dereksurfs Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I know there are a lot of science options out there. But both of these interest my wife and I currently. Can someone with experience using either or both share your experiences? I am seeing benefits to both, though they appear somewhat different in approaches as well as the materials provided. My wife will be teaching it during the school day and wants something as open and go as possible. Of course we realize labs will need more assistance as well as answering questions about the various subjects presented. I've heard Rainbow is really good in terms of that. I'm not sure about Noeo. I think with Noeo you need to purchase more items separately. I don't know about daily independant learning. We also want something which has plenty of hands-on science and is somewhat fun while being educational. I'm not as concerned with super rigorous at this stage but rather want to foster a love for sciene. I've heard from some who say Rainbow isn't quite rigorous enough, but could be supplimented with other traditional middle school texts. Still, I'm wondering how Rainbow would compare to Noeo which seems to be more of a Charlotte Mason approach with its narration and notebooks. I like that Noeo seems more focused - Chemistry one year and Physics another similar to High School and College courses. Lastly, if you started with one of these then switched to something else you like more such as BJU or CPO can you please explain why? Also what do the other program(s) offer you over one of these? Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccolopy Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 We've only used the lower levels of Noeo, but I highly, highly recommend Rainbow Science. So does my DS. :) He does the reading/written work independently, then gets together with two friends to do the labs. I walked them through the first few, but since then they've been on their own. Everything is completely laid out for you. I really like the Rainbow Science text and don't think you need to supplement with another textbook, but you could definitely supplement with books on topics that he's interested in, or something like The Story of Science. There are some threads with lots of possibilities, such as this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spetzi Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 We LOVED Noeo level I and neither ds or I was crazy about level II (he completed bio and chem). There are many, many days of reading in the Usborne book and notebooking. Sure, there are some labs, but it seemed a little silly to keep reading and writing about the little snippets from the same book. If it had been a living book or a book that went into a topic in depth, I think the notebooking would be a worthwhile exercise. As it was, it got old. We are working on The Rainbow this year. It's fine, but really not wonderful. While I'm so glad we have almost everything for the labs (you do NOT get everything you need), it's just so-so. In fact, the first several "experiments" in the chemistry section are worksheets. The physics labs were fine, but not one stands out as being particularly interesting. I had high hopes for The Rainbow and we are all disappointed. We are working on the second The Story of Science book and enjoying that. I am science shopping now and am looking into Science Fusion. It seems quite easy for the parent. Naturally, it's not cheap. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dereksurfs Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 Wow, one who really likes Rainbow and one who doesn't. I guess it depends a lot on the family, doesn't it? I seem to find more positive reviews for these than negatives. However the negatives do give me pause for thought and so I appreciate them as well. This is especially true since they are both pricey. I think its probably safe to say there is no perfect science program for everyone. I guess its just hard to know if either will be a good fit for us or not until trying them out ourselves. Hmm.... :unsure: It does sound like the many days of notebooking with Noeo may not be the best fit for us. The good thing is I'm researching these ahead of time. So there is time to look into these more and potentially others as well. I haven't heard anything about Science Fusion before or seen any reviews of it. But I'll check it out. Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KellyMama Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 Well since you have a split vote, I'll throw my 2c in! ;) We are enjoying Rainbow Science with my 12 yo DD this year. As for rigorous? Well it depends on your purpose, I think. I found her physics section to be a great basic introduction to the terms used in understanding physics. We weren't expecting her to write a thesis on it when she was finished, but she learned and she enjoyed her experiments and she was independent (mostly) so I decided it was a success! She looks forward to her labs (no matter how basic) and I never hear any complaints - which is pretty great since she isn't really in love with science generally! We are both pleased physics is over (personally, I thought it was kind of tough) and she's enjoying the chemistry unit now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dereksurfs Posted January 12, 2013 Author Share Posted January 12, 2013 Thanks Kellymama, we are still leaning toward Rainbow. But I'll continue exploring other possiblities as well. I see you have others coming up the ranks. Do you plan to use Rainbow with them also? I like that some of it is at least reusable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lauracolumbus Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 My ds did the first year of RS last year in 8th grade. He enjoyed it, and I knew it was getting done (completely independently). The only thing we needed to add was the gallon of water (but we didn't get to the second year). I'm not sure how successful it was as he is doing physical science in high school and it's not coming easy...but that could be for other reasons. He is getting an A in the class, but I can't tell how much is review b/c he did RS all on his own. It was great for that purpose alone for us b/c science wasn't getting done frequently before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 My older two boys are doing Rainbow this year and it's almost completely hands off for me. They're enjoying it--they like that it doesn't take forever, and they enjoy working on the labs together. I'm mostly going for a general overview of science and practice with labs this year before they hit high school science. Science hasn't been our most consistent subject (they've gotten various units through their enrichment program), though last year we did the first 1.5 books of The Story of Science and enjoyed them. I intend on using it with my other sons as well. I'll start with my middle son when he's in 7th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KellyMama Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Thanks Kellymama, we are still leaning toward Rainbow. But I'll continue exploring other possiblities as well. I see you have others coming up the ranks. Do you plan to use Rainbow with them also? I like that some of it is at least reusable. Yes, that's the current plan, anyway! The only issue is that both my youngers are WAY more interested in science, so I definitely think there will be jumping off points in each semester where they will want to spend some time adding in more reading/discovery. My oldest is not really interested in science other than just getting it done. She appreciates the light tone of the text because it doesn't overwhelm her. I'm hoping we will get to use it once or twice more to increase the value factor. ;) But that will only work if I can keep my son from stalking all her labs this year and learning it all before he even hits 4th grade! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dereksurfs Posted January 20, 2013 Author Share Posted January 20, 2013 Thanks all for your input and sharing your experiences. I'm leaning more toward Rainbow Science for next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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