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planning next year's curriculum…need help
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Hello, I am starting to plan our curriculum for next school year which will start in September for us. Right now we are doing 106 days and love it! I have a 7dd,5ds and 3dd. So next school year they will be in grades 3,1 and the little one will more than likely be into everything with us just like she is now. I have no idea what to do next year for science!
Would any of you who are in a similar school range please let me know what you are planning on using? It just seems like 106 days covers so many things that I don’t know what to do next year without it being pointless because we already covered it this year. We school year round so there won’t be a break in between the topics really either. I am open to any and all suggestions. I find that if I start trying to research on my own to much I become very overwhelmed and frazzled! It is much better if I start with some specific suggestions to look at and compare and go from there. Or at least know what my kids are supposed to be learning this next year! I don’t really need to keep the 5 yr old and the 7 yr old apart for science studies because my 5ds loves science and has been really into it ever since his sister started two years ago. He is way beyond typical K and gr 1 math so I would like to teach them together as much as possible.
Thanks everyone and anyone! -Miranda
With my school aged children (10dd, 9ds, 6ds) I am planning to do Apologia Zoology 1 – Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day but any of the elementary Apologia books might appeal to your children. http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/home.html
We are in the same boat! Next year I will have a dd in 2nd and dd in K. We are finishing 106 Days and love it. I was planning on going on to Apologia starting with astronomy but then I started googling all the great suggestions on the forum! My girls favorite part of 106 Days was the Thornton Burgess books so that really got me thinking about living books. I kept hearing about The Story Book of Science but it is recommended for 9-12 year olds. So I looked at the other choices on http://www.yesterdaysclassics.com and found the Eyes and No Eyes series by Arabella Buckley for 7-9 year olds. Their website is great because you can look at a large portion of the content and they are great prices. There are six books in the series and they are 10-12 dollars each. I will need to supplement with butterfly pavilions and ant farms and things, but I feel confident after 106 Days. It will be more work for me, but I think well worth it. Plus, they are so young that if I screw this year up, I figure I have enough time left to go back to a more textbook style and try that too. I will be interested in people’s responses and what you decide as well.
My children love the Apologia books. They are full of pictures, lots of great information and if you want there are notebook activities, and experiements to do. We love them and in our 4th year of doing them and almost done with the series. Misty
At their ages I’d just reading living science books. We are reading Clara Dillingham Pierson’s books right now and loving, loving, loving them. Along with nature studies these are perfect. Good living books awaken them to the nature/science around them. They’ve done more for my children in exciting them to science than any science curriculum has. Even my 19 year old enjoys listening to them when she happens to be around when we are reading. Margaret S. Gatty and Jean Henri Fabre are also good authors.
Thorton Burgess books here for my kids!!!! LOVE them, and Apologia’s Elementary Series are great too.
If you go with Apologia, they just came out with their new human body year for elementary. Almost makes me rethink doing living books instead but at least I know it is there if we do go back to Apologia. It looks great so if you are checking books out and this portion of science interests you, check it out.
Just an fyi… The Apologia Anatomy is MUCH meatier than the others. I wouldn’t suggest it for under 6th grade. We had intended to use it for a 3rd-5th and a 6th-8th CM co-op class, but dropped it for the younger ones, it’s too much, imo. I already have it and it looks great, but I’m saving it for the older group.
You could always do a combo of the Elementary Apologia and living books. Use the Apologia to give you a topic (ie Astronomy) and then center your living books around that topic. I’m planning on doing this with my kids next year.
-Rebecca
Mom to DS’s 13, 12, 8, 7, 5, 13 months and DD 2With my boys (ages 9, 9, 6 and 3) we pick a topic, find some good living books then read them and do some hands-on activities/experiments. I have a master list of topics so I know by the end we’ll have covered most everything. Sometimes we spend a few weeks on something, often we spend a few months.
I also really like the Real Science 4 Kids series. We’ve tried the Apologia books a few different times and usually end up dropping them and going back to choose-your-own-topic-living-books.
Heather
Heather,
What sort of topics do you pick? Maybe this is a dumb question, but I can see my family getting stuck on animals. Do your kids choose or do you pick?
Morgrace – I have a list of topics posted here. I let my kids choose, but there are 3 of them with opinions so we try to debate and get a majority of 2. Sometimes I direct them towards a subject I think they’d like by reading a few books about it or showing them some video clips. Other times they just say, “I want to learn about astronomy.” (which we’re doing now). And sometimes I choose. When we lived in CA I chose oceans because I knew we could study it first hand. They happily went along with it though!
I’m slowly posting book lists that I’ve made over the years for various topics. You can search under “book lists” on my blog for some ideas.
Let me know if I didn’t explain that well enough!
Heather
Thank you! Got it. I loved your blog title! What was it about Apologia that your kids didn’t like? I’ll keep reading on your blog, maybe your answer to that question is there and I just missed it. – Elisabeth
I am loving this post! Just wanted to say that we are also enjoying Clara Dillingham Pierson’s books too! We will be finishing up 106 Days of Creation this year. I am thinking that next year we will be studying the Human Body using Living Books. I found this great website with free curriculum researched by another homeschool mom! She has some more goodies on her site too! It is http://www.guesthollow.com
We love Science here and have to be careful not to take the whole school time doing it, LOL! Can’t wait to read more responses!
Have a great time!
I love Guesthollow too! I have 2 postings with the books we used for the human body here.
Well, about Apologia. My boys love the pictures. They look through the books all the time. But when I read they start rolling their eyes and sometimes leave the room. Mostly I think they get annoyed with the chatty feel of it. They want the facts or an interesting story, not neighborly conversations. Also, it’s a bit on the dry side. And there is a lot of material. When we did the Flying Creatures book last year one of them said, “Mom, it’s too much information too fast. I just can’t get it all.” We were only reading 2 to 3 pages a day and this kid is a science whiz. They had way more fun, and retained the info longer, when we just started watching birds on our back porch, looking them up in the field guide, reading about them (maybe even finding a book specifically about them), listening to their calls on the internet and watching their behavior.
We’re working our way through the astronomy one slowly. They enjoy the experiments (and pictures), but have asked me to find something else. It is way over the 6-yr-old’s head which makes it hard to ‘combine’ science. Having lots of living books or picture books makes it easier for him (and the 3-yr-old).
In order to get the book done in a few months (so we can pick a new topic) we either have to read a lot from Apologia or skip parts. I think at this young age they are more interested in exploring lots of different things and don’t necessarily want to commit to an in-depth study. When they find something they really like, they ask for more. We did sea creatures for 9 months and the human body for 3. Who knows how long we’ll study the planets!
Heather
Would any of you who are in a similar school range please let me know what you are planning on using? It just seems like 106 days covers so many things that I don’t know what to do next year without it being pointless because we already covered it this year. We school year round so there won’t be a break in between the topics really either. 
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