Name: Teach Them Diligently (Branson)
Start: 2025-05-15T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-17T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Branson, MO

Tagged: Sabbath Mood science

This topic has 14 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 9 months ago by Carla.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

Author
Posts
May 3, 2018 at 9:42 pm
Harterhouse
Participant
I would love to hear Sonya’s and other’s opinions on Sabbath Mood Science curriculum for high schoolers. How well do you think it fits the CM method? The author has written some very thought provoking blog articles about CM science lately.
May 4, 2018 at 4:38 pm
Amanda
Participant
I would love to hear opinions as well. I’m considering these for jr. high and high school science instead of Apologia.
May 5, 2018 at 2:01 pm
jill smith
Participant
Following
May 5, 2018 at 4:25 pm
Karen Smith
Moderator
Our view of science is different from many of the other Charlotte Mason advocates. You can read about why we differ on this subject in our answer to the questions, “What is your approach to science through the grade levels? Do you use living science books?” on our SCM Curriculum FAQ page. Basically, we think it is important for the student to learn a science, not just learn about a science.
As for what Sabbath Mood has to offer, my personal opinion, based on the one course I have reviewed, is that their courses fall more in the learning about a science category than learning the science. For instance, they recommend the book Men, Microscopes, and Living Things as the spine book for the middle school biology course. That book does not teach any biology. Instead, it gives a summary of the history of biology as a science through several short biographies of a few scientists.
A couple of things to be aware of for anyone who decides to use Sabbath Mood’s science courses and/or living science book list. While many of the books on their list and used in their courses are fine, some of the books used/recommended have inaccurate information in them as the books were published many years ago before new discoveries were made in the different fields of science. Also, some of the recommended books are filled with evolutionary thought, including Men, Microscopes, and Living Things. The author of at least one book, The Disappearing Spoon, is an unapologetic atheist who is crass and vulgar in his writing and mocks those who believe the universe was created.
I encourage you to carefully review the books that are recommended by any curriculum or website before giving them to your student.
May 5, 2018 at 11:47 pm
HollyS
Participant
We will not be using it again next year for many of the reasons Karen mentioned. I really wanted to like this program and was so sad that we didn’t have a better experience with it. 🙁
My high schooler will be using PacWorks Biology next year. It doesn’t have labs, so I’m still figuring that out. We will also be watching the Biology 101 DVDs. My kids love the Physics 101 we are watching this year (even my rambunctious 4yo stays quiet for it). lol

May 6, 2018 at 3:22 am
TailorMade
Participant
Thank you for this helpful information.
May 7, 2018 at 10:22 am
Sandra Wade
Participant
Do you recommend using the Apologia course as intended by the publisher (reading, answering questions, testing) , or would I have my student narrate with each assignment, skip the assigned questions, and create CM style exam questions?
May 7, 2018 at 7:41 pm
Karen Smith
Moderator
You can use the Apologia textbooks either way. Personally, I used them as written because I wanted my children to have experience with textbook style questions and tests. Other moms have their students narrate after each reading. Some moms do a mix of both with some chapters narrated and some the student answers the questions. Some have their student complete the tests as written. Others have their student complete some of the tests, but don’t worry about completing them all. I think any of those approaches are fine as long as the student is learning the material covered in the course.
I know you didn’t ask about the notebooks that Apologia sells to go with each science course, but just so anyone reading this knows, we do not recommend the notebooks.
May 8, 2018 at 3:05 pm
pslively
Participant
After reading this thread, I just couldn’t move on without posting my own thoughts on this curriculum. I have been homeschooling for 20 years now and have tried just about every science curriculum out there. For my family, this is the best I’ve used.
For reference, we have done the middle school Astronomy and are just finishing the elementary and middle school Weather. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was amazed at the thought that my kids were actually doing Science, rather than just learning about it. They’ve been required to keep track of the weather using different tools they made (weather vane, barometer, wind speed measuring device, etc.) and they are actually analyzing the data they’ve collected to forecast the weather. I couldn’t ask for more than that. They never have a problem doing written narrations about their reading, and they often come to me to relate something interesting they’ve learned. The excitement for science that I’ve always heard should be there is actually starting to show in my kids.
Regarding incorrect information or evolutionary information, I do remember encountering something in the source text for Astronomy. The book was The Planets by Dava Sobel. (I’m sorry but I don’t remember the exact piece of information I had a problem with.) The Sabbath Mood lesson that went along with that reading addressed the issue and completely eased my mind. The lessons are written to the student and are an absolutely essential part of the curriculum.
We are using these modules in our weekly co-op now. I think that the set-up of the lessons makes this idea for group use. Every week there are two lessons comprised of reading the source text, doing written narrations, reading current science events, recording data, etc. These are done at home. The last lesson of each week is a project of some sort, and this is what the kids do together at co-op. Usually the kids make something or perform some sort of experiment. The things they make are not just throw-away models, but are generally something they can actually use to do science. The kids are all required to read a science biography that relates to the topic and then report on it the last week of the semester.
My high school kids will be starting the Physics program this week. I have read through the Sabbath Mood lessons, and I am actually excited to start. I generally don’t like science, but this looks very interesting. We will be doing all three levels of Chemistry at our co-op next year.
I am wondering if the problems might be specifically with the Biology modules. Anyone have any insight? I honestly haven’t had any issues with the ones we’ve used. The only problems I’ve had have been with some of the living book suggestions that complement the curriculum, not any of the required books but some of the extra ones suggested on the website. I bought one for my 11 year old and didn’t have her read it because of profanity and sexual immorality in the book. (Nothing explicit, just a guy waking up next to his girlfriend.)
I would love to hear any other opinions, positive or negative, because I’m basically switching to Sabbath Mood for all my kids. For me, the interest and love of learning that the lessons generate are of the highest importance. Taking 4 years of science in high school and not having retained a bit of it is a nightmare I don’t want for them. 🙂

