Elemental Chemistry, Noeo Chemistry, or The Elements for 3rd grade

[Bookworm4]

I'm trying to decide which Chemistry to use with my 3rd grader.  I think I've narrowed it down to Elemental Grammar stage Chemistry (I already own several of the required books), Noeo Chemistry 1, or Ellen McHenry's The Elements.  Elemental and Noeo sound like they would cover more topics than The Elements though which is part of the reason I feel more drawn to them.  I've never seen any of these in person.

 

DD is a reluctant writer and dyslexic, but I don't mind scribing as necessary on projects for her and plan to read everything to her.  I need something planned out for me or it won't get done.  I prefer a mix of reading and experiments, but if I have to do an experiment every single lesson I am afraid I won't stick with it unless there is a kit to make it easy to pull it all together.  Which of those do you recommend or do have a different recommendation I should consider? 

[lanabug]

My 2nd and 4th graders are doing Elemental Chemistry right now. I like how it's very clear what to do each day, down to planning ahead for any experiments. I picked up NOEO Physics II for next year. It seems to be laid out very similarly to Elemental.

 

Elemental has a separate kit with all the experiment supplies. NOEO (at least the physics course) includes some Young Scientist Club kits, but it also will tell you to do an experiment out of the spine book and expects you to collect the supplies.

 

Elemental is nearly all written narration work, except for drawing on the experiment. NOEO seems to have more options for different narration abilities.

 

Lana

[Jackie]

I love Ellen McHenry's The Elements, but it does not fit what you are looking for. It is a 6 week unit study focusing on the periodic table, not a full year's curriculum. And the activities are great, but not at all open-and-go, and they take a bit of planning on the parent's end to get it done.

 

I don't know the others well enough to comment, though.

[Bookworm4]

My 2nd and 4th graders are doing Elemental Chemistry right now. I like how it's very clear what to do each day, down to planning ahead for any experiments. I picked up NOEO Physics II for next year. It seems to be laid out very similarly to Elemental.

 

Elemental has a separate kit with all the experiment supplies. NOEO (at least the physics course) includes some Young Scientist Club kits, but it also will tell you to do an experiment out of the spine book and expects you to collect the supplies.

 

Elemental is nearly all written narration work, except for drawing on the experiment. NOEO seems to have more options for different narration abilities.

 

Lana

Thank you for sharing. If my DD isn't quite ready to do much written narration and would need to dictate to me at this point, would you recommend that I look more closely at Noeo for more options built in besides the written narration? Also, I noticed in the Elemental sample that other recommended readings a listed that you can use to expand on the topic. Does Noeo do that as well?

[Bookworm4]

I love Ellen McHenry's The Elements, but it does not fit what you are looking for. It is a 6 week unit study focusing on the periodic table, not a full year's curriculum. And the activities are great, but not at all open-and-go, and they take a bit of planning on the parent's end to get it done.

 

I don't know the others well enough to comment, though.

Thank you for sharing. I didn't realize it was such a short course. I may not mind supplementing with it if I could do the majority of the prep work ahead this summer. Would that be easy to prep most of it ahead?

 

Also, I noticed that you have BFSU in your siggy. Is that an easy open and go for the most part curriculum layout or does it require a lot of prep work? I forgot to check out BFSU.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

We have loosely used Elemental. You could easily customize the writing portion. We did little of the writing and did most of it orally since I had a first grader tag along. They give you options for a notebook, definitions and experiment write ups that you could fill in. They also include a five question quiz that could again be done orally. Very customizable.

 

Noeo is similar, but more pricey.

[Jackie]

Thank you for sharing. I didn't realize it was such a short course. I may not mind supplementing with it if I could do the majority of the prep work ahead this summer. Would that be easy to prep most of it ahead?

 

Also, I noticed that you have BFSU in your siggy. Is that an easy open and go for the most part curriculum layout or does it require a lot of prep work? I forgot to check out BFSU.

It would be easy to prep The Elements ahead of time.

 

BFSU is great, but not even close to open-and-go.

[Jackie]

Other science curricula you may want to look at that could fit your description would include Nancy Larson or REAL Science Odyssey.

[lanabug]

Thank you for sharing. If my DD isn't quite ready to do much written narration and would need to dictate to me at this point, would you recommend that I look more closely at Noeo for more options built in besides the written narration? Also, I noticed in the Elemental sample that other recommended readings a listed that you can use to expand on the topic. Does Noeo do that as well?

 

NOEO has a narration page with space for a drawing at the top. I'd probably just plan to scribe for her, no matter which one I chose.

 

I do not see that NOEO lists any additional books other than the required sources. I did not realize that Elemental was coming out with a revised version, so the extra book list in that is new. I really like that they've added extra sources.

 

In fact, after looking at the revised ES sample, I like it even more! It looks like they've done a great job revising and using some better spines.