I really like Sonlight and Apologia ( I use them both). The Sonlight programs are really good because you use a bunch of different books, there are great experimentst and everything is well laid out. Apologia has great information and the notebooks you can get to go with the books are very nice. Dd has been doing the Apologia books with our co-op and they handle labs/experiments there so I do not have much experience with those.
Apologia... I've used all 6 and love them! I also like the new journals they've started doing (regular and junior versions... I've used both). I like digging deep and rabbit-trailing into one topic rather than fluffing over several topics in a year.
We chose R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey for our first year this year (1st and 3rd grades). Honestly, I was SO incredibly overwhelmed for the first several months, then we began going off of the kiddos' interests and creating our own units for those. We just recently began the real curriculum, which is full of labs, and are enjoying it immensely! I like that I can supplement with books and videos (like Beakman's World and Magic School Bus) to expand the lessons we feel need expanding. So far, so good with it. I have also heard wonderful things about Apologia science from friends - just had a chat about it with a HS friend at the park a few days ago - she is impressed with it!
We use Apologia and LOVE it!! We've used the Flying Creatures at home and Swimming Creatures at our co-op. I am going to be teaching the Land Animals at co-op next year as well as using it at home. I've heard only good about all of them
I am not huge on Science. Ever. LOL For Elementary school, we did basics type stuff, water cycle, plants, and butterflies! I also got them a few exploration kits - like one for magnets, one for electricity, etc.....they more "play" with them. I was worried about doing this so minimally then having my 7th grader go into an organized Apologia Science Class this year (Exploring Creation with General Science) at a local church - run by a woman who's a scientist and teacher...she was so amazing. My daughter managed to pull a solid "A" average all year...even with her minimal Science exposure! My youngest loves all things science, I think because she saw her brother & sister "play" with science. So she reads the Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers, and other "science" type books. I ran our Coop book study class this year and I based them all on the "Lets Read and Find Out about Science" books, she LOVED them! And LOVES reading the books. We also have all the old (i.e. late 50's early 60's) Moody Science Video collection. She watches them all the time! Anyway, I think Elementary can be very low key!
