I've used Abeka and Lifepacs and Apologia General Science. Next go-round with 7th I'm planning to use Rod & Staff.
SOS science. Then for last ds we used some other thignsa at a co op as well, like Lyrical science for Biology - human type. and a bit of this and that.
Christian Kids Explore Biology and a hodge podge of other things. Christian Kids Explore is rather light in content. It has a lot of simple hands-on stuff using things you can find around the house. Requires virtually no parent preparation. With all that said, it worked really well for us. I plan to use Christian Kids Explore Physics for the end of this school year.
We're using Apologia General Science at this point. So far, so good. A good friend really likes BJU for science.
Christian Kids Explore Biology didn't work for us AT ALL. I had to go and get too much stuff and plan on my own, which I simply didn't want to do with science. I wanted everything spelled out for me. I'm not saying it was a bad program, just bad for what I wanted in a science curriculum.
We are using Rainbow Science. The kids like it so far. It's EXPENSIVE but is a two year program. The way things are going around here we may verywell still be doing it 2 years from now. It's been hit and miss with getting it done.
We used Apologia General and then just some basic stuff here and there with Ambleside. He liked the SOS Science 8th grade - but now through Seton we are doing Earth Science - an older Abeka book though (which is a 9th grade course but pretty darn easy in my opinion for him because we had learned a lot of the stuff before)
Thanks for your answers. I am trying to decide what science curriculum to use for Ems this coming up school year. I have been eyeing Rod & Staff as well as Apologia but I am really not sure yet. We have been using A Beka science for along time but I want to try something else this coming up year. Thanks again!
I used the Abeka textbook, but not the quizzes, tests, or anything else. I find they have too much busy work. I made up my own tests and we did do the questions that were in the book sometimes. We did not cover all the chapters, but in 7th grade I don't think it is too important. Most everything is repeated in high school.
We have found that the DIVE cd's for science used in conjunction with Apologia are a great improvement over using Apologia alone. We love this new science series!
R&S books are very traditional, with color where color is important, lots of pictures but not super bright/colorful, with text, then comprehension questions, and review questions, and a list of possible activities for each lesson that you can either choose from or just discuss how it would come out if you did it. Then a chapter review and a test. I think the whole program is pretty solid. The information seems to be up to date, while still placing God in His rightful position as Creator and Sustainer. I haven't gotten to any geology or astronomy topics yet, though, but I'm pretty sure it's either going to be Young Earth or noncommittal on the question (by saying "Scientists say..." They've already covered that when science and the Bible disagree, we should believe the Bible, which is fine with me.) We're using the third and fifth grade books right now, and I like them so much I went ahead (while I had the money!) and bought the whole series -- third, fourth, fifth, old fifth (two books), sixth, and old 7th/8th, and old 9th/10th. (They're in the process of rewriting the last two books, and dividing them up into two books each, so one for each grade. They have the new 7th out, but I thought I'd wait.) The older fifth grade books would do just fine for a middle school Life Science course, since that's all they cover. The series only goes through tenth grade, so that still leaves time for at least a couple of lab courses, like biology, chemistry, or physics. All the R&S books are more like general science, with several different kinds of topics covered, and they do cover health and some intro to biology, chemistry, and physics, but they don't do lab courses.
Hmmmm..... I might check into that for Faythe. She'll be 9th grade, but she really isn't ready for even the General Science. We're trying it this year, and it's not working (again!!!).
We did Apologia, which was fine and an excellent program. BUT, for the future, I think I am going to go with more of theme based studies. I loved Considering God's Creation. We also are liking Real Science for Kids. I have Apologia Astronomy and Botany too. By the time we work through all those, I think we will have covered it all and can start on 9th grade science.
CGC worked well for us, too, though we did it in a year and a half. Phillip was very little...preK and K. It was great, because I would have him just sit in, and I'd copy a few of the pages, but I really didn't expect him to "learn" much from it. So one Mother's Day, he was just four, we were planting flowers in front of her house. Dad comes by with a bucket of water, and puts some fertilizer in it to put on the flowers. "What's that, Grandpa?" "Oh, just some plant food...." "Oh, no, Grandpa, you don't understand! Plants make their own food from the sun!" Grandpa was amazed. Phillip maybe couldn't use the word PHOTOSYNTHESIS in a sentence, but he sure had the concept of it, lol!
