LNC Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 I am using Christian Kids Explore Biology. I don't know. There just isn't a lot to it. It seems like just an outline, and then I have to supplement with SOOOO many texts and library books to provide enough material. The explanations of the vocabulary are so simplified, I'm guessing that is all they need? We want to be able to send him to a private, rigorous school for high school w/ the hopes of going to an excellent university. He has type 1 diabetes and has said for years that he wants to be an endocrinologist! What would your best science curricula recommendations be? We would prefer Intelligent Design, but it doesn't have to be the total emphasis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in Central TX Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 I've already recommended it once today, but I'm still a fan of the Apologia Elementary series for the grammar and logic stages: http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/home.html The program is definitely more teacher intensive for the grammar stage, but I've found that my logic students can do the work independently now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 We have and have been using CKE Biology for a 2nd, 4th and 6th grader. It's been okay. I do like the layout, activities, etc. It touches on many areas of Life Science but doesn't go in depth with any. If you like that approach, it's great. I thought we would, but now I'm rethinking that decision :) I also have God's Design for Life (Human Body, Plants and Animal Kingdom). This curriculum goes MUCH more in depth on Human Body and Plants but not so much on the animals (birds, insects, water creatures, etc. each have about 3-5 lessons each as opposed to an entire book to themselves). Apologia Elementary accomplishes this much better from what I can see. They have separate books for Water Creatures, Flying Creatures, Land Creatures, Botany (no human body yet), Astronomy, etc. If you want something w/ more meat...go Apologia. If a basic intro. is what you like...use CKE. For logic stage (gr. 6 or 7), I'm going to use Apologia General Science. Dd11 will use that next year. Ds9 (4th grade) will probably use it in 6th as he is much more "sciency" than dd11. My plan for the rest of this year is to scrap CKE Biology and use the God's Design for Plants. We've scrapped the rest of Human Body b/c dd will get into that in Apologia General and I don't want overkill. Okay, more info than you wanted, but HTH a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Hen Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 My son too wants to go into the sciences, probable with a biology focus. For him I followed mostly TWTM recommendations up until 7th grade. In 7th I followed TWTM recommendations but added in Singapore 'O' Chemistry Science textbook too. For 8th grade we did Conceptual Physics, last year we went with a mix of PS high school biology text and a college level biology text. While it was a mix of different textbooks he had a great biology filled-year This year he's doing AP Biology, next will be AP Chemistry ---- I know he'll do fine with the chemistry since he went through the Singapore 'O' books and WTM recommended chemistry books. The one change I would do is change what I used for 5th and 6th grade. This year my 6th grader went with Power Basics Science textbooks. You'll find them at Rainbow Resource with an excellent explanation of the books. This year we did Earth-Space Science while my good friend in town did Biology. Very pleased with the textbooks and subject matter. The series is secular which suits us just fine. If I had to do it over I would have used these for both 5th (Biology book) and 6th grade (Earth-Space Science). Next year my younger son, who will be going into 7th grade, will use Singapores 'O' Chemistry textbook and Smithsonian Chemistry Set and read books on chemicals and the periodic table and all the chemistry books recommended in TWTM for 7th grade science. In 8th grade he'll do Conceptual Physics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenKitty Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 Apologia Elementary here too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle T Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 My son too wants to go into the sciences, probable with a biology focus. For him I followed mostly TWTM recommendations up until 7th grade. In 7th I followed TWTM recommendations but added in Singapore 'O' Chemistry Science textbook too. For 8th grade we did Conceptual Physics, last year we went with a mix of PS high school biology text and a college level biology text. While it was a mix of different textbooks he had a great biology filled-year This year he's doing AP Biology, next will be AP Chemistry ---- I know he'll do fine with the chemistry since he went through the Singapore 'O' books and WTM recommended chemistry books. The one change I would do is change what I used for 5th and 6th grade. This year my 6th grader went with Power Basics Science textbooks. You'll find them at Rainbow Resource with an excellent explanation of the books. This year we did Earth-Space Science while my good friend in town did Biology. Very pleased with the textbooks and subject matter. The series is secular which suits us just fine. If I had to do it over I would have used these for both 5th (Biology book) and 6th grade (Earth-Space Science). Next year my younger son, who will be going into 7th grade, will use Singapores 'O' Chemistry textbook and Smithsonian Chemistry Set and read books on chemicals and the periodic table and all the chemistry books recommended in TWTM for 7th