Any advice for teaching geography?
What about science? For our 8th grader, I'm leaning toward the book, “Concepts and Challenges – Science
I would love your help, thank you!
Geography and Science suggestions?
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Any advice for teaching geography?
What about science? For our 8th grader, I'm leaning toward the book, “Concepts and Challenges – Science
I would love your help, thank you!
Colette says
I am drawing a blank on geography. We used flashcards & I think geography bee was the name we used this year. It was through CHC. Before we used MODG recommendations, and I didn’t care too much for it.
We used abeka for science till last year when we switched to CHC’s science which I again love. Lots of really easy experiments and great relation to our faith. Love it.
Stacy says
We used Galloping the Globe in the younger years for geography/social studies. It was a lot of fun. Especially when you add in Eat Your Way Around the World (I think that’s the name). Cantering the Country looked like fun but we never got to it 🙂
We liked Beginnings Publishings https://beginningspublishing.com/version2/rainbow.htm for Jr High Science. My boys loved the conversational tone.
Peggy says
Again, learning styles are key. Apologia is the gold standard for readers and auditory learners (if you don’t mind reading aloud.) For my touchy-feely kid, we added Janice VanCleave’s experiment books to the Apologia text and did an experiment almost every single day.
For first-year homeschoolers, I HIGHLY recommend the Handbook of Nature Study and four seasons of taking slow walks, just observing. This is where we learn that learning takes place in the WORLD, not in the classroom, and that a quiet spirit and sharp senses are learning tools, not just boring things to be endured while sitting at a desk.
KitchenKop says
Peggy, I just ordered that book, thanks!!!
Becky says
I second Apologia. It can be wordy, though. For my “I don’t like to read” child, I would read the modules aloud. There are notebooks that go with it that have review questions, crossword puzzles, journaling pages, and lab sheets. Not required, but fun!
Our Small Hours says
We unschool science. I’m currently teaching my wanna-be astronomer from my own college astronomy text.
Jill says
Forgot to mention geography—I developed a geography class for our co-op that the kids did in middle school, but other than that, it just sort of came with the territory of history–they’d mark on a map the places we were learning about and just did it that way.
For the class I made up myself (middle school level) we spent a couple weeks on map skills and understanding the globe (finding places by longitude/latitude, etc…), and then spent a couple weeks per continent. We used a national geographic website for young people https://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/ for fun homework activities. We read Around The World In 80 Days and marked on a map everywhere Phineas went, as a fun addition. Plus I found a special speaker from each continent to come talk to the kids about where they were from (including a native American friend of ours to talk about her tribe when we covered North America). It was pretty laid back, but I think the kids enjoyed it a lot (at least I did!).
Jill says
For science we weren’t very systematic in our approach in the earlier grades. We just sort of dabbled for the most part, and then for several years we were part of a co-op and the kids got their science once a week there (which also jumped around quite a bit). It wasn’t until later in middle and high school that we relied on a “program” and stuck with one subject in science for the entire year. Since you don’t really need to keep official transcripts until high school (what college cares what kids did in elementary/middle school?), you don’t need to worry about what topics in science are covered each year until later when they’ll be filling college entrance requirements for high school (biology, chemistry, etc…). I think for younger kids, science should be more about exploring subjects and getting their feet wet and developing a love of learning anyway.
Also in elementary and part of middle school, we did the content oriented subjects of science and history together, even though my kids are 2 grades apart–so much simpler than doing it separately, plus they were learning the same stuff, which was fun especially for the supplementary, enriching activities and material. For math and language arts though, they did their own material at their own levels since those are more skill specific.
The curriculum we used for science (middle and high school) was apologia and we really loved it. Also, for older elementary and middle school they have some gorgeous books in their Exploring Creation series–stunning photographs and so God glorifying and faith building too. We used the astronomy and botany books in that series and loved them–one year for each. We stuck with apologia for older middle school and high school science and really like it. I think it is more demanding than a lot of science curriculums and really designed as college prep. My son struggled in their chemistry program last year though–enough so that half way through the year we ditched it and let him do marine biology (apologia) instead to give his poor brain a break! Their chemistry is very math heavy, and I’m not sure if we’ll re-tackle it again next year (his senior year) or try a different chemistry program. He did use Khan Academy once or twice for chemistry and it really did help explain a couple concepts. Wish we’d known about it earlier–maybe he could have gotten through the whole year?
3kidswild says
A lot of homeschoolers use Apologia for science. Being this was our first year, that’s what we started off with as well. Bought everything. $$$. My son struggled. Too wordy for him. I tried everything to make it work. It just didn’t. I then found CK 12.org and downloaded the last few chapters and supplemented with videos from the Science Channel, NASA, and National Geographic and it clicked.
Sara says
We use the “Map of the Month” – great maps! The maps are big (fold into quarters) and the required work is listed on the map. At the end of the month, everything is colored in beautifully, and everything is identified. It is a great way of focusing on a continent or country for a specified amount of time.
Amanda says
Geography – Knowledge Quest has a free program called Globalmania that leads you through learning countries and capitals in 7 months. It includes a bunch of links to sites that have free geography games and other resources.
Science – we’ll be using materials from Elemental Science this year. It’s all planned out and includes “experiements” that are easy and use mostly household stuff.