Can we do Rainbow Science years out of order?

[Tami]

I am looking at Rainbow Science for jr. high, and would really prefer the Life Science focus of Year 2 for next year. We just did a ton of physics last year.

 

Would it be okay to use Rainbow Science in reverse order, Year 2, then Year 1?

[Linda in NE]

The author does not recommend that you do so, but we did not have any significant trouble. I must admit, though, that I liked Year 1 much better than Year 2. Once the biology lessons became what I would call a "survey" of the various branches of the classification system for plant an animal life, I thought the lessons got rather disjointed and, dare I say, somewhat pointless. It seemed like the author was rattling off a series of names of plants/animals in a particular category and expected the kids to memorize them -- for what purpose, I don't know. The earth science part was okay, what there was of it. Overall, "meh" was my reaction to Year 2.

[HollyinNNV]

I thought the Life Science section was really pathetic.

Sorry!

Holly

PS-But, yes you could go out of order with few problems.

[Tami]

I was about to waste a lot of money! Thanks for posting honestly - you can't imagine how much I appreciate it.

 

Back to the Life Science drawing board, I guess. Do you have any suggestions? I am Christian, and prefer something that isn't real preachy on evolution.

 

Maybe I will look at Prentice-Hall. Sigh.

[Carol in Cal.]

We have emphasized electronics, chemistry, earth science, and robotics here, and done almost nothing with biology. I had considered doing Rainbow mostly for the biology coverage, skimming through the first year to get to the 'good stuff'. But now that I hear that Biology is not all that great, I can just put this out of my nagging little curriculum junkie head and continue with Science Explorer, which I am really liking for DD anyway.