Curriculum Fair: Science Basics



Apologia science

    For science, we have always followed Sonlight's programs and added in a bunch of nature study.  This year, my 8th grader is using Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science, text and companion multimedia cd, and Sonlight's schedule and science supply kit.  The great thing about Sonlight's supply kits is that everything you need for experiments is included, except for basic household supplies. 

   The schedule lists what you will need each week and what you need to gather for the following week, as well as sectioning daily reading assignments.  I can pretty much give my son the schedule sheet, and he can work independently from the book.  I help him with experiments and studying for quizzes, but other than that, he is able to do most of it on his own.  He is keeping a lab notebook which he journals in as he does experiments and the "On your own" sections in the book. 

Sonlight science:  Electricity, Magnetism, and Astronomy



   My younger two boys are both using Sonlight's Electricity, Magnetism, and Astronomy program, which features several books and a dvd showing how to do the experiments.  They have the supply kit as well, which is a real time saver.  They especially loved reading Diary of an Early American Boy by Eric Sloane and getting a microscope this year to use with the Usborne Microscope book. 

My First Lab Microscope

   These programs make up the base of our science studies, but we add in many extras, which I'll talk about next time.