Tardis Girl Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 I am so frustrated with science!! I rather spontaneously bought RS4K elementary set last spring because my 2nd and 4th graders really love science. And they love RS4K but I can't stand how involved the labs are. Granted, my kids love it. They even have lab notebooks to record their findings (composition books, one for each -- because I wasn't going to buy multiple student manuals). Q#1: How much retention do you think an elementary student would get from just reading through the RS4K text? My philosophy with my older kids was to keep elementary science focused on nature studies, nature readings, nature notebooks, etc. And those older ones loved nature. These younger ones like it, but maybe because we have spent less time with it they don't feel as much of a connection. Or maybe they're just different. Q#2: So maybe I should just go back to just focusing on nature studies until they hit 7th grade?? I just feel like I've been so inconsistent with ANYTHING for this younger crew. OK, here's something funny (pathetic funny, not haha funny) -- when I bought RS4K, it was really the physics and astronomy stuff I wanted for my 4th grader because she loves that stuff. I found it at a homeschool conference and it caught my eye. I did not study this out in advance. :/ But then I thought, "Oh this is so easy/doable, why not buy biology and chemistry too and do those FIRST (the way the author intended) so she has that background." Well! Ya, the physics and astronomy books sit unopened because we are still STUCK in the 1st book of the series. Q#3: AARGH! Why am I like this?? (somewhat rhetorical, but I'm open to hearing the painful replies on this one) I also have Lyrical Life Science (all 3 volumes), 2 Tiner books (astronomy and planet earth), oodles of nature resources, and find myself eyeing Jay Wile's new science series (because Apologia/Fulbright's Exploring ____ series was not going to be a good match for us, but this looks like it might be...except the idea of even a little experiment for every single reading sounds so unpleasant to me) as well as SCM's 106 Days of Creation and Outdoor Secrets studies. And then I read about all the wonderful-sounding science curricula mentioned by so many here, and.... <sigh> Q#4: What should I do??? / What would you do in my situation? Q#5: The kids are strong readers, so they could really do much more reading on their own, but then what kind of follow-up would they do with any of these? Q#2-4 are not fair questions, I realize. But I am frustrated. And homeschool conference season is upon us once again so I definitely want to feel at peace with a plan for where we are going and not be tempted by various enticing baubles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 Just read 'em and if you flip through and find a lab you feel like doing, do it. If not, so what. It isn't like it will be last time they see it. Me: let them read, borrow lots of MagicSchool Bus DVDs and books, and other DVDs and books as they like. Relax and eat chocolate while curled up reading/watching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tardis Girl Posted February 10, 2014 Author Share Posted February 10, 2014 Me: let them read, borrow lots of MagicSchool Bus DVDs and books, and other DVDs and books as they like. Relax and eat chocolate while curled up reading/watching. lol, Paradox5, now that sounds like a plan I could live with! Ugh, I just need a break from life. I think I am just burned out and dealing with too many underlying issues of fatigue and similar problems. I "should" be so good with all this after so many years of homeschooling. And I read your post and think, "sure, that's all good!" But I am so stuck in survival mode, that very little seems like an obvious choice...besides my all out desire (yet ever-elusive struggle) for sleep. For anyone who happens to be reading my "woe-is-me" thread here, I did find a lot of value in these two threads: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/499518-so-must-haves-for-my-home-science-library/?hl=%2Brs4k&do=findComment&comment=5394923 http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/504115-alternatives-to-classical-science-rotation/ (particularly regentrude's and soror's posts, which might not have been what the OP on that thread was going for, but it resonated with me and what worked well the first time around with my older kids) ETA: I just started a new thread to explore interest-based science as a primary form of science: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/504199-what-does-interest-based-science-look-like-in-your-home/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 BTDT. January is my nemesis. I decided for sanity and burn out my kids are doing nothing but LA and Math for the rest of the year. I'm not worrying about anything else. Those 2 areas are the skills they need to be successful later on. The content, done formally, can wait. In the meantime, we watch and read as we want. I have lots of paint, paper, colored pencils, etc. for free art. Survival and a happy Mom are more important to me then all the labs and projects and if my kids can spout of the entire history of the world timeline or rattle off Latin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I am a big BFSU fan, but this year we got halfway through the second volume and hit a wall. It was just too much me at writing with my dry erase markers explaining concepts and the kids being bored out of their minds. So after an involved decision process with dh, we bought BJU online science 6 for my two oldest to do together (5th and 3rd grades). What a difference. After one week my kids like science again. The nice lady on the computer screen teaches them science class every day, makes them do their assignments and study for quizzes, and explains all of the experiments. There are even kids demonstrating the experiments for my kids to watch. I bought the mandatory science experiment supplies and put it all in a couple of crates. When it is time to do the experiments, I just pull out what they need, and the nice lady in the screen tells them what to do. (After all, my son tells me, the experiments are the best part.) There isn't much for me to do except enjoy watching them enjoy science. Okay, we have only done this for a week, so what do I know? But how did I not figure this out sooner? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdybird Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I posted on your other thread earlier, Tardis Girl. I have the opposite problem. I find RS4K to be lacking as far as biology goes. We had a good time with Chem last year and are looking forward to Physics next year. Originally I bought it because DH and I wanted to focus more on hard sciences with our kids. I really liked it when I previewed the materials online and I lucked out and found a used Chem/Bio/Physics set (all texts and manuals in near mint condition) on ebay after we had decided on it. Fate was on my side, it seemed! Not so fast. Chem was great. I let my kids be creative with the write ups, let my oldest take pictures and do narrations instead of doing all the assignments. I stretched the material out to last about 7 months and then we were done. It was kind of a let down at that point. I didn't want to do biology yet, so we played and had a great time doing experiments that I found online and in various books. We read a lot of books about different things, went for long walks, and did 3 months of nature study last spring/summer to round things out. This year I have managed to pace biology, but honestly, biology is freakin' boring to all of us. I have found myself doing unit studies more often than not and we haven't touched the RS4K book since Christmas. It is more of a reference tool now. I think that if you are feeling drawn to nature study, I would pursue that instead of slogging through the RS4K program for the remainder of the year. That's just me though. I am doing physics next year and then I am going to re-evaluate whether or not we'll continue to use RS4K. I do like it for little ones and the text is appealing enough to where my oldest will read it on his own. Decisions, decisions.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tardis Girl Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 lol -- your replies are so great! Makes me feel better somehow to know that there are others in the pile of people who have hit the science "wall" at least at some point. The chem labs don't bother me too bady, actually, as far as labs go. I'm just not a huge fan of labs at this stage, I think. And I actually gathered all the supplies we'd need for the entire book and kept them all in one place...it's just the actual carrying out of the lab that is unpleasant to me. But with 3 chapters left in chem, we just read through a couple yesterday (not planning to do any labs). My kids for some reason had the idea to make a video about polymers -- they've never suggested we make a video for anything school related before. It was an absolute riot! After several outtakes, they came up with a way for all 3 of them to role-play how a polymer's properties change with a chemical reaction or heat. Our most memorable chem lesson, to be sure! And SparklyUnicorn, that dancing bacon is just as cute as can be! Even as I type in this window, I can still see his happy little legs dancing from side to side from about his "knees" down. (Did I just say that the bacon has knees?? Yes. Yes, I did.) He makes me smile every time I see him. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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