Considering My Pals are Here Singapore Science

[A.J. at J.A.]

Hi all!

 

Science has been our biggest struggle in our 4 years of homeschooling. We do like the WTM classical approach and LOVE SOTW, so we went with Noeo...but the read/narrate approach just isn't really getting the job done. Especially for my youngest (going into 3rd grade).

 

We are thrilled with Singapore Math and have used it from the start...I'm seriously considering going to My Pals are Here Singapore Science 3/4 & 5/6 for my soon to be 3rd grader and soon to be 5th grader.

 

I would really appreciate any feedback and advice from those with experience with this program.

 

Blessings and thanks,

Angela

[Spy Car]

:lurk5:

[rafiki]

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[A.J. at J.A.]

Need more help. DH gave the thumbs up for this program and now I'm completed confused about what to actually purchase. Help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Here is the email I wrote to Jenny from singaporemath.com...if any of you can answer that would be great too!

 

We have used Singapore math for our boys since we started homeschooling almost 5 years ago. We have been very pleased with the program. I am considering using the Singapore Science - My Pals are Here but I am VERY confused. The Singapore Science website is very unclear in its description of what you need to fulfill the new 2-year program (3/4 and 5/6) and it looks like your site only carries the older edition. Do you have a resource (or maybe you know the answers) that I could ask my questions to for clarification before I purchase the new materials?

 

Specifically, I am looking at buying the 3/4 and 5/6 programs. It looks like the My Pals are here consists of multiple texts & workbooks for each level. There are also additional options (process skills, etc) and I can't tell from the description exactly what they are and how they are different from each other. Whatever help you can give would be much appreciated.

 

https://www.sgbox.com/p34mps.html

Scroll down and you'll see my confusion between: Process Skills in Science for 3rd grade/4th grade versus the two separate workbooks: Science Process Skills for 3rd grade and 4th grade respectively.

 

https://www.sgbox.com/p56mps.html

Similar problems here with even more options such as Science Thinking Skills.

 

Blessings,

Angela

[rafiki]

.

[A.J. at J.A.]

Thanks Michele. I'm just so confused. On the Singapore site (I did look there but it looked so different from the other site, I assumed they were older editions) it doesn't have any package deals so I'm really getting confused for what to purchase. I will review your FAQ info more thoroughly and then go back to the site you listed.

 

Thanks,

Angela

[A.J. at J.A.]

Thank you so much! Your locating the FAQs for me helped tremendously. I've placed my order and am looking forward to getting them in the mail.

 

Blessings,

Angela

[Michele B]

I was tremendously disappointed with My Pals are here. The texts are lively and colorful. Many of the plants and animals pictured are uncommon in the West - I thought this was a plus - extra science! My concern was the lack of depth in the information. I tried them when dd was 6 or 7. They are much below grade level in my opinion. If science is a struggle for you, these books might well engage your children with the wonderful photographs. But if you are looking for depth, you will need to find supplementary information. I am sorry I can not encourage you. I just want to caution you about the depth of information.

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

Thank you so much! Your locating the FAQs for me helped tremendously. I've placed my order and am looking forward to getting them in the mail.

 

Blessings,

Angela

 

I loved this program! Like I thought when I got the Singapore math books, though, I thought, "Oh, brother. I could have gotten this from Walmart for $2!"

 

But the foundational, slow, easy, steady introduction to both concepts and higher order thinking is absolutely wonderful. The transition from 6 to 7 (Interactive Science, I believe?) was quite steep, just like the math program jumps. But it's deceptively meaty.

 

For this mom who loves science but for some reason had a hard time being consistent with teaching the foundational concepts (vs. the fun, interesting, whiz-bang or the developmental/technical), this was PERFECT.

 

And for parents who like to supplement a LOT (um, that would be me), this program is great for that. You get to do the one without leaving the foundational stuff undone. I *love* that.

[nmoira]

I was tremendously disappointed with My Pals are here. The texts are lively and colorful. Many of the plants and animals pictured are uncommon in the West - I thought this was a plus - extra science! My concern was the lack of depth in the information. I tried them when dd was 6 or 7. They are much below grade level in my opinion.

How far did you go in the program, and were you using the activity books? 3A/3B are relatively simple, but concepts (not necessarily topics) are spiraled and built upon throughout the program. I was most impressed with how it integrated concepts between different branches of science. While it's not full of factoids and there is little memorization, IMHO it does an excellent job of preparing the child for middle school science. DD the Elder recently finished 6B, and I've found that about 90% of the material in So You Really Want to Learn Science Vol 1 was covered in MPH.

 

We used the old program, but it's my understanding that the new one does an even better job of integrating concepts. I highly recommend the Higher Order Thinking books.

[sagira]

If I didn't ascribe to the Charlotte Mason approach and using living books, I would use this for my science program.

[rafiki]

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[calandalsmom]

I have MPH for 5th grade and I like it.

 

We do the workbook questions all together after we read the chapter and I find the questions very analytical. Its a good program IMO.

 

I think its deceptively simple. Im using it for a 11 and 8 yo.

 

I bought the test book, the activity books, the workbooks and the texts.

 

Next year I will just buy the texts and the workbook I think. Maybe the tests...I don't think so though... Im not after mastery, just familiarity.

 

I looked at the text and then bought the Young Scientists Club kits which seemed to line up well with the topic.

Edited May 1, 2009 by calandalsmom

[Michele B]

I purchased only years 3 and 4, so maybe I missed something. ;)

 

Good Luck!

[calandalsmom]

Overall, I agree that this is a very flawed series.

 

But what I see is that all the science resources out there are pretty bad. I was telling dh (he is a scientist with a PhD in molecular bio) he should write a better science. But he is so textbooky he couldnt do it.

[calandalsmom]

I love NOEO. I know the original poster said it didn't work for her. I plan to stick with it. We do flesh things out with more reading because my son LOVES to read science books. We do narrations, but very short ones and I often do most of the writing. My son enjoys drawing on the narration sheets.

 

 

What Noeo have you used?

 

I used chem 1 and it was the definition of blah IMO. Neither of my kids liked the notebooking aspect because they hate to write and the books were fun to look at in the beginning but once we hit the Periodic table we were completely bored.

 

I'd be willing to try it again but every time I look at it it seems so expensive.

[calandalsmom]

You know what? Rainbow still has the old stuff in stock. im buying Science 6 and that will be great for next year. And at a total cost of around 24$ I can afford to buy ahead.

 

Plus we unschool a lot of science by way of dinner time discussions, library books, and Discovery Channel.

[nmoira]

I agree on the lack of depth. There is no lack of depth with the "thinking" aspect of the questions, but I think there was too much of a leap required between the material presented and the questions asked. For example, there might be one page that talks about the variety of life in the jungle. The questions then ask the child to explain how animals protect themselves (I am making this up to show my point.) How would a child deduce that from the given information?

We've been through all four levels of the old series, and this wasn't our experience. I did quibble with a few answers in the workbook. The most recent issue involved asking the student what would happen a particular surface plant overran an aquarium. One of the answers was something like "block light for other plants, so they would die." Well, since most aquariums are made of glass, that would only be true if the aquarium sides were covered.

[nmoira]

Maybe I'm thinking of the activity guide? I don't know. It just felt like on several occasions the questions were not reasonable based on the information given in the book.

That's possible. There were a fair number of activities we didn't do in the first two levels, usually because we'd already done something similar.