Chemistry for Highschool (x-post)

[nobeatenpath]

My son, who is currently 11, is finishing off the Exploration Education  Advanced course and our new school year starts in February. We would like to now do one year of Chemistry and one of Physics. He could probably start iGCSE level science, and though that is our (rough) aim at this stage we are kind of looking for a bridge - a Chemistry program that is rigorous and interesting enough for a kid with an interest in science (and a dad who has the knowledge to teach science to a senior highschool level) but not so difficult that he gets turned off it. I guess an on-ramp to the IGCSE so that he does a year of chemistry, year of physics and then basically gets in and learns whatever gaps there are between that and the material on the test if that makes sense.

For those who don't know what GCSE/IGCSEs are:

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5 GCSE passes at grade C or higher are considered the rough equivalent of a US High School Diploma (without Honors or 'Advanced Placement' (AP) classes).

 

 

I am looking at Elemental Science Chemistry for the Logic Stage. Pluses are it is all set out, there is reading involved, there are experiments, there is memorisation (a weak point here), it is secular (a must in our household). However I am not sure it is rigorous enough (I don't know where I got that idea ...) and that there will be too much writing to really appeal to him. I have checked out the samples, and we started the earth sciences/astronomy course a few years back but there seemed to be a lot of timelines and writing and not a lot of 'hard' science.

 

I guess what I am trying to say with all this blather is I am looking for a good secular Chemistry course that I can teach at home (we are in the wrong time zone to do live online courses based in the US) or is delivered online asynchronously. Something entirely or nearly entirely computer based is okay as I can supplement it. Is Elemental Science what I am looking for or can you recommend something else?

 

Note: Exploration Education says it is aimed at US 7th - 10th grade. He didn't find it particularly interesting but it does go through topics quickly. I found we had to search for a lot of supplemental material. He is also a kid who really hates writing stuff up so he was happy with experiments but not writing everything up.

 

 

(I posted this in Logic stage but realised this board might have more of an idea of what I am looking for)