Berean builders vs Sonlight science

[seemesew]

I’m trying to decide between these two. I like that Sonlight uses literature, has everything laid out out so it’s open and go, and I like having all the supplies in a neat box. But I am worried how much time it will take since it's scheduled 4 days a week and I've never done science more than 2 days a week. It's also around $300 and I'd love to not spend that much if there's something like it for less.

Berean builders, I like that it’s quite a bit cheaper and has all the supplies if I buy the kit (and its still half the price!). It looks good, but maybe a little textbooky, which I’m not a fan of. It doesn't look as textbooky and dry as apologia, which we did not like. I'm worried we won't love reading the lessons because we've tried a ton of stuff and that hasn't really gone well in other things we've tried.

Has anyone used both and can give me some insight?  I prefer living books and hands on as do my kids. I can’t have it be a lot of work, however, and With many children in nearly every age group I need easy and pre-planned.

Any help would be appreciated!

Edited May 26 by seemesew

[LauraClark]

If you didn't like apologia I would shy away from berean builders-Dr Jay Wile wrote both (they've revamped the new apologia, but I can't imagine they strayed too far away from the same style, but I've also not thumbed through it). 

That said, we use and enjoy Berean Builders. My oldest does his (mostly) independently and I read aloud for the grades 1-6 bunch. They especially like when we do the experiments. It is a textbook, but the reading sections are not long. If you're wanting to add in living books to go with what you're reading I can see that would be difficult: the first book (Science in the beginning) is laid out by easy to identify themes (light, plants, birds, mammals, etc), but every book after in the elementary series jumps around depending on what was discovered. Some topics might have several lessons, but others only one.

[countrymum]

Wile only wrote the 7th grade and above Apologia books. Jeannie Fulbright wrote all but 1 elementary one. I find Wiles writing quite different than Jeannie's writing. I like it better.

In the elementary Berean Builders there is an experiment each lesson. The science content is interesting and clearly explained. His writing is a bit dry IMHO. Sometimes I paraphrase part of the lesson. It is an explanation of the experiment so that's not hard on the fly.

I really like Simply Charlotte Mason for elementary science. It's real books you can sourced used to build a great nonfiction children's library or borrow most from the library. The guide is like $20 so most of your cost is used picture books if you choose. It does not have many experiments though.

[seemesew]

35 minutes ago, countrymum said:

Wile only wrote the 7th grade and above Apologia books. Jeannie Fulbright wrote all but 1 elementary one. I find Wiles writing quite different than Jeannie's writing. I like it better.

In the elementary Berean Builders there is an experiment each lesson. The science content is interesting and clearly explained. His writing is a bit dry IMHO. Sometimes I paraphrase part of the lesson. It is an explanation of the experiment so that's not hard on the fly.

I really like Simply Charlotte Mason for elementary science. It's real books you can sourced used to build a great nonfiction children's library or borrow most from the library. The guide is like $20 so most of your cost is used picture books if you choose. It does not have many experiments though.

Oh dear I was afraid the writing would be dry! The samples sound better than Apologia so I was hoping we'd like it. I don't care if its linear,  I just want interesting so we are excited to do it!

I haven't looked at Simply Charlotte Mason because their website is very confusing 🫣 I do want experiments that's what my kids have requested more of. They are tired of me only reading and not getting hands on.

[seemesew]

3 hours ago, LauraClark said:

If you didn't like apologia I would shy away from berean builders-Dr Jay Wile wrote both (they've revamped the new apologia, but I can't imagine they strayed too far away from the same style, but I've also not thumbed through it). 

That said, we use and enjoy Berean Builders. My oldest does his (mostly) independently and I read aloud for the grades 1-6 bunch. They especially like when we do the experiments. It is a textbook, but the reading sections are not long. If you're wanting to add in living books to go with what you're reading I can see that would be difficult: the first book (Science in the beginning) is laid out by easy to identify themes (light, plants, birds, mammals, etc), but every book after in the elementary series jumps around depending on what was discovered. Some topics might have several lessons, but others only one.

The reading sections were a nice length and I like that reads easily not like Apologia which felt facts, facts, facts.

[LauraClark]

8 hours ago, seemesew said:

The reading sections were a nice length and I like that reads easily

Yes, and like @countrymumsaid you can easily paraphrase things too.

[seemesew]

Any other thoughts from the hive?

