Posted by Sydney in NJ on 13:40 Sep 17
In Reply to: Science spine recommendations...unnecessarily long, sorry posted by Melissa in the desert
Like you, I did not want to focus on one topic for a year. As a newbie, I did not really have the confidence to "wing it" for science, either.
I have an 8 yo who is very interested in science, and definitely capable of working above the usual "grammar" stage level. On the other hand, I don't think he is necessarily a good fit for the logic stage, either. He's in between, in my opinion, so I have been trying to blend the two stages in many areas. This makes things interesting, because it is also our first year homeschooling, so we are still feeling our way.
The author of MWS is a frequenter of these boards, and I saw it mentioned so many times that I went to her website to check it out. I liked what I saw, so I bought the Weather/Astronomy/Oceans unit for this year. It has 30 lessons (10 on each section). My plan was to start the unit this summer with both my kids, but that did not really work out. My ds and I really got going with it a couple of weeks ago when dd returned to ps.
I like the fact that the lessons are laid out for me. The program is intended for grammar stage, but you can make it more intensive for older students by adding to the readings, etc. So far, it has been very easy to follow. There is also a Yahoo support group for MWS users, which has given me several suggestions for good ways to supplement the spines. So I am pretty happy with this choice. I don't think it will take us a full year to do--primarily because ds has gone through obsessive stages in oceans and astronomy when he was younger, so I think we will move through these sections pretty quickly. I probably should have started with a different unit! Oh well. Next time.
Sydney