Rainbow Science or Ellen McHenry for 7th?

[birchbark]

Is there anyone who has used these programs and can compare? I had been planning on using Rainbow for 7th and 8th, liking the broad overview and the hands-on for DS. However I am having second thoughts as he isn't enjoying the hands-on component of his current program (EE) as much as I thought he would. Also I've come across some less-than-stellar reviews of Rainbow. (Although there are plenty of positive ones too.)

 

Ellen McHenry's programs look so good, and I've heard nothing but raves. I thought about just getting all of her programs and going through those.

 

Another option would be to "squish" them both in. I've heard of some folks going through all of Rainbow in one year, so I'm wondering if we could do Year One in one semester. Or, we could do E McHenry's programs this year and all of Rainbow the next.

[watertribe]

My ds 13 (7th) is using Rainbow now (completed Physics and just starting Chemistry). They are a bit light IMHO. My son enjoys them and seems to be learning but they are not very in depth (some lessons he's done in minutes). I guess you could supplement with other books and videos - but we're not able to since we are traveling. He likes the labs, although I've distanced myself from this class and he does the questions and reviews with my dh.

My ds 9 has just started EM The Elements (chemistry) and is really enjoying it. It's the first of her programs that I've bought and it will make me buy more.There's a lot of fun activities to do and it doesn't take a lot of time. If you were trying to do both, I wouldn't do one after the other, I'd do the similar classes simultaneously and try to blend the learning - you can download a nice sample of any of her programs from the EM website. I don't plan on doing the Biology or Applications from the Rainbow book (too much creationism for me), but I could see how you could do it all in one year. I do have my ds13 join in on the activities in EM since they are both doing chemistry now (and I have my ds9 help with the Rainbow labs). It's working OK.