[MiddleCourt]

I haven’t used either; however, I do have a year of Bookshark science through a charter school (Bookshark is the secular version of SL). It looks easy to implement, they give you supplies for the experiments except for basic household supplies you’d have, and it incorporates living books but not in an overwhelming manner. (I actually ordered it bc my 10 yr old wanted to do more science experiments but we went another direction). It also comes with worksheets which look a little light, imho. If you just want to get her done and please your kids with experiments, it might be worth the money to purchase a package.

[seemesew]

3 hours ago, MiddleCourt said:

I haven’t used either; however, I do have a year of Bookshark science through a charter school (Bookshark is the secular version of SL). It looks easy to implement, they give you supplies for the experiments except for basic household supplies you’d have, and it incorporates living books but not in an overwhelming manner. (I actually ordered it bc my 10 yr old wanted to do more science experiments but we went another direction). It also comes with worksheets which look a little light, imho. If you just want to get her done and please your kids with experiments, it might be worth the money to purchase a package.

That is good to hear that it is easy to implement. I'm kind of leaning to Berean Builders....but I'm not positive.  It's so hard to choose!

[seemesew]

On 5/27/2024 at 4:58 PM, MiddleCourt said:

I haven’t used either; however, I do have a year of Bookshark science through a charter school (Bookshark is the secular version of SL). It looks easy to implement, they give you supplies for the experiments except for basic household supplies you’d have, and it incorporates living books but not in an overwhelming manner. (I actually ordered it bc my 10 yr old wanted to do more science experiments but we went another direction). It also comes with worksheets which look a little light, imho. If you just want to get her done and please your kids with experiments, it might be worth the money to purchase a package.

What other direction did you end up going? My kids also want more experiments. 

[MiddleCourt]

3 hours ago, seemesew said:

What other direction did you end up going? My kids also want more experiments. 

I ended up scrapping all my plans at the beginning of the year and spending the year studying Asia and Africa. We learned about biomes, animals, botany, etc of those places. Not a single experiment was done haha. We used no sweat nature study a lot.

For next year, we are using SCM’s old program 106 Days of Creation. I wanted to do it with all my kids so their newer programs they replaced it with won’t work. It looks like a nice balance of books and experiments. My oldest will be in 7th and I wanted him to have a general science before high school (and I know he’d complain to no end about Apologia General Science), so I plan to add more books, videos, and note taking for him. 

[seemesew]

On 6/4/2024 at 10:18 AM, MiddleCourt said:

I ended up scrapping all my plans at the beginning of the year and spending the year studying Asia and Africa. We learned about biomes, animals, botany, etc of those places. Not a single experiment was done haha. We used no sweat nature study a lot.

For next year, we are using SCM’s old program 106 Days of Creation. I wanted to do it with all my kids so their newer programs they replaced it with won’t work. It looks like a nice balance of books and experiments. My oldest will be in 7th and I wanted him to have a general science before high school (and I know he’d complain to no end about Apologia General Science), so I plan to add more books, videos, and note taking for him. 

No sweat Nature study is one I'm actually really considering for my younger two! Was it enough to be a full science for elementary? How complicated were the additional things it comes with or did you use them?

[MiddleCourt]

1 hour ago, seemesew said:

No sweat Nature study is one I'm actually really considering for my younger two! Was it enough to be a full science for elementary? How complicated were the additional things it comes with or did you use them?

Whether it would be a full science for elementary- that would depend on what you consider full science 😜. For many on these boards, no, I don’t think it would. But we’ve never used textbook science in elementary- we’ve just widely read books and watched shows and focus on exposure in these years. I just looked- your younger two are in 2nd? Yes I absolutely think NSNS with some picture books thrown in is wonderful for 2nd. I had a 2nd grader this year and if the drawing was going to be too difficult for her I would help her draw or print a picture before they started the notebooking. She was then able to follow along and take simple notes. For 2nd, you could get Rod and Staff’s Patterns of Nature, read the weekly topic, and find the no sweat videos that would line up for that chapter. Perfect for 2nd!

We didn’t use the extras. I think they would’ve benefited from the podcast at least, but my younger two really struggle with focus and it was a particularly hard year for their attention. So, we skipped the extras. I do really like the flexibility of NSNS and can easily find a topic to relate to our history study or the time of the year or literature we are reading. It adds a nice touch. For instance, we were studying farming this spring and there were tons of videos they could watch. Anyway, it’s at least a great supplement if you want to pay for it.

