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Science ~ need help please
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I have spent quite a bit of time looking back into the forum but still have a bunch of questions 🙂
My girls are 5 and 8 and are in K and 3rd grade levels. I have been following the SCM recommended curriculum for the past 2 years and we love it, it just wORks for us. The one gray area is science. We have done it all …. the Burgess books, Outdoor Secrects, almost all of Considering God’s Creation, and nature study galore (including so many happy hours using the Outdoor Hour Challenge). My plan was to move on to Jack’s Insects. So what’s the problem? My oldest keeps asking me to “do more science”. She loves the nature study/walks and journaling so we plan to keep that for Fridays. My husband is an avid outdoorsman, and the girls love it when he leads them on hikes/adventures out in the woods behind our home. They learn so much and it’s great to have him involved.
So, this news left me in confusion….I am wondering what you would recommend as “more”? She is asking for “more, with experiments”. Naturally, this brings me to a whole different level of science, and I am nOt one to piece our science curriculum together, I really need it all laid out for me. I have looked at Apologia so many times,and I cannot put my finger on why, but it just never feels right. I am wondering about a curriculum that I can still multi-level teach for the next few years that includes (reasonable) experiments, has a pretty direct teacher’s manual and is fUn for the girls? A few that have sparked my interest are the Christian Kids Explore series, Real Science 4 Kids and Noeo Science. Anyone have any words of wisdom for this confused Mommy?? Thank you!!! 🙂
I can’t help w/full curriculum choices, we’ve only used Apologia. What you’re doing sounds awesome!! Just wanted to mention that if you just wanted experiments, Sonlight DVD’s are pretty fun: http://www.sonlight.com/science-media.html. My science-loving son used to enjoy watching them on his own, and then could do many experiments on his own, too. Hope you get it figured out:) Blessings, Gina
My girls are the exact same ages as yours and we are doing Real Sci 4 Kids on our own and also as part of a large co-op each week, with varying ages from K to 4, I think. The experiments are very easy, but use common things so not only are they quick and cheap, they are everyday things my girls are familiar with.
For example, last week they were mixing liquids and writing the results in a chart. Does milk mix with olive oil? Does water mix with butter? How about butter with milk? Oil with juice? Before they actually did the mixing, which was very fun for me to watch, they discussed what they thought would happen. One of the discussion questions was “What do you think will happen if you add soap to water and then add oil?” FYI, this is Chemistry PreLevel I, Experiment 6. On the way home that day, the girls were all aflutter about their day and I was able to keep the discussion going by asking , “Well, why does the butter and milk I add to mac and cheese mix up together so smooth?” hmmmm… it was so fun to apply that to our daily lives. And also fun to hear their guesses. (My DD8 finallly reasoned it out about the noodles being hot.)
We love the whole program and are hoping to using all four sciences over the rest of this year and next – Chem, Biology, Physics, Astronomy. So easy, but very in depth for this age. I like that it doesn’t dumb down or talk down on these very complex subjects; it just talks in a language that younger minds can comprehend. Yes, the pictures are a little cheesy, but I think that makes it all more accessible to this age. (That’s the second mention of cheese; I might be too hungry to be commenting.) I think I can go back over all four again before we move on to the next Level with RS4K. Have to check on that.
If you can download a few sample pages, do it and you can judge for yourself. We’ve got about eight families in the co-op and we all agreed that this was the best for us. Our homeschool office has the books so could preview before we ordered for the co-op, which was a big benefit. But, I had ordered them for us way before the co-op decided to. I was already sold! 🙂 HTH.
I am assuming you are in the the United States? If you are NOT, I have a suggestion for you…. but it can’t be used in the States at this point.
We LOVE Noeo!!! We’ve been using it since August and it can be as light or as in-depth as you want. We’re doing Bio II with my 10YO and my 6YO. I’m really impressed with it. In includes experiments, internet links that have videos of what we’ve been studying, and it recommends lots of sketching/notebooking.
Wow, you’ve done a lot of Science! We do one chapter a week each from Burgess Animal Book and Bird Book, and I thought we were doing a lot!
We’ve started using Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, along side our Nature studies and living books. It has more of the ‘experiments’ side of things. I got it on Kindle, so each book is only $10 (3 books cover K-8, I believe). Hardcopy isn’t expensive either. I like how it gives quite a bit of information for the teacher/parent, but it isn’t so scripted that it makes it dry and dull. I can use the information as a base, and then just explore the concepts with my kids. We are only just beginning, but I like it so far.
