2 different science questions - Nancy Larson & Apologia

[naturally]

I have 2 seperate science questions but thought I'd combine them into 1 thread.

 

1 - Can Nancy Larson work for multi-age? I was thinking of Science 1 for my upcoming 4th and 1st graders together. Any concern in this?

 

2 - Anything like Apologia with the notebooks but not as topic focused? I love the idea of Apologia and the notebooks but don't think we'd like to be on a single topic for so long.

 

 

We will have 4th, 1st and 2yo in the fall. I *was* thinking of chemistry but DH thinks life science might be more fun. He wants to dissect a worm and such. And I don't want to have to worry about chemistry experiments with the 2yo. I need something all together. We haven't done a formal science program yet.

[fourisenough]

I suspect NL 1 would be much too light for a typical 4th grade child, but I haven't used it myself (I've just heard others mention that it is somewhat simplistic). The samples may offer more insight. It has been a while since I last looked at them.

[naturally]

Bump. :-)

[Sue in WI]

I am currently using NL 3 w/ my 3rd, 4th, and 6th grade ds's. It has been working really well. My expectations for the oldest are a little higher, but he is enjoying it. I am not sure how much simpler NL 1 is than the one we are using. I agree w/ a pp to look at a sample to see if it will work go your dc,

[Abeilles]

Big ears as these are the 2 science programs I'm looking at. From what I have seen it seems NL level 1 would be too light for your 4th. I have 2 rising 3rd graders and if we do NL it will be level 2.

[lexi]

I used NL 1 with my 1st grader. The first unit is rather simple so I was worried. As we got into other units there was quite a bit of info. It's very incremental and builds on itself. I kept worrying that maybe it wasn't deep enough.

This year I've tried Apologia-way too much info and we get sick of just one topic.

I next tried Elemental Science Life- not enough info and not very good retention. It doesn't build on itself and teach concepts. We are just learning facts.

 

Therefore, we are going back to NL as my dd retained so much, enjoyed the variety, and it was super easy to use.

 

For a 4th grader NL 1 might not be enough but they can send you info with extra booklists and extra projects for more advanced kids. Maybe that info would help? I still don't know if level 1 would be enough but you may be able to add to it a little with some extra books and projects to make it work.

We are excited to go back to it and ill not second guess myself at the seeming simplicity of the lessons. It's just enough info each lesson to retain it and there is good review.

I'm actuall working on a blog post about all my science thoughts about these programs so ill try to post a link when I'm done if I remember.

[BatmansWife]

1 - Can Nancy Larson work for multi-age? I was thinking of Science 1 for my upcoming 4th and 1st graders together. Any concern in this?

 

 

 

You would definitely have to add to it to beef it up if you want to use NL1 with a 4th grader. Last year I got NL1 for my 3rd grader. I was assured by someone at NL that it would work fine since dd hadn't had too much science yet. I wish I hadn't taken that advice. It was waaaay to simple and dd was bored to tears. Finally it got to the point where I said we'd just zip through it as fast as we could and be done with it. I was very disappointed. If I had gotten it when she was in K I think it would have been fine.

[naturally]

Thanks all. I'm just so confused on what to do for science. Science is NOT my thing. At. All.

 

I like the idea of scripting like in Nancy Larson.

I like the idea of some notebooking/worksheets like Apologia.

I need multi-age, with toddler underfoot.

I need easy, workable experiments.

I need it to be complete - I don't do well with "Go to the library and pick out books". Doesn't get done here.

 

Ugh. Just wish someone could tell me the "perfect" curric for us.