Posted by lovemykids on 1:31 Sep 17
In Reply to: Science spine recommendations...unnecessarily long, sorry posted by Melissa in the desert
We are using RS4K chemistry level 1 this year as our spine, with lots of outside readings and going very slowly. For example, the first section discusses how matter is what everything is made of. It doesn't go into any detail. Well, as we had never discussed matter directly or the forms it can take (solid, liquid, gas), I checked out simple books from the library on matter that had good photos. Also, I found that I had an old BJU Science 1 test that had a chapter on it, including some simple experiments to help kids understand the properties of matter. That helped my early and late grammar stage kids understand it better, so we could move on to atoms. Again, extra reading. We loved a book titled What is Smaller than you, Pygmy Shrew? or something similar to that. It explains things well. Next comes the periodic table. Again, more outside books. We read about Dmitri Mendeleyev, and about various elements. The book Fizz, Bubble, and Flash! is full of interesting information and experiments. You get the idea!
I don't plan to rush through this, as I want them to understand it well, but I also am not sure we'll spend all year on chemistry. It will probably take until January, though, at the rate we're going. My kids have lots of other interests that we will explore when we are done with this. Also, there are some topics we didn't get covered in previous years, so I think we may backtrack a little.