May 9, 2018 at 7:13 am
retrofam
Participant
My son will be using part of the Sabbath Mood physics, along with some Apologia.
I looked at the biology and chemistry, but didn’t use it for many of the reasons Karen said.
We will use Friendly Biology, Chemistry, and Anatomy. Followed by Sabbath Mood physics.
I am switching out some of the labs and supplementing with a few things.
May 10, 2018 at 1:08 am
missceegee
Participant
I bought Biology and disliked it for many of the reasons Karen mentioned. Plus my son balked. He prefers a straightforward textbook approach, though we won’t use Apologia as it’s too wordy for him. He is using DIVE Integrated Chemistry and Physics for 9th. Then we will use either Science Shepherd Bio or Friendly Biology in 10th.
May 10, 2018 at 7:43 am
pslively
Participant
So if I’m reading the reading these posts correctly, the only issues have been with the Biology lessons. If that’s wrong, please correct me. We used The Riot and the Dance for Biology, and I plan to continue with that for my other kids. For high school, my plan is to use Sabbath Mood for Chemistry and Physics. Has anyone encountered problems with either of those subjects?
Thanks for any input.

May 10, 2018 at 11:10 am
retrofam
Participant
I didn’t like several of the chemistry spines either.
May 10, 2018 at 3:30 pm
Melanie32
Participant
We used the Sabbath Mood high school Chemistry guide for a few weeks last year. It wasn’t a good fit for us over all but I really did like quite a bit about it and I learned a lot about structuring a science program around living books.
I don’t remember any inappropriate content but we obviously didn’t get very far into it. We enjoyed, and still use, The Elements book by Theodore Gray. The main text for chemistry-A Wonder Book of Chemistry, I think is the title-was good as well. There was another book scheduled that is written for adults and is secular, so I was a little concerned about that one. We didn’t get far enough into the program to use it so I don’t have any actual experience with it.
We had two issues with the course. First, there is an experiment scheduled each and every week. They required all kinds of things that are not readily available and took quite a bit of time. We love experiments but, considering the chemistry portion is only 3 days a week, one of those spent on experiments was a little too much. I’m sure it would have been fun to do them all but we found it too costly and too hard to work into our schedule.
Secondly, the lessons took too long for our family. It all depends on how much time you schedule for science but it was too much for us.
In the end we switched to a combination of Apologia Chemistry (the old edition), John Hudson Tiner’s Exploring the World of Chemistry and The Elements book aforementioned. My daughter also keeps a science notebook and we adapted some of the Sabbath Mood ideas into our curriculum. Apologia Chemistry was a slog. If I had it to do over again, I would go with Friendly Chemistry. I really think Apologia Chemistry is just information overload unless your child is science and math oriented.
Now that we have the Biology and Chemistry credits under our belt, we plan on pursuing a year of delight directed integrated science next year (11th grade) and are super excited about it!
July 3, 2018 at 12:05 pm
Carla
Participant
We did the astronomy ones (the grades 4-6 and 7-9). There was a lot of good but The Planets by Dava Sobel was not a good fit for us overall (my son has a learning disability and it was a little too “poetical” to be helpful to him). Like Melanie, I also learned a lot about structuring a science program around living books. The lessons were much longer than we could complete at one time, too. I’m still considering the physics for my son this coming year. We enjoyed the chemistry book suggestions alongside DIVE for chemistry this year. I will be cobbling together my own living book science courses for my elementary and middle school kids with AO book suggestions, SCM books suggestions and Sabbath Mood suggestions.