 

[seemesew]

11 minutes ago, MiddleCourt said:

Whether it would be a full science for elementary- that would depend on what you consider full science 😜. For many on these boards, no, I don’t think it would. But we’ve never used textbook science in elementary- we’ve just widely read books and watched shows and focus on exposure in these years. I just looked- your younger two are in 2nd? Yes I absolutely think NSNS with some picture books thrown in is wonderful for 2nd. I had a 2nd grader this year and if the drawing was going to be too difficult for her I would help her draw or print a picture before they started the notebooking. She was then able to follow along and take simple notes. For 2nd, you could get Rod and Staff’s Patterns of Nature, read the weekly topic, and find the no sweat videos that would line up for that chapter. Perfect for 2nd!

We didn’t use the extras. I think they would’ve benefited from the podcast at least, but my younger two really struggle with focus and it was a particularly hard year for their attention. So, we skipped the extras. I do really like the flexibility of NSNS and can easily find a topic to relate to our history study or the time of the year or literature we are reading. It adds a nice touch. For instance, we were studying farming this spring and there were tons of videos they could watch. Anyway, it’s at least a great supplement if you want to pay for it.

 

That sounds great! I guess I didn't realize there would be a lot of note-taking...neither one can write super well but maybe this would encourage that more. Paying for it is definitely the kicker so I guess I'll see what money is left after getting older kids settled 🤔 

[MiddleCourt]

5 minutes ago, seemesew said:

That sounds great! I guess I didn't realize there would be a lot of note-taking...neither one can write super well but maybe this would encourage that more. Paying for it is definitely the kicker so I guess I'll see what money is left after getting older kids settled 🤔 

It’s not intense note taking- they’re making a notebooking page and just copying what Cindy writes on the screen. For instance, for the waterfowl lesson they drew a picture of a duck and then copied down things like “builds nests to lay eggs” and “elongated bill for eating”. I paused it a lot for my 2nd grader to write it down. 

[seemesew]

17 hours ago, MiddleCourt said:

It’s not intense note taking- they’re making a notebooking page and just copying what Cindy writes on the screen. For instance, for the waterfowl lesson they drew a picture of a duck and then copied down things like “builds nests to lay eggs” and “elongated bill for eating”. I paused it a lot for my 2nd grader to write it down. 

Oh that doesn't sound too bad at all! They could do that 😊 thank you , for answering my questions,  I'll definitely be considering this!

[ktgrok]

On 5/26/2024 at 8:31 AM, seemesew said:

Oh dear I was afraid the writing would be dry! The samples sound better than Apologia so I was hoping we'd like it. I don't care if its linear,  I just want interesting so we are excited to do it!

I haven't looked at Simply Charlotte Mason because their website is very confusing 🫣 I do want experiments that's what my kids have requested more of. They are tired of me only reading and not getting hands on.

I don't know if a Catholic resource would work for your family, but from what I remember Catholic Heritage elementary science books were short and sweet, with experiments woven in to the lessons. They use household objects, and the courses are very affordable.  The youngest grades the books are presented like a story, later more like a regular book. They are designed for 4 days a week but the lessons are short so I think you could definitely do two a day, twice a week, instead. Lesson plans are sold separately on the website, but are also affordable. Or you can just figure out how many lessons to do each day to finish in a year. https://chcweb.com/shop-by-subject/science-health/

[seemesew]

10 hours ago, ktgrok said:

I don't know if a Catholic resource would work for your family, but from what I remember Catholic Heritage elementary science books were short and sweet, with experiments woven in to the lessons. They use household objects, and the courses are very affordable.  The youngest grades the books are presented like a story, later more like a regular book. They are designed for 4 days a week but the lessons are short so I think you could definitely do two a day, twice a week, instead. Lesson plans are sold separately on the website, but are also affordable. Or you can just figure out how many lessons to do each day to finish in a year. https://chcweb.com/shop-by-subject/science-health/

That does sound like a good resource! I don't think a catholic resource would be anything I would worry about anymore than a regular Christian one, I have to change some things either way 😉 I'll definitely look through this!

[ktgrok]

13 hours ago, seemesew said:

That does sound like a good resource! I don't think a catholic resource would be anything I would worry about anymore than a regular Christian one, I have to change some things either way 😉 I'll definitely look through this!

I see you'd be using 2nd grade? That one is one of the ones that is story based, about a family. They may mention going to Mass, or saying certain prayers that are more Catholic specific, but as mentions, not religious instruction. And may not even do that...I can't quite remember. Very gentle and easy to use from my recollection.