nukeswife Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 I have been sitting here patiently waiting for Aug to come so we can start our new year. I've had all my curriculum since Feb. I was stoked that I was all set to go, then I come downstairs from taking a shower to find my kids have pulled out R.E.A.L. Science from the shelves. I was somewhat happy about this choice but had wished that something more like NOEO (which we tried 2 years ago) would be more to their liking. I asked my kids what they are doing and they say "We're checking out the new stuff for next year, it all looks great except this one" I asked what was wrong with REAL Science life level 1 and was told "It looks boring,where's all the 'real books' all this has is one little page about stuff then a bunch of worksheets" I said "I thought that's what you guys wanted was worksheets" and got "That's for math and English, not history and science, we want real books for science" I asked how we'd record what they did if all we did was read books (just curious for their answer) and got "can't we just do those sheets where we draw a picture and then tell you what we learned about so you can write it down for us to copy" They meant narration. Here I thought they hated narration! So we went and looked at the NOEO site and they decided Biology 1 looked interesting and covered the topics they'd like to learn about. Luckily I have the funds available. I'm just going to have them sit down and explain it to DH when he comes home so that he knows it's not just me second guessing myself. I know I'm the parent, but I love that they're giving me input. I think when we tried NOEO in the past the failure was due to me not understanding how to do narration with a 4.5 and 7 year old, it was our first year of hsing and I was still trying to figure out how it all worked. I'm glad they chose this though as it's something I feel would benefit us all, they always seem to retain tons of information from our read alouds and history readers so hopefully this will work for science. Kel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maryibug Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 I think that is so wonderful that they even have an opinion about the whole thing! My dc seem to me to be too passive in that area...they just wait for me to tell them what to do. I think you did a beautiful job handling their concerns and I bet you will all enjoy a great year because of it! Now, I am off to look at Noeo again....LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted June 30, 2008 Author Share Posted June 30, 2008 You are so right. I'm lucky to have kids that will speak up instead of just waiting for me. It helps take some of the stress off of me in a way to always pick what they'll like. I'm glad they spoke up. The more I replay things in my mind the happier I am with the decision. I'm sure my dh will be too, he always says that they should speak up if something bothers them or they feel another way would be better. Last year I finally woke up and listened to them about how they hated Horizons math and wanted to go back to Saxon and we had a wonderful close to the year where Math was fun instead of tears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Another Lynn Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 It sounds like congratulations are in order instead of condolences! I think that sounds great and I bet they learn a lot! (I wish I was that excited about science for the coming year!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallory Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 I think that R.E.A.L. Science does need lots of read alouds to go with it, but they are easy to find at the library. And most of the worksheets aren't worksheets they're labsheets. You're going to be filling them out while you disect an egg, or study a patch of nature, or count your heart rate. If it all works to switch to Noeo, great. If you really don't want to, maybe you could look at this again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 We enjoy Noeo. Our Physics I came last week (I ordered it Monday am, they shipped it within hours, and it came on Thursday!). Opening a Noeo box is as fun as any Sonlight or Rainbow Resource order! My dds were nosing through the books immediately and once again I got all excited about teaching science. We used Bio I two years ago and finished up Chem I in May. There aren't as many experiments in Bio I--I think that's just the nature of the subject matter. I would encourage you to use the Internet Links in the Usborne book. They'll take you to different web sites where you can hear bird calls or see butterflies, etc. We always enjoyed that. For the human body section, we also did tracings of the girls bodies and added organs using the My Body book from Teacher Created Resources. They really enjoyed that too. Oh, and we still haven't got the whole narration thing down yet! I get stuck in the pattern of just reading the books. We do a little better at documenting experiments. I like the newer forms they have for younger kids. They have a full page one labeled "Drawings" that's great for my 5 yo. She draws whatever experiments we do (she loves drawing). I'm thinking this year I'll also use those forms for her to do an illustrated "narration" once in awhile. Hope you enjoy your science year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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