Just thinking ahead to next year. I wasn't overly happy with the depth of our science lessons this year. The book just skims far too much material. Nothing against the book really- it's made for ps, the pictures are wonderful, and you can't argue that they DO cover a lot of different subjects. I just want my children to have a bit.. more. I'm not sure if I can explain this well, but here goes: if you only give kids a very general concept, and make it sound like there's nothing to really study beyond the page, you don't leave them open for any sort of curiosity. And that's what our book does- lots of general knowledge that makes it sound like it's all-inclusive.. but it isn't by any stretch. We do have great discussions though I'm not looking for curric choices here as much as wondering how you deal with the different disciplines of sci for elementary kids. How long do you give each? How in-depth do you go?
We started using _Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding_ by Bernard Nebel this year. It is quite an amazing science program. The first book is for K-2nd grades and the second book is for 3rd-5th grades, though they would certainly be suitable for older grades as well. The book for 6th-8th should come out later this year. The program covers four "threads" concurrently, so there is no need to decide which areas of science to cover each year. The lessons are progressive and build upon each other. The threads are: * The Nature of Matter * Life Science * Physical Science * Earth and Space Science I have not seen another program that comes close to how in depth this book goes. This is a real science course for kids that will be an excellent foundation for higher level science courses in high school years. This is a complete course, and it is all I am going to use for science through 8th grade. If you are interested, I can tell you a lot more!
My boys love science and we do go in depth. This year our focus has been on biology although astronomy is a constant. For the first half of the school year we are doing a study on the human body and cells. (Ahem..yes, we aren't half way through our school year yet). I'm putting together a study on zoology and botany with a focus on taxonomy for the rest of the school year. I prefer putting our own things together. It fits us better. My kids like lots of depth with age-appropriate activities and it has been hard to find any sort of curriculum that fits although my kids did like Real Science 4 Kids. In previous years we have done chemistry, marine biology, and my older son did an in depth study on dinosaurs. Astronomy is a constant. My older son took an in depth online class last year, but pretty much self-teaches that topic now. We've also done nature studies and had fun with a microscope. Next year our plan is to cover physics. I'm getting that together too - but first I have to finish this year's plans. My older son has always loved science. My younger son - not so much. I personalized our science study this year so each child was doing slightly different things on the same topic so they were more at their level. It has been wonderful. My younger son now loves science.
This year we used Simple Homeschool (colorado Mom's stuff) Middle School Physics. Ds really has enjoyed it. He will opt to do the online course stuff over the paper work I have to print out for him but when we go over the text and teh Parent teacher book I am finding he can really tell me when he studied each of the lessons online. I would not have been able to teach physics myself thats why we joined a co op, the co op suggested a course that was too hard for me to understand at first, it was on the high school level and had great info but to be able to teach it to ds I needed to be taught on his level. The SHS online lessons are great for him they read, they have videos and then I go over it on the written text. So we are reinforcing one another and really enjoying the course this year! We have added a few different lab projects, I may suggest they be added to the course because the kids at co op loved them! I am not a science person, but we enjoyed this. I was considering the Real Science for Kids or SOS for ds ext year for science. I like the lab books, but I may just have to check out Colorado moms site and see what she has there first. I think her prices are pretty good and ds can do it partly independent and partly with me.
My kids love to learn as much as possible about a science topic. I use the Time4learning curriculum for science, but we supplement with a lot of online resources that are free. Depending on what your children are learning, and their ages, you may find the following resources helpful- Sorry, I can't post links yet, so you can do a search and find the sites. I have a lot more that I found just by doing a google search of online science resources, maybe this will work for you especially if you are on a budget. BBC-Science and Nature Science of Cooking Science Explorer
Here is more info about BFSU (the K-2nd grade book) for anyone interested. It takes a little time to sit down and read through the introductory chapters to get the idea of Dr. Nebel's program, but really it is very simple. I'm kind of allergic to any program that requires a lot of preparation time from me, but BFSU has proved to be quite easy and quick to prepare. I first read through the lesson (about 6 -7 pages) and then gather a few things that we need for the "experiment." What is nice is that the activity/experiment requires very simple things that I almost always have around the house. The only thing I have bought so far was a pack of rubber bands just because we had run out of them. Here are some examples of lessons we have done so far. Under "The Nature of Matter" section, and after we had covered the three states of matter in a previous lesson (solid, liquid, gas), we did the lesson called "Air Is a Substance." The main points were that air is real "stuff" which takes up space and has weight. Some of the activities which demonstrated the points involved blowing bubbles into a cup of water. blowing up balloons, and playing in the bath tub with a plastic bottle. Another lesson under "Physical Science" covered sound, vibrations, and energy. For this lesson we talked a lot about how the source of sound is vibrations and how sound is transmitted. The activities involved plucking rubber bands and other stringed instruments we gathered from around the house, as well as rolliing marbles into each other. The experiments are quite simple, yet they are very fun for my kids and effective at demonstating the scientific concept. I have seen fancier kid-science denomstrations which looked more cool (dry ice bubbling out of a container or such things), but my kids never got the understanding of the science concept that they were supposed to be learning. Earlier in the year, we had been reading a text covering basic science principles, but it was so boring that science was the "worst" and dreaded subject. Now my kids are happy when it is time to do science, and I they are really learning the scientific principles (thanks to BFSU!). I majored in a science field in college, so I appreciate the level of science that my little kids are learning. As others have said, Dr. Nebel knows that kids can understand a lot more than we think. After each lesson, there is a book list for optional supplemental reading on the subject. I haven't read any of them, but I think it would be a useful component to solidify the points. Dr. Nebel also suggests activities which can be done to help kids learn the principles. I usually have my kids write something and draw a picture of the experiements. I plan to take about two years to go through this book. It book cost me about $25, and the activities/experiments don't usually cost anything. That is pretty cheap for a high quality science program that will cover 2-3 years of science for all of my kids. I haven't used the next book yet, but it has been written as a continuation of the first book. There is also a yahoo forum which Dr. Nebel moderates on which you can ask him questions about any of the lessons. I am so glad I found this. Hope this is helpful.
I am also using the Building Foundations book. We are working in the Life Science thread right now, which is thread "B". I find it simple to follow, but complete. My son has definitely learned quite a bit and I am amazed at his science vocabulary and understanding. Although my son is already in 2nd grade, I do plan on using this book again next year before moving on because there is a lot of meat to this program.
We do not have a formal curriculum for Science. We do Nature Study, science experiements, watch Nature Documentaries, and read books about different animals, habitats and biomes.
