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If you're using Arce.pologia, I'd suggest that you get the recommended kit. If you are doing another program, take a look at the book that was recommended here a while back (was it Janice in NJ??). The title is Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments by Thompson. It is a fantastic resource! I used it a lot this past year while teaching Singapore Level O Chemistry in our co-op.

 

The really cool thing is that he gives you alternative chemicals in case you cannot find something. The author is available through his website to answer questions and there is also a forum you can use. One his website (http://www.homechemlab.com) you can purchase a subscription for $18 which gives you an answer key as well as monthly newsletters.

 

Homesciencetools.com is an excellent resource for purchasing chemicals and equipment, although ebay has been a great place for me when purchasing glassware (but I'm stocking a larger lab). Ds#3 (the science guy) is always amazed at the cool chemicals contained is normal household products.

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Home science tools has lots of options for any curriculum. Some are curriculum specific and others are not.

 

If you are wanting a chem lab with equipment and chemicals, then the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments is fantastic, but it isn't cheap to get started.

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We used "The Spectrum" from Beginnings Publishing. Taught the course to one of our sons and two of his friends. It was great fun as a group effort ! (good course, too)

 

We used this too and loved it. It's from the author of Rainbow Science. The chemistry kit is incredibly complete and requires only a bottle of distilled water to go with it.

 

We've had one child do Spectrum and one child do Apologia, and my DH (who has a really strong background in chemistry) prefers Spectrum. The labs are more complex and more interesting - but still very do-able for the homeschool family.

 

By the way . . . the author of Rainbow/Spectrum also puts out a short math course called Bridge Math that is designed to get students ready for chemistry. It is excellent, and I highly recommend it - regardless of which chemistry course you choose. :)

 

HTH.

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although we liked Apologia, we did yearn for more lab work. We did both the standard and advanced courses. The year that we did the standard course we used the kit from Hometraining and we also bought that kit for this year as well for advanced. But it wasn't enough "fun" for ds so I bought him the Thames and Kosmos C3000 kit.http://www.amazon.com/Thames-Kosmos-645014-CHEM-C3000/dp/B00007B8M6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1242663426&sr=1-1 I didn't pay this much for it though...it has gone up quite a bit....:confused:

 

It has lots of fun ways to burn down the house! No, seriously, it has more experiments using real stuff, so it got his interest. And I wanted him to feel more secure in his experience going off to college in the fall.

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http://knol.google.com/k/andy-sae/chemistry-demos/pkv1msnfezbs/3#

 

I found this site by accident. From what I can tell a California community college prof. created this site with the theme, "Dispelling Chemophobia". Here are many ways to use up old craft, home improvement and/or home cleaning tools and chemicals. Looks like a parent should be at home with the experimenter in case of unforeseen "results".

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But it wasn't enough "fun" for ds so I bought him the Thames and Kosmos C3000 kit.http://www.amazon.com/Thames-Kosmos-645014-CHEM-C3000/dp/B00007B8M6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1242663426&sr=1-1 I didn't pay this much for it though...it has gone up quite a bit....:confused:

 

And I wanted him to feel more secure in his experience going off to college in the fall.

 

We got this one too. Even though it didn't match his chemistry program at all, there are 370, or around there, experiments...and my direction for home ed is to get as much hands on experience as possible, which this gives...for the SAT you'd need to research the type of experiments online so that you are familiar with other kinds of equipment...

 

My husband, who has his PhD in chemistry, is quite impressed with the types of experiments in this kit saying they are college level (ok, he graduated more than 30 years ago, so I'm not sure how to compare that any more :) - but it tells you that they are at least somewhat sophisticated...

 

For a mom who cowers at making explosive sounds, I cannot say that I "liked" them all, but my children did!

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Janice,

 

Thanks for mentioning this site. I passed it along to my husband who teaches middle school science and high school Chemistry at a homeschooling resource center. Here's what he said, "Thank you. Those are some pretty good demos. I would use them for middle school level for sure. For higher level, it's probably best to use them in the context of a more complete discussion of what's going on with the demonstration. I will keep this site in mind."

 

Regards,

Kareni

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