I don’t think I would use BFSU as a stand alone, because I think, as CM taught, that most science at the young ages should be through nature study and living books, but since you are already doing lots of that, this might fill that desire for more.
If you are looking for more Living Books, you might try the books by Arabela Buckley ( http://www.mainlesson.com/displayauthor.php?author=buckley ) We haven’t used them yet, but I’ve got them on the back burner to use eventually.
Joanne
I am no help as I am looking for the same information. Real Science 4 Kids has sparked my interest and I also wanted to look at Answers In Genesis but they are a bit more pricey for us. I do not care for Apologia. Several years ago I purchased Swimming Creatures and it sits unused on my shelf. Someday we might incorporate some of it but I don’t think I will be buying another. We also do a lot of Nature Study but I am looking for something more.
Looks like you have a lot of good answers already. But I don’t see this mentioned if you’re still looking and not over-suggested… I have settled on Pandia Press for my younger set and really like it. They have 3 weeks free sample online if you want to try it on for size. It’s mostly experiments/activities but very simple and very sensible…brings the concepts to life. I would way it’s very dicovery oriented (discovery learning) which I like.
Thank you for all of your encouragement and responses! I am going to look into your suggestions and cannot wait to pick something new 🙂 Noone responded about Christian Kids Explore which makes me curious, so I will my homework right now! Any other comments / recommendations are welcome!! 🙂
Last note ~~ my girls love animals and the outdoors. We have been reading and doing nature study with a passion as a result. I tried to slow down our pace but they insist on more. So if I get to spend the quality time with them in that way, well, then it seems we read through what I originally planned that much faster, AND we spend so much time outside, I am sURe our neighbors think….oh right! they’re “homeschooling” LOL! It didn’t take long for the girls to catch on that if we go outside with something specific to look for and study, we usually don’t find it, so now they use that as an excuse to go back out “just in case” something is outside waiting to surprise them. I can think of other problems that we could be having, so I really truly appreciate you taking the time in your busy days to help me with this…. I am just trying to keep up with my girls LOL! 🙂
We are doing Noeo Science and it is working really good for us. A lot of experiments, my kids like the internet links too w/games and quizzes. And you cover many different topics. The problem I had w/Apologia was to do one subject all year.
For next year I am deciding between staying w/Noeo or this, if your kids are interested in human body:
http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/science/otters_science/otters_science_main.html
You do a great job with nature study!
My children have also asked for more experiments over the years, although they love nature study.
I have supplemented with Usborne’s 100 Science Experiments, Real Science for Kids Pre-Chemistry level, and
currently we’re doing the free sample lessons of Real Science Odyssey Chemistry. We are enjoying them so far. You can download them at Pandia Press. I’m seriously considering purchasing.
Blessings,
Shannon
You might look into this series of books: http://www.amazon.com/Animals-Their-World-Young-Discoverers/dp/075345498X/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1354485936&sr=8-12&keywords=kingfisher+young+discoverers
We have a couple of them and our library has quite a few of them. While I wish the illustrations were real-life (vs. artist renderings), I do love them as do our children especially the younger ones.
They are full of experiments and also information about the particular subject matter. They are short enough, you can complete one in a couple of weeks (maybe less time for your science-minded students!). They are also meaty enough my children always learn from them and often want to delve deeper into the subject matter.
We have the Animals and Their World and Nature in Danger. We have used Flying and Floating, Sound and Light, Solids and Liquids, and Rivers and Oceans from our library.
This post has reminded me to check out some of these that can be done inside for the next couple of months! HTH
Thanks again for such plentiful, varied suggestions! We have not done the 106 Days — we had already completed a large portion of Considering God’s Creation by the time I realized from another post on here that they were usually done together. I somehow missed that part, which was fine in the end because we were really enjoying the CGC. I am once again so glad that I bothered to post my latest dilemma, this is by far the bESt forum group that I have found and think you are all fantastic! Thank you!!!
I posted on another forum topic earlier, but I will post a bit here. W love a series called Let’s Read and Find Out Science. We read a topic and then fill in a non-fiction book report form. I pair this with Singapore Science (Diversiy and Cycles) which really focuses more on organizing higher order thinking. My son loves this method. We also attend Classical Conversations where he gets to participate in science experiments.
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