Which Apologia General science lesson plans to use?

We were typing at the same time.  As far as I know there is some content difference to clarify and/or give additional examples but the core is pretty much the same.  There are some formatting differences such as the On Your Own sections are colored in the 2nd, sort of a reminder to stop and do the work.  There are a few other similar visual cues as well.  I know they say not to combine 1st and 2nd for a co-op, but for kids at home I don’t think that’s an issue.  I personally own both editions.  I’ve read through it a bit and there are additional sentences here and there which changes page numbers over the course of the book.  For one of my kids, the visuals of the 2nd edition are more helpful, but I’m sure he’d do just fine with the 1st too.

While I don’t know much about the specific lesson plans Rachel listed, I did want to mention something that might matter to some of you.

You might want to know that, according to Core Knowledge’s website:

The Core Knowledge Foundation supports the Common Core State Standards Initiative and is committed to helping ensure their successful implementation in schools nationwide.  The standards represent “a not-to-be missed opportunity for the nation to begin catching up in verbal achievement,” noted E. D. Hirsch, Jr., the founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation.

So, those of you who have concerns about Common Core, you may wish to proceed carefully if you don’t wish to support companies that favor CCSSI. I searched and found a WordPress blog with the name Core Foundations, and I wondered if this was what you were talking about. There is a Core Knowledge website that has a link to their Core Knowledge Foundation, and I don’t think it’s the same thing!

My two cents….the multimedia CD is blah.  It contains animations/demonstrations of certain concepts but usually the videos I have them watch do a better job of it.  Plus my Mac doesn’t like the cd-rom and has problems playing it.  There are 2 cds available so I want to make sure we’re talking about the same thing.  First there is one with the FULL COURSE and has everything.  The second option is the companion cd or multimedia cd and it just has the videos/animations/pronounciations.  I have this one and haven’t really used it because it’s so hard for my kids to get it working.  But that may be a computer/user problem!

Rachel, PM me your email and I’ll send what I have done.  If you like it and want to keep using it, just let me know and I’ll forward the rest when I get them done.  Or maybe post them to my blog.   

We bought all the lab stuff up front and store it in a box so they can quickly find it.  Like you said, it won’t get done otherwise!

My oldest will be doing General Science this fall too. I pulled the Detailed Lesson Plan by Becca listed in the 2nd edition resources on Donna Young. I think that is the one I’ll hand to Makayla. It lays out what to read and do each day, what to answer, and so on. It also reminds the student when to view things on the companion cd (we got that one).

I don’t have a plan for finishing in a specific number of weeks, she’ll do a section each day most weeks (M-F) but we are really flexible with all our medical appointments and therapies going on. We also school year round and often switch levels of curricula at odd times, no big deal, we just keep going. For example she is on lesson 4 of the next MUS level and will be doing Math all summer with a short break in July when I have the baby and she has church camp. So when the next school year officially begins Sept 1 she’ll be about 13 lessons into the 30 lessons of MUS Zeta.

I also wanted to share this blog, it has things listed to do along side General Science. The post I’m linking has her collection of links to videos for each module and much more: http://martysahm.blogspot.com/p/general-science.html

A question for everyone: DID YOU buy a lab kit from anywhere for General Science to help with having experiment materials gathered in one place? We decided to buy one this year because I’ll have a newborn and six other little ones so Makayla will be responsible for doing science pretty independently this year. I think it will be worth it in the end, we just provide a few things like any fresh foods (red cabbage, onion) and some dishes/pans. The kit we got is on ChristianBook.com.

Heather, is it possible to also have a copy of the physical science lesson plans also? It sounds like a wonderful resource! Thank you!