hawkward
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Loss, Infertility
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Post by hawkward on Jan 14, 2019 7:36:42 GMT -6
What are you using and how old is your kid? I've found that most of the stuff for younger children is woefully inadequate.
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hawkward
Global Moderator
Loss, Infertility
Posts: 19,635 Likes: 123,079
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Post by hawkward on Jan 14, 2019 7:37:59 GMT -6
I HATE all the science curricula I've checked out so far. Although we have religious beliefs, we do not follow Creationism, and it's been hard to find a curriculum that is neither disjointed (throwing random facts at the kid with no overarching theme or pattern is my pet peeve) nor Creationist. This year we've been using a handful of books I found at Barnes and Noble and then we're notebooking the subjects we study. We may continue this next year- it's working well but it prepping is pretty time intensive for me.
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Post by Queen Mamadala on Jan 14, 2019 9:11:19 GMT -6
We homeschool through a charter. They have a list of options to choose from that range from workbook-based to online format with an HST (highly skilled teacher). I've long been a fan of Oak Meadow's curriculum, so the decision was an easy one. I looked over the lessons and content and thought it was the best fit for my girls' learning style and our educational philosophy.
My girls are in 8th and 6th grade. Mon/Wed/Fri they do coursebook work for all subjects and Tues/Thur they use ALEKS for math. One of the things I also like about OM is the option to tailor their lessons and choose subjects per their level. So we have 9th and 7th grade coursebooks as well. We also have a lot of online educational subscriptions. They're independent learners. They have a study plan they follow and we go over the plan on Sunday. I have them grade their math work and then we go over it.
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Post by bunnyfungo on Jan 14, 2019 9:40:53 GMT -6
We’re using Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding. It’s pretty parent intensive on the front end, but the book is supposed to last until 3rd grade so we only do 2 lessons a month generally which makes it less daunting. In between, we check out some of the supplemental books listed for each lesson from the library and just ask a lot of questions.
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Post by bunnyfungo on Jan 14, 2019 9:43:07 GMT -6
I HATE all the science curricula I've checked out so far. Although we have religious beliefs, we do not follow Creationism, and it's been hard to find a curriculum that is neither disjointed (throwing random facts at the kid with no overarching theme or pattern is my pet peeve) nor Creationist. This year we've been using a handful of books I found at Barnes and Noble and then we're notebooking the subjects we study. We may continue this next year- it's working well but it prepping is pretty time intensive for me. Which ones have you looked at? I’ve heard a lot of people like the science from Pandia Press but I’ve never checked it out myself. At this age, I don’t think there’s much wrong with notebooking and following their interests. Elementary science in public school isn’t exactly rigorous at this age.
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hawkward
Global Moderator
Loss, Infertility
Posts: 19,635 Likes: 123,079
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Post by hawkward on Jan 14, 2019 9:52:37 GMT -6
I HATE all the science curricula I've checked out so far. Although we have religious beliefs, we do not follow Creationism, and it's been hard to find a curriculum that is neither disjointed (throwing random facts at the kid with no overarching theme or pattern is my pet peeve) nor Creationist. This year we've been using a handful of books I found at Barnes and Noble and then we're notebooking the subjects we study. We may continue this next year- it's working well but it prepping is pretty time intensive for me. Which ones have you looked at? I’ve heard a lot of people like the science from Pandia Press but I’ve never checked it out myself. At this age, I don’t think there’s much wrong with notebooking and following their interests. Elementary science in public school isn’t exactly rigorous at this age. I actually like the Pandia Press system, but I feel like it's pretty comparable to what we're already doing except that I'm getting a lot of my current stuff for free or with books I already owned for other resources. We're loosely following core knowledge standards from "What Your Second (and Third) Grader Needs to Know" then expanding on that with a lot of resources from education.com and some of my favorite books. In general I like the things that Susan Wise Bauer puts out for this age group. I think most of our summer school is going to consist of hitting her Story of the World series hard. Originally I had intended to use it through the year but I kind of lost track of it making sure we covered other stuff. ETA I got all excited talking about SWB and forgot to actually answer your question. We also looked at what is offered by Spectrum (I absolutely hate their science stuff), Apologia (nope nope nope) and I haven't pulled the trigger on BFSU yet just based on not wanting to spend more money on science right now than I'd already invested this year. Not starting off with a good plan had me kind of throwing money down the wrong paths.
