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Holt Earth Science through Kolbe?


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After waiting forever for Classiquest to come out with their logic stage Earth Science & Astronomy, I'm leaning toward giving dd#2 Holt's Earth Science & using Kolbe's lesson plans.

 

Here's my question -- if I get their lesson plans, do I need the CD-ROM? What does the CD-ROM give me? Any details?

(I know about the online option that is cheaper, but am not interested in going in that direction.)

 

Anyone use Kolbe's plans that can help shed some light?

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If you can find a way to see a sample of any of Kolbe's science plans it is similar. The course is broken down into 36 weekly plans. Each week there would be a lab activity, readings from the text, and review questions assigned from the text. Like I said, we skipped the labs. My soon would write out the definitions of the vocabulary words, read the assigned sections, answer the assigned questions. Kolbe includes 8 tests which I liked. There are some notes in the syllabus about particular lessons but I pretty much just used it to know what to assign to get through the course. I didn't even usually read the extras in there. We also participate heavily in Science Olympiad which supplements our curriculum.

 

I definitely think it is meaty enough. Kolbe sciences are pretty meaty, in my opinion. I thought the tests were pretty tough.

 

I need to tell you that I am not a big person for following lesson plans (this was my first year ever attempting that and I did full Kolbe for my 9th grader and parts of Kolbe for the 7th and 4th graders) so I probably am not the best person to review them. I also have tended not to do much formal science before high school. But, I have been happy overall and am actually going to use the Kolbe physical science and Kolbe middle school life science for next year. So, it worked for us and was a good fit.

 

I feel like that was not very helpful. Sorry! It was all we could do to get to the basics in most of our subjects so I didn't really dig into the plans beyond just looking to see what I should assign to be completed that week.

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The CD-ROM, if the same one that I purchased for the earth science (but not from Kolbe), also includes extraneous material (for me), such as teaching suggestions for "slow" and accelerated learners. It was the same CD sold to classroom teachers.

 

An odd side note, long as I am here. . . As for the Holt text itself, my dd surprised me (because she likes methodical planning) by becoming very bored with the material. She switched to the ck-12 online textbook and loved it. Since it is a free resource, you might like to look at it as a possible supplement for topics of interest.

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  • 1 month later...

Nope. I've been using is for the previous 3 kids and never needed or missed the CDrom. I'm on the hunt for something else this year. But mostly bc I'm bored with the thought of doing Holt again, not really any major complaint about the text itself.

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Just FYI, I too had been waiting for Classiquest Astronomy and just found a couple days ago that it is finally out. I just ordered it today at amazon.

 

 

Alas, too late on the Classiquest. I saw the email when she sent it out about it being available, but I've already purchased the Holt book and the Kolbe plans.

 

Do let the rest of us know how it goes, will you?

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Teachermom, I have a question, why did you skip the labs? Do you not like them? Were they impossible to do at home?

 

If you wanted to do them, was there any help from Kolbe to make that happen? Did they offer a lab kit?

 

I am considering using Kolbe science in the future, but we like labs here. If they aren't workable, it would be good to know ahead of time.

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Here's my question -- if I get their lesson plans, do I need the CD-ROM? What does the CD-ROM give me? Any details?

(I know about the online option that is cheaper, but am not interested in going in that direction.)

 

What is the "online option"? - I'm not familiar with this... considering this program for next year, too.

 

Thanks for any insights you can share.

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