grade science. In 8th grade he'll do Conceptual Physics. I've often looked at the Power Basics series for DS, but never heard from anyone who actually had used them. I would LOVE to hear more about the books. Are they reasonably interesting? Are there photos, illustrations and such, or just pages of text? I know these are written primarily for special needs kids, which my DS is. Do you find the writing level is easily understandable for a 6th grader? How about the content? Any other comments on this series would be much appreciated. I'm contemplating the science series and some of the US government books. Michelle T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Hen Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 I've often looked at the Power Basics series for DS, but never heard from anyone who actually had used them. I would LOVE to hear more about the books. Are they reasonably interesting? Are there photos, illustrations and such, or just pages of text? I know these are written primarily for special needs kids, which my DS is. Do you find the writing level is easily understandable for a 6th grader? How about the content? The textbook is black and white. It is primary text, about 14 font, with supporting small figures, diagrams, graphs to explain the text. My non-independent 6th grader easily reads through the text, takes the practice test after each lesson, and has not complained about science this year. That's a first for him. Each lesson starts off with a "WORDS TO KNOW" which I've used to help DS understand that those are terms he will learn about in the lesson, and then used to informally test him. In the last month I have had DS outline each lesson and the text lends itself well for this task. The textbook also has APPLICATION Exercises however we've never done one. They look very doable, and interesting but we're already doing tons of science experiments trying to get our kids ready for Science Olympiad competition. I also purchased the Teacher's Guide --- used the answer key in it; Workbook--used it, test pack---used it. The workbook is something that if money is tight then you might skip it. It includes crossword puzzles, Activities such as---'Invention of the Telescope' In this activity the child reads a couple paragraphs or half-a-page on this then are told to list some other examples of a scientific idea or an invention that has occurred at the same time by more than one person.' WHAT!!! Sorry, but I don't think that most 6th graders would be able to come up with an answer without a bunch of help from mom and the WWW. Other activities are much more sane such as the one on Radiation. Again a description is given, about 1/3 of the page and then the kids have to correlate relative size of objects to electromagnetic energy. It is a much more doable activity but we've skipped many of these activities. The description of the series over at Rainbow Resource is really quite good and on the mark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in CA Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 For grammar stage I have found NOTHING we really like. So, we do our own thing mostly. Most program are either way too simply or require more writing then we are ready for at this point. Science for grammar stage has turned out pretty casual. I am actually looking forwar to next year (grade 4) because I feel that I have figured out what to do to get the most out of Physics. We'll be using all the appropriate Science in a Nutshell kits. Inbetween we'll use Janice Van Cleve books (Gravity, Electricity), go through our SnapIt Kit, build the Knex Rollercoaster, and a Rokkenbach (sp?) kit and call it a day. For Logic I think that I will end up doing a combination of Prentice Hall Science Explorer and "How...works" series. I am not happy with either program on its own. Susie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zee Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 I switch from TWTM rec's this year to BJU Science 5. I think it is rigorous and uses correct terminology. It is teacher intensive to an extent, but has work that is done independantly, also. We love it! Check out samples at bjupress.com. BTW, we switched to BJU because I thought it was time for textbook science and ds wants to go into a science field, so I was looking for something more formal. Again, check out the samples of the Teachers guides, and Activity Manuals. We do the tests and quizzes, also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 I really, really like Apologia's Elementary series for up through 5th. We then start with General and Physical. If you have a science-minded dc, though, I would encourage delight-directed studies. Read, read, read, explore, discover, go field-tripping, do the science fair, build on the science fair projects for the next year, have him start collections. I can remember my brother (now a PhD teaching anatomy at a university) developing his love for science with obssessions about (in this order) cactus, rocks, creeks & sharks teeth, archeology, paleontology. My mom was so good to put resources in his hands to help satisfy his insatiable curiosity. HTH, Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Hen Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 For 4th grade Physics my boys really enjoyed the Lego Simple Machines kits. Nice hands on work. K'Nex also makes some simple machines kits but I didn't care for them as much. Just something you might think of adding in. You might also take a look at my Physics plans It is the one; Carole's Grammar/Logic Stage Physice Course Outline Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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