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Is Thames & Kosmos' Milestones in Science as fabulous as it looks?


Trivium Academy
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Okay, this is horrible. Jessica you keep finding things I think I MUST have:confused:

 

This would go great with Beautiful Feet Science, something I plan on using for my dd. I've looked at it about 5 times since I saw your post last night....lol:D

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Well it is science in a box, right? I like the coverage it supposedly provides but that is what I'm also hoping to find out from someone else before I purchase it- if it is sufficient.

 

It does seem to cover A LOT, it looks really good. I hope someone does a review:) on it.

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but returned it. It was clear to me that it would be too hard for my DS, and an exercise in frustration.

 

But my DS has severe LD's, and is way behind academically. For a "typical" kid around ages 10+, it looked great. I only skimmed enough to see it wouldn't work for DS, but it comes with a nice book full of info on various scientists and scientific theory, and a ton of equipment. I thought it would make a great year of science, combined with a good encyclopedia of science.

 

Shop around, you can find it various places online for a lot less than full price. I believe I bought it for $60 through someone selling it at Amazon, and that included shipping.

MichelleT

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Okay, I've been bad because I've been waiting to see if any one else's review matched mine. (Being a chicken here.) I bought it to go with Trisms History Makers. My kids are 13 and 11. Just to give you some background...our history rotation is a little off, and my kids really wanted to keep doing SOTW. I thought it was a little young for them, so we're still going to be doing SOTW for the continued history narrative that my kids like, then I plan on adding assigments from TRISMS and other resources to make sure they are doing more grade level work. I thought this kit would make a good companion for the historic science part of Trisms.

 

The kit comes with a book that gives a couple of paragraphs about the different scientists, then an activity to go along with it. This part I've really liked. We really haven't gotten that indepth with the kit yet because we're getting ready to move and I've shelved history and science until after we move. The order of experiments are groups into different fields of science, (physics, chemistry, etc.) Then the scientific discoveries are chronological within each field of science.

 

As far as the actual experiments go...I'm still on the shelf. So far, what I've noticed is that it tends to be somewhat simplistic. When we were discussing the invention of the wheel, we spent a few minutes trying to pull a book with a spring on the table, then pulled the same book with the spring with small siskabob type dowels under it, and compared which one was easier to pull, then discussed why ancient societies were motivated to find easier ways to move stuff.

 

I wouldn't use this as a stand alone science curriculum. It could make history a little more fun adding in some of these activites, and if you have younger kids it might be a little more appropriate. On the other hand, having gone though the book that comes with it with a fine tooth comb, I think some of the later experiments may be more worthwhile than what we've done so far. Also, it doesn't shy away from explaining some of the more difficult scientific concepts (the theory of relativity, for one example) and I figure if they get a simple but accurate understanding of some of these scientific principles, then when we actually do "real" science they may have a firmer grasp later on. (am I making sense?)

 

The kit is rather expensive, so it's up to you if you think it's worthwhile to get. It's already past the point of no return for me, so I'll make it work, and I'm not sorry I bought it. I think as long as your expectations are reasonable you'll be happy with this kit.

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Excellent! Katrina, thank you for responding! This sounds like it will work out with what else we have planned, The Story Book of Science by Jean Henri Fabre, Great Inventors and Their Inventions by Bachman and we have Usborne's Book of Discovery which covers scientists and inventions. We actually have plenty of textual resources to flesh out more information on the experiments. I just wanted something for the actual experiments- this sounds perfect.

 

I hope your move goes well! (and quickly)

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