Science Thoughts

from treddlesewingmachine:

Eyewitness Books has great books on just about everything science. There is generally one sub-subject to each pair of pages, which might be about right for him to get interested and reading. Books that we have/have read include volcanoes, minerals, ocean life, electricity, the list goes on. There are also some fairly easy readers (about your son's level) that include topics such as Pompeii, the Titanic, and lots of other science and history. Usborne has great history books on Vikings and Egyptians, Castles and Warfare that may also be appealing. I suspect that once he gets started on some exciting stuff that you will find he wants to keep reading. Once you get started on the Vikings, you could then read some of their myths, move on to Greek and Roman Myths, and then fairy tales.

from maleaab:

We combine Noeo and unit studies. Right now we have Noeo Chemistry I and it is very very easy for my nearly 10 year old. I wish I had gotten Chemistry II. Level II would probably work for your 8 and 12 yo to do together if they are able to work together or if the 8yo is motivated.
To incorporate the 5yo, I would probably try getting the Level II packages and then incorporate single books or options from the Level I packages for the 5yo.

Noeo covers chemistry, biology and physics. We haven't tried bio or physics yet but they state on their website that although they are a Christian family, they worked hard to keep their programs balanced for Christians and non-Christian's alike so I doubt if there would be much about evolution or creation in the bio package.

For unit studies, I took a workbook meant for younger kids that was about animals and created unit studies around each section. The first section is Arctic and Antarctic animals. I went through and separated the animals in the workbook into two groups and lumped the ones that migrate between the two poles in with the Arctic. Then, I printed off worksheets, puzzles, etc from the 'net to add in. I scoured our library for books on each animal, on the tundra and taiga, and so on. So far we have studied caribou and reindeer, musk ox, lemmings, ermines, and we are on polar bears now. There are also lots of great websites and dvd's available too.

from nancymc:

My daughter (10) and I have been through the first 3 elementary Apologia books (astronomy, botany, flying creatures) and we absolutely LOVE them. Her learning style leans heavily to a Charlotte Mason-ish program, so the sit together and read then do projects really works well. I'm really impressed with them.

We'll do sea creatures then whatever the last one is (land creatures I suppose) and then she'll go straight into General Science in 7th grade, so the timing has worked out well. My son began the program in 6th grade with General Science (the elementary program wasn't available then, or I didn't know about it!) and we enjoy it for him as well, but I look forward to seeing how she does doing Apologia the whole way.

I do supplement here and there with some physical science experiments, that's about my only complaint, there aren't enough of that sort of thing (atoms and electricity, etc), but that's easy enough to add in.