Earth Science, combining kids, Mr. Q, help!

[happypamama]

This year, my kids are 6th and 3rd (and pre-K), and we're using Mr. Q's Chemistry. We like it, and science (not my strong point) is actually getting done. It's easy for my 6th grader but seems to be effective for her, in that she seems to remember the vocabulary. She does a review sheet for each chapter, plus the tests. My 3rd grader doesn't do the written sheets/tests. Both of them fill out lab sheets (template I made) for some of the experiments (not all! sometimes we just want to see what happens and not stress about recording the procedure). So based on that, I got Mr. Q's Earth Science for next year -- rocks, weather, stars! -- sounds perfect for my crew of little boys.

 

My problem is DD, who will be in 7th grade. I am concerned that Mr. Q will be too easy for her. Looking at it, it looks like it'll be a mix of review and new info, which sounds good. But do I need to beef it up for her? How much challenge is necessary for 7th? Is it okay to have this subject be easy and fun, since it does have some new material? If I supplement for her, or if I opt to use a different and complementary program for her (same topics but more challenging? Like we use History Odyssey for her and ds1, same topics, just in different levels), what would you suggest? And how do I get a stronger program for her, without either just adding more work/reading to her plate, or without sending her off independently? Time is fleeting -- I want to keep her with the rest of us when possible for as long as possible. But I want to make sure I'm not doing her a disservice by not challenging her enough.

 

Maybe what I really want is a program that's a step up from Mr. Q, that she can work through on her own, but where she does the experiments with us. So when we study the planets, for instance, she can read her book, and I can read to the boys, and we can do the experiments together to reinforce the concepts, and we can continue to go over the vocabulary at breakfast together. Suggestions?

[littlebug42]

There is a free Earth Science text from Amazon for Kindle (or Kindle reading App) called CK-12 Earth Science for Middle School.  At their website, there is accompanying videos, quizzes, etc and it is all free.  Their website is http://www.ck12.org/student.  I have not used this yet but am planning to use it with my girls next year. 

 

 

 

[TarynB]

My DS is doing earth science this year (6th grade).  I looked at Mr. Q earth science for him and decided it was too young and too basic for middle school.  DS really likes the CPO Earth Science textbook he's using and I think its better than most other standard textbooks I've seen for middle school.  There's a link somewhere on the forum for a website where you can access the whole book online if you do a search.  Not visually cluttered, thought-provoking material for making connections, more than just regurgitation of facts.  The CPO website has quality supplemental materials available for free too and I've found things I like there for every chapter.  I think CPO would be easy to correlate to the topics covered in Mr. Q with your youngers, so your DD can do her own reading at her level, and then have all your kids do their hands-on together if they like doing that.

[happypamama]

Wanted to bump this to say that we've been having good success this year. DS1, 4th grade, reads Mr. Q to himself, and I found pages from Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia to correspond to the Mr. Q chapters for DD, 7th grade. Sometimes she won't have any pages, and sometimes she'll have more, but usually it's about two pages for each Mr. Q chapter. We do the labs, tests, and vocab review together. It's working well, so I think I will do the same for next year when we do Mr. Q physical science for the 5th grader.