I recently read that Sandi Queen came out with another high school-level nature science book in her series, called Every Herb Bearing Seed. What I’ve seen of it so far, I really do like. As much as we’ve enjoyed Apologia for the younger grades, the higher level science books are just too textbook-y for us, if that makes sense. I would love to hear for those of you who have used Queen’s nature science series, especially at the high school level. I just want to be sure that this will account for high school credit before investing. Thanks in advance!
You all need to go the the Queen homeschool group on facebook and ask this question. There you will find people who have used this for high school. It is hard to find others who have used this outside of that group.
I have not seen the newest level, but I bought the marine science one because we were going to be living on the ocean last year. As a 25 year homeschool veteran who has graduated 5 of 10 children, I would have to say this does not meet my expectations for a living book at all. I would also question whether is it nearly rigorous enough for high school. My own 14 and 15 year old girls felt it was far beneath their knowledge base. I was highly disappointed, and I really don’t like saying negative things about resources for implementing a CM method.
Yes, thanks for the review! Queen’s science is on my very short list for highschool science. Hoping to hear more reviews…. Thanks op, for posting this question!
Thanks for sharing, everyone! I will have to check out the FB page and see what others think of it. I will definitely report back with any information.
Okay everyone, here are a couple of responses I received via the Queen’s Homeschool FB page:
*For my dds – they are not strong in math and hated, hated HATED science until we did Summer by the Sea last year. They are loving Every Herb this year. To me it is important that they love the world our Heavenly Father created even though they will never be math/science majors. I am soooooo thankful for these studies!!
*I think if your child is strong in math and planning on college in an area of science then Queen’s is not going to cover the math needed. I like Queen’s high school science because it opens a whole new world in regards to researching a new topic and making the chemistry so interesting
*Jacqueline Betancourt, I also live in Tennessee. I am using Queen’s Chemistry, Discovering Nature Series: Further Investigation and was going to use that as my son’s Chemistry credit. I was told by my umbrella school that I could not use this alone. I am also using Apologia’s Chemistry along with Queen’s chemistry and that was acceptable for my umbrella school. I use Gateway.
*I am personally calling it a health credit. I am adding in research on genetics to it. You could call if a science credit, but IMO health is better for this book. This coupled with Summer By The Sea is a well rounded Biology credit (in my opinion) We have Summer By The Sea bit are still working through Parables From Nature so not sure when we will get to Summer by The Sea. *If* its this year, we will turn it into a biology credit (you probably dont *need* both for a biology credit though.
TailorMade, I’m unsure to the answer about Gateway. Are you in TN also? That suggestion about Gateway was from another mom who was posting about my initial question. On my umbrella school’s website (HomeLife Academy), it shows me a list of 2 different paths for high school students: either just taking required Science courses or taking Science courses that are geared towards the college path. My dd has yet to decide if she’s going to college, so we are not working towards the extra classes at this time. The link to HLA is below, just to give you an idea:
My dd is using the Chemistry one. We use ACE’s Chem. Lab DVDs and the PACE lab sheets along with the Queen’s to make it count as highschool credit. We love the DVDs because it is classroom labs without the mess.
I would use these resources together for a college-bound student. For a science major, I would probably use ACE only and get a lab kit to go with the videos.
I would do the same for biology, etc.
I decided for my upcoming ds(who is maybe college-bound) to use Queen’s with ACE also, because the CM way of learning is most important to me, above other considerations. With Queen’s the student digs for answers, vs. being fed.
To improve these resources, a college-prep version could be created with lab DVDs and higher math or a science-major parent could add these components them self or use the style as a springboard to write their own.
Hth,
C
With my dd in Chem, she watches videos online for experiments occasionally. Yesterday she had to research what the opposite of symbiosis was to describe what happened in an experiment. That was priceless to me, the digging.