3rd Grade Scienc & Living Books

We’ve used all three programs separately.  I’ve used the 106 Days/CGC lessons to supplement our science studies as well.  Here is what we’ve discovered:

AIG (Animals)–very open and go–we moved mid-year and this was perfect for that busy time, my DC liked the readings best from this book, most of the worksheets were enjoyable (lots of sketching and labeling that didn’t feel like busywork).  Cons: we like more activities and experiments and there weren’t what I’d consider actual experiments, but that could have just been the book we used.

Apologia (Astronomy & Swimming Creatures)–somewhat open and go, the readings are a bit wordier although they still enjoyed them, wonderful activities/experiments.  Cons: We had a hard time fitting everything in 2 days per week, so we struggled before switching our lessons to 5 days per week.  It takes a full year for us to complete (some families can do 2 books per year) so we missed covering multiple topics in a year’s time.  Also, all the wonderful activities and experiments do add more prep time for me.

106 Days/CGC–my DC loved the notebook pages and experiments, we liked having an overview of several science topics during the year, I felt like nature study was very consistent with all the Science Detective sheets, and we still often talk about calculating wind speed 2 years later!  Cons: I would have liked more readings…adding in CGC’s lessons helped quite a bit, but next time I’d add in more library books too.  My DC prefer science books over history books, so that could just be us.  😉

I think 3rd grade is a great age for 106 Days, but I’d be tempted to use AIG since you already own it.  You could always use 106 days for 4th grade.  And either AIG or Apologia for 5th grade and higher.