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Post by bunnyfungo on Jan 14, 2019 10:04:02 GMT -6
Which ones have you looked at? I’ve heard a lot of people like the science from Pandia Press but I’ve never checked it out myself. At this age, I don’t think there’s much wrong with notebooking and following their interests. Elementary science in public school isn’t exactly rigorous at this age. I actually like the Pandia Press system, but I feel like it's pretty comparable to what we're already doing except that I'm getting a lot of my current stuff for free or with books I already owned for other resources. We're loosely following core knowledge standards from "What Your Second (and Third) Grader Needs to Know" then expanding on that with a lot of resources from education.com and some of my favorite books. In general I like the things that Susan Wise Bauer puts out for this age group. I think most of our summer school is going to consist of hitting her Story of the World series hard. Originally I had intended to use it through the year but I kind of lost track of it making sure we covered other stuff. ETA I got all excited talking about SWB and forgot to actually answer your question. We also looked at what is offered by Spectrum (I absolutely hate their science stuff), Apologia (nope nope nope) and I haven't pulled the trigger on BFSU yet just based on not wanting to spend more money on science right now than I'd already invested this year. Not starting off with a good plan had me kind of throwing money down the wrong paths. I think you can get a pdf of BFSU for like $5, but I’m the kind of person that needs a physical book. Especially because you are jumping around in the book a lot. If you ever want me show you some example pages so you know if it would work for you just let me know.
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Post by bunnyfungo on Jan 16, 2019 13:09:04 GMT -6
hawkward or anyone else. Have you tried mysteryscience.com? I think the first year is free, so I’m thinking about trying it out but I’d love to hear from anyone that’s used it.
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hawkward
Global Moderator
Loss, Infertility
Posts: 19,635 Likes: 123,079
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Post by hawkward on Jan 16, 2019 13:18:20 GMT -6
hawkward or anyone else. Have you tried mysteryscience.com? I think the first year is free, so I’m thinking about trying it out but I’d love to hear from anyone that’s used it. I felt like it had the same complaints that I've had with other curricula- a deep dive into something specific without a good "now this is how it fits into the world." It was good and interesting and drew DS1 in though. We didn't stick with it, but I wouldn't judge someone who did, lol.
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Post by bunnyfungo on Jan 16, 2019 13:23:34 GMT -6
hawkward or anyone else. Have you tried mysteryscience.com? I think the first year is free, so I’m thinking about trying it out but I’d love to hear from anyone that’s used it. I felt like it had the same complaints that I've had with other curricula- a deep dive into something specific without a good "now this is how it fits into the world." It was good and interesting and drew DS1 in though. We didn't stick with it, but I wouldn't judge someone who did, lol. Thanks. That’s often my complaint too. I also hate when they have you do these big flashy experiments without actually explaining what is happening or why. I mean, of course the kids love it, but I don’t think it’s *teaching* anything. That being said, I was thinking Mystery Science would make a good supplement but not a full curriculum.
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hawkward
Global Moderator
Loss, Infertility
Posts: 19,635 Likes: 123,079
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Post by hawkward on Apr 14, 2019 15:21:45 GMT -6
I HATE all the science curricula I've checked out so far. Although we have religious beliefs, we do not follow Creationism, and it's been hard to find a curriculum that is neither disjointed (throwing random facts at the kid with no overarching theme or pattern is my pet peeve) nor Creationist. This year we've been using a handful of books I found at Barnes and Noble and then we're notebooking the subjects we study. We may continue this next year- it's working well but it prepping is pretty time intensive for me. Which ones have you looked at? I’ve heard a lot of people like the science from Pandia Press but I’ve never checked it out myself. At this age, I don’t think there’s much wrong with notebooking and following their interests. Elementary science in public school isn’t exactly rigorous at this age. Bumping this to say, I'm in the middle of downloading Life Science and Earth and Space for the boys from Pandia Press. I finally looked at them more in depth and really liked them, plus they were 30% off.
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Radley
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Post by Radley on Apr 20, 2019 22:14:52 GMT -6
My kid is only in Kindergarten so we are doing interactive notebooking. I’m loving these suggestions for the future.
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hawkward
Global Moderator
Loss, Infertility
Posts: 19,635 Likes: 123,079
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Post by hawkward on Apr 21, 2019 19:03:55 GMT -6
My kid is only in Kindergarten so we are doing interactive notebooking. I’m loving these suggestions for the future. We had a lot of fun with this this year, and part of what I found appealing about the REAL Science Odyssey books was the inclusion of notebooking. DS1 is already getting excited about flipping through it.
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Radley
Sapphire
Posts: 3,266 Likes: 13,745
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Post by Radley on May 2, 2019 20:08:32 GMT -6
My kid is only in Kindergarten so we are doing interactive notebooking. I’m loving these suggestions for the future. We had a lot of fun with this this year, and part of what I found appealing about the REAL Science Odyssey books was the inclusion of notebooking. DS1 is already getting excited about flipping through it. Oh cool! That’s great. My DS1 is doing really well with the notebooking.
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hawkward
Global Moderator
Loss, Infertility
Posts: 19,635 Likes: 123,079
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Post by hawkward on Jan 18, 2020 22:24:35 GMT -6
Bumping this to say we love REAL Science Odyssey. It’s written at a level DS1 can do with minimal guidance from me and he’s even teaching it to DS2. DS1 does the reading and writing but DS2 helps him brainstorm ideas.
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