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Do I HAVE to drop living books as Science in 7th grade?
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Hi all. I’ve been homeschooling for five years using CM methods and LOVE them. My eldest is headed into 7th grade next year and I’ve been looking at the suggestions for more formal Science programs (Apologia, Rainbow). To be honest, they just don’t look very interesting compared to the CM-type Science we’re accustomed to. Is it possible to just continue to use living books for Science? I honestly don’t believe that college is in either of my girls’ futures, so I’m not really worried about that aspect of it. Thoughts?
I don’t have personal experience with this, but here is a recent thread that might help you out.
http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/living-science-books-1
-Kim
I hear you, Simplicity! This is my feeling exactly. My daughter is going into 6th, and I am not ready to jump ship for textbooks yet. I’m holding out until the very end.
Because there is nothing out there, I’m just creating my own hodgepodge. We’ll be doing a study of human body and history of medicine.
If someone were to create a lit based science curriculum for middle schoolers (and high schoolers), I think there would be a huge market.
I see no reason why the two, esp. Apologia and living books, cannot be combined. Get living books that will complement the subjects you’ll be covering and always have on hand other books in the house when the interest strikes. Apologia could almost be used as a spine is used in History.
Does that make sense?
Rachel
Bumping old thread for same question: I got Apologia General Science from the library, and while it’s conversational, it still just seem like such a huge jump to textbook/quizzes/tests, from my son’s reading Story Book of Science (and other living books) and narrating. He’s not crazy about science, and I know things will need to change eventually if he plans on taking college classes, but does anyone use living books more than textbooks in middle school, maybe even through high school?
He’s my oldest, so it’s a bit overwhelming planning things for him this year, as it seems very different than elementary level.
Thanks
My friend, Nicole, recently wrote a biology curriculum for middle school CM style. It is quite excellent. She is working on guides for other grade levels as well. She also has living book lists for science topics and grades.
http://sabbathmoodhomeschool.com/downloads/middle-school-biology-study-guide/
My middle child will be in 8th grade next year and we’ll be using living books/science-y chapter books along with labs and lab classes. Both of which we’ll do lab sheets/narrations with drawings, etc. He completed Apolgia General science this past year, which was fine, but this coming year we want go down another route.
My oldest will be in 7th grade next year and we won’t be using textbooks for science. I am putting my own thing together to study anatomy & astronomy next year. We will be using Quark Chronicles (my son has LOVED the Botany and Zoology books) and several of the other suggested books in the science portion of Wayfarers Year 2 (with a few others we either chose from different sources or are just using because we had them).
We’re not quite there yet, but oldest ds will be in 6th in the fall. This year with ds 10 and 8 together, we enjoyed Answers in Genesis science books 2x/wk with experiments (try to do the hands on before reading aloud), nature study (sometimes using Handbook of Nature Study, books from library), and notebooking 1 day, and online video presentations from Aurora Lipper’s Supercharged Science, some we purchased on Aviation, many others are free 1 hr webinars, they are very exciting and good for whetting appetites for further reading and experimenting. Thanks for the links and encouragement to continue with the living science books, I hope to assign him some( or spread strategically around the house, 😉 ,as he loves to read and likes science.
The folks at A Delectable Education did a podcast on ,idle and high school science. Just scroll down to find the right one. Very informative and let’s you stay true to what you are thinking when it comes to living books.
Ambleside Online has loads of living science books for their years 7-12 curriculums.
http://amblesideonline.org/07bks.shtml#sciAnd they have a nice article about the “Why and How” of a living science curriculum for high school.
https://www.amblesideonline.org/ScienceCMHighschool.shtmlWe used Ambleside Online’s year 6 science in 7th grade for the most part. I supplemented a bit with AIG’s chemistry course for elementary and middle school students at my daughter’s request. We didn’t do the entire course-just bits and pieces.
Here are some living science books from that year that we really enjoyed:
It Couldn’t Just Happen by Richard Lawrence-this is a creation vs. evolution type book.
The Elements by Theodore Gray-This is a lovely book that has a two page spread for each element of the periodic table with gorgeous pictures and interesting text. This was one of my daughter’s favorite books that year.
Galileo and the Magic Numbers. I can’t remember the author’s name.
No, no, no! I’m using living books for high school science. The first year (biology) we tried a hodgepodge of things and the living books were still the best and most enjoyable part of our year. I’ve posted lists of what we’ve used on my blog: http://www.lettersfromnebby.wordpress.com Look for the living books tab at the top.
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