arcara Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 My oldest will be in 4th grade next year, but I'm starting to keep my eyes and ears open for Logic stage curricula for the year after that. I've seen a lot of threads about Logic stage science and I NEVER see anyone talk about doing it according to TWTM. Have any of you tried this? I'm looking forward to R.E.A.L. coming out with their Logic stage science programs (hopefully before my oldest is in 5th grade) because I think they will be close to TWTM recs. I'm just not excited about the textbook programs that are usually discussed. One of the things I love about TWTM is that it gets away from textbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 I got most of the recommend Readers' Digest texts and assigned them to DD. She would learn material and write summaries and make drawings. We just don't seem to do experiments; I'm ashamed of that but there it is. I make it a point to go on science field trips to children's museums and outdoor nature spots. The year we studied earth science I was very unhappy with the RD book and added several more, and some very good targetted field trips about tectonic plate movement and earthquakes, as well as a wonderful museum in Carson City that had the best graphic of the rock cycle that I had ever seen. For technology I bought a big Snap Circuits kit and asked her to work on the various projects and why they do and don't work. When DD was about halfway through her 6th grade year she told me that she was tired of those books, that frankly they were not really at her level, and that she felt guilty counting them as schoolwork, although she loved how easy they were. I don't really know how good her retention was, either, as there were no test routines in the process. So we returned to Real Science 4 Kids (which I had used just for chemistry earlier), reread the chemistry book, added the physics and biology books, and added some of the Tiner books for a little more depth. Tiner books have discussion questions that I used to make sure that she was engaged with the material. This was pretty successful, I would say. Now that DD is in 7th we switched to the Science Explorer books, and she is working through the biology ones. Those are just perfect for her level, and she is learning a lot. I have continued to take her on field trips to science museums in the area, and hopefully have compensated in that manner for our utterly sickening but apparently avoidable lack of lab work. I have also bought a few lab kits to force us to do lab work. For technology she joined a FIRST Lego League robotics team and learned a lot about programming, teamwork, and mid-course corrections, hands on. She was the only girl on the team, which included 3 homeschoolers, 1 private school child, and 2 public school children. This was an outstanding experience for her. For nature studies she spend 1 full school day per week in a guided nature awareness program for homeschoolers, and loves it. It is just perfect for her. Bottom line--the WTM suggestions are fine for early logic, but even though my DD is not really all that sciencey, we found that given our lack of lab work they are not adequate for later logic stage. Also, RS4K is great at teaching the actual scientific language that plagues students in high school and college, without demanding higher level math ability; so I think that it's quite advantageous for middle school. And SE has quite a bit of scientific language as well. All in all, although I don't think that I have been nearly as strong in teaching science as I have in other disciplines, DD is developing a very reasonable grounding in it, and much more so than she would have done simply following the WTM logic stage suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 I didnt, but two friends have each had their two dds do Science as in TWTM. Seems to work well for them, but the parents do a lot of running around for all the material for making those experiments. Their dd's were all good at sitting down and taking notes and doing experiments on their own etc. All very good students. I tried, but it just didnt resonate here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 I did it. It worked fine. we didn't do any memorising though. for the chemistry we had to do something different because that chemistry kit isn't available in Australia and can't be shipped over here. something about American border security. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcara Posted April 22, 2009 Author Share Posted April 22, 2009 I was wondering if it was just hard to actually put together. I can definitely appreciate a 'put-together' program since we're expecting our 5th little one in the next couple of weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 I was wondering if it was just hard to actually put together. I can definitely appreciate a 'put-together' program since we're expecting our 5th little one in the next couple of weeks. We do logic stage science mostly the way it's described in WTM. I really, really enjoy it. I did manage to find all the Reader's Digest books. We basically read from the book, I have ds write the dates on his timeline, and then he chooses what topics he wants to read further about (lib. books or encyclopedia article). He does about one outline and one narration per week in his chosen science topics. We try to do an experiment per week, but it doesn't always happen. It's sometimes hard to find the materials, but most of the time, it's not hard to find something in the book we can do easily. The hard part is settling my son down so I can talk him through the experiment (we both participate), and then ask him the questions afterwards to get him thinking! Since the RD books aren't available anymore, I assume the new WTM has new recs - maybe more experiment kits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Yes, I used the WTM approach with my older son and am now going through logic stage for the second time, with my younger son. I continue to prefer it to any textbooks I've found thus far. Yes, it does take work to pull it together, but I like planning, so it hasn't been that bad for me. If you have several kids, once you've got a plan, you can use it again (or tweak it more easily than starting over, etc.). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 One of the things I love about TWTM is that it gets away from textbooks. One more recommendation - listen to SWB's Science in the Classical Curriculum CD from PHP. It'll give you some more insight into WTM-style science study - esp. for logic stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladydusk Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I bought the science talk CD at the Cincy conference and it is so well done! It makes her science sound quite do-able and thorough. I'd 2nd this rec :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makita Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 I have just recently put together a middle-level (logic stage) earth science curriculum. Here is a link to a free outline and lesson plan sample. Let me know what you all think of it. My future plans include units astronomy, weather & climate, plants, animals, ecology, chemistry, electricity & magnetism. I would like some feedback before I proceed with the other units. Thanks, Makita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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