbow's website and will reinforce the material. We completed Rainbow alongside BF History of Science. Another option would be to use John Hudson Tiner's Exploring the World of Physics and Exploring World of Chemistry to add more reading. What will you use for 8th? Will this fit into your science sequence? 6th: Life Science 7th: Rainbow Yr 1 (Intro Physics & Chem) 8th: Earth & Space? Or IPC? Or Physical Science? 9th: Biology etc... Anyway, if Rainbow fits with your sequence, it's a good curriculum, fun to use and very easy to implement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbaloue Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 We are using Rainbow Science for 7th grade. My son is doing both years in one. He loves it and is learning a lot. He is able to do most of it on his own. I wish I had done it with my older son; I think it would have prepared him better for high science. We too are using the Tiner books, World of Biology and World of Physics, as supplements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ga girl Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 Thank you all so much!! I hate buying sight unseen, but this makes me sure about it! I want him to LOVE science and BJU has about killed it this year. He wants to do 1/2 year A&P, as well. So if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears! What will you use for 8th? Will this fit into your science sequence? 6th: Life Science 7th: Rainbow Yr 1 (Intro Physics & Chem) 8th: Earth & Space? Or IPC? Or Physical Science? 9th: Biology etc... I am thinking that's what it will look like, but not sure. I cannot take an entire year of earth and space-neither could he. :) I'm trying to follow his interests and let him go until high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in MA Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 I am thinking that's what it will look like, but not sure. I cannot take an entire year of earth and space-neither could he. :) I'm trying to follow his interests and let him go until high school. Hi, I've also used Rainbow Science with 2 kids, and we really enjoyed it. My oldest is in college for engineering. The younger one is doing very well in high school science. We didn't use any supplements with Rainbow. If your son does year 1 of Rainbow this coming year in 7th, I would highly recommend using Conceptual Physics in 8th grade, and then do either Biology or Chemistry in 9th. My son just loved, loved, loved Conceptual Physics. The text is engaging, and the material is great foundation for later study of Chemistry, Biology, and higher Physics. We used Spectrum Chemistry in 9th, and my son loved that course as well. He's doing Miller/Levine Bio in 10th and really enjoying that as well. Next year, he'll do an AP Physics B-level course, then in 12th, probably take college chemistry at the CC. If you do go with Rainbow, I would recommend having your son make flash cards of the bold words from the text. He should review these cards daily until he knows them. This way, he should be prepared to do well on the quizzes, and he will have a good science vocabulary when he gets to high school. Best wishes, Brenda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musicmom Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Another thumbs up for Rainbow Science. Both my dc did it during their 6th & 7th grade years and loved it. I really liked it too, and agree with all the comments above about labs, etc. It really sparked and nurtured my dc's love of science. They both went straight into Apologia Biology in 8th grade with no problems whatsoever, and have done extremely well in high school science. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Hi,My son just loved, loved, loved Conceptual Physics. The text is engaging, and the material is great foundation for later study of Chemistry, Biology, and higher Physics. :iagree: 3 of my favorite programs are: Conceptual Physics, Rainbow Science, and Runkles World Physical Geography. We also followed up Rainbow Science with Conceptual Physics.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Just a caution.... While the labs have cemented understanding of concepts, I think Rainbow is weak on explaining terms. You may want to supplement that aspect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ga girl Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 Just a caution.... While the labs have cemented understanding of concepts, I think Rainbow is weak on explaining terms. You may want to supplement that aspect. Any recommendations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ga girl Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 Just a caution.... While the labs have cemented understanding of concepts, I think Rainbow is weak on explaining terms. You may want to supplement that aspect. Any recommendations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValRN Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Just a caution.... While the labs have cemented understanding of concepts, I think Rainbow is weak on explaining terms. You may want to supplement that aspect. :iagree: We did Rainbow when ds was in 6th and 7th. He enjoyed all of the experiments. I did not enjoy the wording of the text and I felt that it did not go deeply enough into concepts. I still own it and will review it again over the next month to decide if I want to sell it or keep it for my upcoming dd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
74Heaven Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Yet another thumbs up for Rainbow Sci. We did it with 2 daughters at the same time. One was a science-minded 5/6 and one was a non science minded 7/8. It was awesome. We may not have needed to, but we followed it up with Apologia Phy Sci and then we did Apologia Bio, BJU Chemistry & Apologia Anat/Phys. One went onto physics as well. Kids loved it. I loved it because it was easy to implement, easy to use, easy to understand. As further praise, I like to tell people that Rainbow Science has been my hands-down favorite homeschool curriculum in 15 years of homeschooling. (Shurley English is my next favorite!) Highly recommend. Lisaj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Any recommendations? Any traditional physical science textbook or a term search on Google would probably provide enough explanation if your dc needs more than Rainbow provides. We have an older copy of the Prentice Hall Science Explorer Physical Science text (a combo book of 4-5 of the smaller books), and we've used that to supplement or replace reading sections of Rainbow before doing the labs (which are great for year 1). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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