Here is my goal for next year: pick a science program and actually finish the damn thing. I can do that, right? Right. This year my goal for the youngers (since Ari is taking outside classes) was to get some science done most every week. And I've done okay so far. Mostly. Next year's goal is harder, so I must choose wisely. I think I have narrowed it down to three different basic options. At least for right now I have. I'm still in the early stages of researching. But sometimes I go from early stages of research to ordering something in, like, 20 minutes. Which, come to think of it, might be part of the problem we've historically had with science around here. Hmm...Anyway. Pros and cons and other random thoughts:
Option #1: R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey
We tried the life science from Pandia Press last year, I guess? Sometime. We didn't get terribly far. I have a friend who just finished up the Chemistry with her kids and speaks well of it. The problem with this option might be that I can mainly think of cons: I tried it before and trouble sticking with it (probably more me than them, but still), I'm kind of leaning toward not focusing on one kind of science for the whole year; I'm in the mood to mix things up, lots of gathering materials involved, although this might be okay as long as I stay focused on my goal. I remember having to get a lot of crap together, but not anything especially obscure or hard to get ahold of. The Chemistry says for 2nd through 5th grade, so it should work well for both Ari and Milo with Gus following along. Actually, this is the big plus, I think. Easy to combine kids with minimal tweaking, although I might give Ari supplemental stuff.
Sidenote before moving on to option 2: With any of these, I might give Ari extra stuff. I'm looking at PLATO science, or maybe another outside class, depending on what I can find.
Option #2: Singapore Science
You know, I've been looking at this for years. I like the looks of the samples, not so much from the textbooks, but from the activity and higher order thinking books. I like that it's a tested curriculum that's been around for a long time. We've always done well with Singapore Math. The number of different books sort of overwhelms me. As far as I can tell, we'd need a teacher book, textbook, homework book, activity book, and higher order thinking skills book...and then several different volumes of some of those. I'm also not sure about combining kids. There's an Earlybird volume for 1/2 grade, then 3/4 grade, and 5/6 grade. So, really, they should all be in different books. I think trying to have Gus follow along with a higher level might be really frustrating all around, because of the workbookiness of it (Gus doesn't do well with not getting his own copy of whatever his brothers are working on). The Earlybird looks pretty easy to do, though, so what I might do is get that plus the 3/4, have Ari and Milo do 3/4 and then see previous sidenote re: supplementation for Ari.
Option #3: Science in a Nutshell kits
...plus lots of reading and possibly a renewal of our Discovery Education science subscription. This option is growing on me more the more I think about it (and the more I gaze longingly at the kits on the website). We did a kit last spring and really enjoyed it. They really do include pretty much EVERYTHING. Need a paperclip? Here it is! An index card? Don't worry--it's included! Again, it would be easy to combine everyone (they're supposed to be for 2-6 grade, but I think Gus could handle most of it). They even come with 3 journals, so it's like they were meant for our family. On the surface, it seems like more work to plan, since I'd need to pull together extra readings and whatnot. But I think in practice I'm much, much better about doing that sort of thing than tracking down epsom salt and 4 inch tall plastic cups. It also fulfills my need to mix it up, since we can alternate kits on different subjects throughout the year. One thing it's not is systematic. I wonder if I could find a good spine/s for reading, though, to give the year some shape and cohesion, and fit the experiment kits in around that. Or I could give up on being systematic for the youngers and see sidenote about supplementation for Ari.
So. Input very welcome. Typing out my initial thoughts has been clarifying and helpful. I didn't realize I was leaning toward option #3, but now I think I am. Interesting.
3 comments:
We had the same experience (twice!) with R.E.A.L., even though there was no Chemistry version at the time. If you aren't a gatherer of stuff, I don't know how it could work.
We used the Science in a Nutshell kits a lot for physics and I have most of the human body ones. I love those things. If I could afford it, I would own them all and gear all of our K-6 science around them.
G has used PLATO this year. The Application portions are the best, I think, and they do recycle some of the questions between the practice & mastery tests and the printable worksheets, but if you were doing it as a supplement, you wouldn't want to do ALL of it anyway, I wouldn't think. It was a little more time-consuming that I expected, especially the Earth & Space one. Weirdly.
So now I'm adding "science-minded friend likes them" to the pros list for the nutshell kits :). They are pricy, but I started thinking about it as a monthly cost, and, assuming one kit a month (around 2 activities a week), it'd be $40/month, which sounds reasonable. As long as I don't add up how much it is over the course of a year ;). Also, a gazillion trips to the drugstore for more epsom salt can really add up.
Hmm...exactly how much time (or, you know, about how much time) DOES Plato take?
Doing all of the activities, G finished up everything online between when we started school & Christmas break for both Life Science and Earth & Space Science, but she ended up spending closer to 60-75 minutes on it, especially on that latter one, at least once a week (I was aiming for 45 minutes). She still is finishing up the worksheets (I was using them for testing retention 2-4 weeks out, at least.)
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