Runningmom80 Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 Looking for Science and History options for my rising 5th graders. DD is 2E, DS is MG/EG For History, they did a lot of US History in PS for 3 & 4th grade so I think I'm leaning more world history. I have the Horrible Histories set, I'm thinking maybe we could read through those? I would need some supplements I think. (Maybe History Unboxed?) Or if there are any other secular curricula for world history, any time period is fine as they haven't done much outside of the US. (We tried Curiosity Chronicles with Torchlight right before they enrolled in PS and none of us liked it.) Science - Anything fun and engaging. I don't care if it's messy or involved, they both really like science. We have some old MEL kits (do those expire? 🤣) so maybe a chemistry year? Honestly anything. We did Mystery Science in 1st and 2nd and I think they need something more robust. TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 (edited) Are you already familiar with the science BFSU series by Bernie Nebel? Edited July 2, 2020 by daijobu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 29 minutes ago, daijobu said: Are you already familiar with the science BFSU series by Bernie Nebel? I forgot their was a middle school book! Thank you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madteaparty Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 (edited) I could never manage BFSU logistically but wish I could! I’m using Galore Park and some critical thinking co stuff. Edited July 2, 2020 by madteaparty 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porridge Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 Another vote for BFSU! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 54 minutes ago, Florimell said: I really liked BFSU, but gave up on it because it never got done. It just took too much time and energy to figure out what we were supposed to do, what questions I was supposed to ask, and so on. When we did vol 1, I wrote out a whole plan for each lesson, which usually took about twice as long as the lesson itself. If I was teaching science in a school setting and would Middle school science with BFSU was far and away the most time-consuming subject of all my homeschooling. I think a big part of that was doing the experiments and demonstrations ahead of time so I could understand what was going on and I could demonstrate it for the kids without embarrassing mistakes. (They didn't have a lot of tolerance for me learning as I went along.) Add to that putting correlating videos and books on hold at the library, and securing materials, sometimes with my charter school budget and sometimes with my own cash, and this is a difficult curriculum to pull off. But honestly, I relished the challenge and at that point I was starting to outsource other subjects anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 Hmmm, yeah. maybe BFSU isn't what I need. I'm in a masters program (in theory I guess, who knows what is happening anymore) and I don't necessarily want to do the entire experiments beforehand. I did have BFSU for younger kids at one point and we only did a few things so perhaps I need to be more realistic with myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted July 4, 2020 Author Share Posted July 4, 2020 In case anyone comes across this, I found this curriculum that is supposed to be based on BFSU methods https://scicurriculum.com/sci/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cake and Pi Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 My DS 10 recently came home from PS as well. I pulled him in January and we've been trying to figure out what to do since then. He's 2e with low motivation. History: This coming year I'm planning to go through History Quest Early Times (maybe also the beginning of Middle Times) with my DS 10 and DS 8, beefed up with a middle-school literature list, Crash Course world history and world mythology videos, and maybe/probably/possibly Human Odyssey Vol. 1 readings. HQ Early Times is supposed to be for grades 1-4, but it doesn't feel any different than reusing SOTW for a second run through in 5th-8th as recommended in TWTM. It's just the truly secular version of SOTW anyway. Human Odyssey has interesting pictures and a lot more details, but it really doesn't seem secular to me now that I've been reading through it. It's more in the "Christian-friendly-but-not-overtly-Christian" zone. I'm not sure we'll keep up with it. We might end up with just HQ + literature + Crash Course. There's also a Horrible History class set from Online G3 that would totally add enough to your Horrible History books to count as full history curriculum. DS 12 and DS 8 took the Horrible Romans and Egyptians class last year. I was impressed with the way G3 handled history in general and recommend them. Science: For science DS 10 is just doing fun picks from Athena's. That really seems fine for this age. If he was more motivated/interested we might to RSO level 2 Biology. DS 8 and DS 12 did Bio 2 a couple of years ago and it was seriously fun. It was a perfect mix of reading, microscope labs, hands-on activities, and research, and we were easily able to accommodate for DS 12's dysgraphia. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted July 5, 2020 Author Share Posted July 5, 2020 (edited) 11 hours ago, Cake and Pi said: My DS 10 recently came home from PS as well. I pulled him in January and we've been trying to figure out what to do since then. He's 2e with low motivation. History: This coming year I'm planning to go through History Quest Early Times (maybe also the beginning of Middle Times) with my DS 10 and DS 8, beefed up with a middle-school literature list, Crash Course world history and world mythology videos, and maybe/probably/possibly Human Odyssey Vol. 1 readings. HQ Early Times is supposed to be for grades 1-4, but it doesn't feel any different than reusing SOTW for a second run through in 5th-8th as recommended in TWTM. It's just the truly secular version of SOTW anyway. Human Odyssey has interesting pictures and a lot more details, but it really doesn't seem secular to me now that I've been reading through it. It's more in the "Christian-friendly-but-not-overtly-Christian" zone. I'm not sure we'll keep up with it. We might end up with just HQ + literature + Crash Course. There's also a Horrible History class set from Online G3 that would totally add enough to your Horrible History books to count as full history curriculum. DS 12 and DS 8 took the Horrible Romans and Egyptians class last year. I was impressed with the way G3 handled history in general and recommend them. Science: For science DS 10 is just doing fun picks from Athena's. That really seems fine for this age. If he was more motivated/interested we might to RSO level 2 Biology. DS 8 and DS 12 did Bio 2 a couple of years ago and it was seriously fun. It was a perfect mix of reading, microscope labs, hands-on activities, and research, and we were easily able to accommodate for DS 12's dysgraphia. I love G3, older DS has done quite a few classes with them. I don't know that my Youngers are ready for it though. They are just turning 10 this week and were in public school for a year and a half where it wasn't exactly rigorous. Plus honestly, DS's high school classes are so expensive i'm trying to get away with only HSA for my twins. That said, I'm definitely going to give them a look again, I think my DS in particular would love to take those classes. ETA: It's full/unavailable. I'll have to make sure I check back for Spring classes! Edited July 5, 2020 by Runningmom80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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