Trying to narrow down science and history curriculum

[momof4inco]

I will have a 7th grader next year who was in public school through 5th grade and did Calvert virtual school in 6th grade. I really feel like both schools let us down on U.S. and World Geography. He did ancient history this year and he was absolutely not interested in anything the dry textbook was teaching him. I wasn't interested when I had to ask him questions about his dry reading, so I really can't blame him.

 

I am thinking about doing U.S. geography with Trail Guide to US Geography, adding in some History Pockets for some light U.S. history. Next year, I am thinking about doing world geography with Trail Guide to World Geography, with some History Pockets for some light ancient history. I don't know if he will be doing homeschool for high school or going to a charter school with dual enrollment at a community college. I want to make sure he is in a good position doing either one. Please let me know if you think my plan stinks and will set my son up for failure :)

 

For science, I have found (through these forums) some great curriculum choices. He wants to do chemistry next year. I'm looking at Chemistry for the Logic Stage (Elemental Science), NOEO Science Chemistry III, Mr. Q Advanced Chemistry, and RS4K Focus on Chemistry. I am leaning slightly towards Mr. Q right now, mainly because everything was so dry this year and he might enjoy something fun. I need something that doesn't require a lot of prep work with somewhat easy experiments. I would also like something that can be passed on to his younger siblings with minimal costs in future years. Any opinions on these?

[Garga]

We tried Mr. Q's advanced chemistry. We didn't like it. Other people do like it and you might too. But here's why we didn't:

 

The font. That sounds nit-picky doesn't it? But the font was crazy. It was all over the place. It was hard to highlight things. It was distracting. It was hard to flip through the pages (because we printed it out), and find what we wanted because everything was so big and all over the place.

 

Speaking of finding what we wanted: there was no appendix. If we forgot a concept I had no way of knowing where it was in the book. I'd have to flip through the entire book, page by page, hoping to bump into whatever it was we were looking for. That was immensely frustrating.

 

Explanations. Some were just wonderful. And some weren't. There were a few things that he alluded to, but never explained. Like in how chemicals' ending are made. (Does it end in -ide or something else?) We never could quite figure out how things are named. It's like he started explaining it and then just stopped and never explained to us how some of the endings are used. Perhaps he finally finished explaining how things were named later in the book, but we stopped after 4.5 months of using it so I'll never know.

 

My son learned some things with Mr. Q so it wasn't a total bust, but it was just too frustrating to read that font and once we covered something, heaven help us if we had to look it up again. I spent so much time flipping through pages trying to track down things we'd been taught earlier but were fuzzy on. I think I wouldn't have minded so much if the font was normal. But with all that crazy font, it was so hard to track things down. And when Mr. Q dropped explaining things, we would sit there going online trying to look up answers and not have much luck. A few times, a concept wasn't fully explained until a later chapter and all that time online was wasted. If we'd have had an appendix, I could have seen that right away. Or if he'd written, "See chapter 5 for further explanations" then we would have known to wait to the next chapter for more information.

 

YMMV.

 

I didn't use any of the other courses.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

We are starting RS4K this summer in chemistry. It's a ten week curriculum, and you can purchase an optional additional experiment book to go deeper. You could then cover an additional subject in the second semester. I haven't used it yet, but feel free to ask any questions, and I can look into it. There is an experiment kit you can purchAse if you like, but even with it, you will have to gather a few things, like a head of cabbage that is perishable.

 

I have also used Elemental physics and own biology to use the following year. We like it too. Same thing with experiments. You read out of encyclopedias more than textbooks, and for chemistry, I wanted a more engaging reference book with clear explanations. RS4K looks simpler than huge textbooks, but reading through, I found the explanations to be pretty good with scientific vocabulary in an age appropriate explanation.

[HomeAgain]

Mr. Q Advanced Chem is quite quick.  You may find yourself needing something deeper or a different direction if he has not had algebra and/or an introduction to chemistry yet.  My personal vote would be a combination: Probably Noeo along with Ellen McHenry.

[momof4inco]

Thanks for the information! We ruled out Mr. Q because of the info I got on here. I thought I had it narrowed down to NOEO, but I wanted to find something a little more reasonably priced. I found Supercharged Science Ultimate Science curriculum on Homeschool Buyers Co-op. The prices are really reasonable through the co-op. I was going to do Chem 2, Astronomy 2, and Life Science 2: Anatomy. The reason I am doing level 2 on Chem and Astronomy is because they recommend them before taking the level 3 classes, which we will do next year if we like it. Any thoughts on this curriculum?

[Insertcreativenamehere]

Thanks for the information! We ruled out Mr. Q because of the info I got on here. I thought I had it narrowed down to NOEO, but I wanted to find something a little more reasonably priced. I found Supercharged Science Ultimate Science curriculum on Homeschool Buyers Co-op. The prices are really reasonable through the co-op. I was going to do Chem 2, Astronomy 2, and Life Science 2: Anatomy. The reason I am doing level 2 on Chem and Astronomy is because they recommend them before taking the level 3 classes, which we will do next year if we like it. Any thoughts on this curriculum?

 Just make sure you have a CD drive in your computer. I bought a few of their programs on a really, really good deal and then realized that they're all CD-based and my Mac doesn't have a CD drive. 

[momof4inco]

 Just make sure you have a CD drive in your computer. I bought a few of their programs on a really, really good deal and then realized that they're all CD-based and my Mac doesn't have a CD drive. 

 

Thanks for the heads up! I had to do a little research about my computer and DVD-RW drives, but I figured it out. We have the right drive on our computers :)

[smarson]

Noeo is pricey, yes... unless you can get the books from your public library?  I just ordered the guide and the experiment kits and will get everything else at the library - reducing cost MEASURABLY.

 

Did you get any recommendations on History?  What about Tapestry or Wayfarers?  Perhaps the living books approach would be more to your liking?  Or Ambleside?