My oldest is only twelve, but I'm a planner so I'd really like to hear people's ideas on the books or methods, etc. you use to teach HS level science.
If you want Christian based material, it is without a doubt Apologia. If you want secular, I have no idea. It was funny, because when Rachael was that age we went to a hs conference. I had already decided on Apologia, because it's the one name that constantly comes up. My husband went to some workshop on preparing kids for college. He came back and informed me that he me wanted to check out Apologia science, because the workshop people said it was the one to use for college-bound students.
I have looked at Apologia and it looks good but is pretty costly (for me that is). I have always used ABeka for my science plus I also use many good books and write some studies up.
At a recent homeschool expo, I made it a priority to determine which high school science books are the best. From what I could tell, Apologia and Bob Jones offer the best curriculum. My personal preference, with a background in physics, was Apologia - although I found it a little lacking in the number of worked examples.
I agree with both BJU and APologia but if you need less cost try AOP.com try their SOS program, I like their Science and we use it from JR thrugh sr high. another option would be to go with Glencoe or huffin mc watever it is that the public schools use? Scholastics has some great books too for add ins.. there is a wonderful science mag that we get called kidsdiscover my jr higher loves them! They seem to be timelly with what we are studying as well!
OH!!! I have managed to collect the following science texts (NO TM's!!!). They were all given to me for free, and I've never used them. I would be willing to send either to you for the cost of shipping: Glencoe middle school: http://www.glencoe.com/catalog/index.php/program?c=1674&s=3326&p=4151 Scott Foresman 6th grade science text (which I can't find; has it been revised?) If you're interested in either book, send me a PM!
Apologia is excellent.We have used their materials from 7th grade. My kids all do Science Olympiad, Science Bowl, Energy Bowl, Quiz team and my oldest daughter wrote the AP Chem exam (my son will do AP Physics this year) All have done very well in those things - because of Apologia. They understand the concepts and remember them many years later. For some of the books, there are extra problems online, if I remember correctly and all the later books have 'extra practice problems' at the end of each chapter. In addition, if there is ever anything you / your kids don't understand, you can email Dr Wile and he replies withing hours. You can find used copies for a good price on homeschoolclassifieds.com or ebay or vegsource or welltrainedmind.com forums. They have good re-sale value and are well worth every cent Meryl
Bob JOnes is used by many Private prep schools, my ds used it it was great but the teacher never went through the whole thing so that was disapointing. Apoligia is pricey this is true and the CD version that has the whole thing in one or two cds is okay but you want to print your work because it did not save the work for you. DD did that one. We also like SOS science, they use that at dds private school now.. though she is finished wiht her sciences ptl! Glencoe is okay too, but I am not sure of the prices/ But they do have an online link to younger grades, maybe older too .. Bob Jones has a science site you can check ou tsome of thier extra things and such.. I found it to help ds in 9th grade or was that 10th? lol by 11th he was mr Science!
If you want secular it's a bit harder unless you want to use public school books. We are using Prentice Hall's Science Explorer now (it's a middle school series) and will continue with PH into highschool (or so far that is our plans).
