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Science ponderings…
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Hello all! I am trying to decide on science for next year. We used Apologia (Zoology 3) for the first time this year and the kids loved it. So I was thinking of doing Zoology 2 (nothing like working backwards) for the younger 2 and then General Science for my oldest (she’ll be in 8th). Trouble is, she really, really wants to do Zoology 2 as well. Has anyone used the Zoology series with an older student? Would I be doing her a disservice if I had her work with us on Zoology 2 next year and do General Science in grade 9 and then move into the highschool courses? If we leave General until grade 9, my then 7th grader could work with her, which would also be helpful. I don’t want to put my oldest “behind” for highschool level science though. Any advice greatly appreciated.
I’ve been thinking about this because I’ve got something similar here for the fall. A couple things come to mind.
What high school science do you want her to do ultimately? If you are aiming for 3 lab science (biology, chemistry, and then either physics or advanced one of the other two) she’s fine doing General Science in 9th, but you wouldn’t do Physical Science. Or you could do Physical Science in 9th and skip General. Depends on her interests. Another possibility is to have her just read the Zoology 2 book on her own time with no plan to do the experiments/activities, and go ahead and do General next year.
At my house here is the current dilemma/considerations for next year.
Makayla will be 11th and doing Discovering Design with Chemistry (not his Apologia title that got revised, his newer book).
The next two children down in age will be 7th and 6th next year, Joseph and Emma. They could do General Science together or stick with the younger kids for one more year in one of the Elementary Apologia books (we’re doing Chemistry and Physics right now and enjoying it with everyone but Makayla). If they do elementary one more year we would then do General Science when Joseph is 8th and Emma is 7th, the following year.
But if Joseph and Emma go ahead and do General Science this fall I’ll also need to be doing an elementary level for Daniel, Oliver, Caleb, and Mason, who will be 4th, 3rd, 1st, K next year (with Samuel and Tobias as preschoolers tagging along when they want to).
That’s 3 science books to teach, which I will end up with eventually, but could put off one more year. Right now I’m leaning toward holding off on General Science one more year because, to be honest, it’s a big jump academically and the beginning at least is boring.
And I’ll go ahead and sneak yet another option in here…lol…. I have toyed with the idea of skipping both General Science and Physical Science and just starting kids with Biology in 8th or 9th. It’s much more interesting I think, and if we start it in 8th we can spread it over 8th and 9th as needed to get them used to a full on textbook course. I did do General Science and Physical Science with Makayla. I think they have their good points. And with her, we chose 7th grade as the year we increased difficulty in science. But I’m thinking Joseph and Emma may have different areas we choose to increase difficulty on in 7th grade.
In other words, I am not a lot of help! Ha!
Dr. Jay Wile himself ( the author of General Science and the original author of Apologia high school science texts) originally said that students did not need formal, textbook science until high school. Many kids start with Biology.
If you decide to allow your 8th grader to do Zoology with the family, I would skip General Science and go right into Physical science or Biology in the 9th grade. That is if you’re planning on the typical high school science sequence to prepare for competitive colleges. If your student has different goals, then you can choose more interest led science courses and throw the typical sequence out the window. 🙂
Thanks for the suggestions. 🙂 Being able to keep them combined as much as possible, is definitely a plus. I have also considered doing the zoology as a read aloud. I will admit, I am a bit of a science flop. We don’t always get to experiments and the thought of doing 2 sets…well…realistically, it’s not going to happen. Jumping right to biology in grade 10 is an option, though I do feel like my oldest would benefit from a general overview before starting highschool. Ack! And when do people even fit in the advanced sciences??
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