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Hi! Can someone tell me what the science is like in Preparing? Is it... boring?? What sort of experiments do they do? Any other information would be great. Thanks! Nicole

My ds did Preparing as a 10 year old and he wasn't bored at all. He really enjoyed the science. It is very Charlotte Mason in it's approach. The books are all living books, no encyclopedia's which really helped him stay interested. He loved all the books, but especially the one small square books. He has told me I am not allowed to sell them. He also loved the constellation book and making his own star book was a highlight for him. The experiments are all fairly easy to do and some may seem simple, but I felt the important thing for him was understanding the scientific process and how to make a hypothesis, draw out his procedure and then figure out how to write his conclusion. Having a highschooler I know these are skills that are very important for him to learn. I thought there was a nice variety of experiments and the notebooking really added to the learning process. My dh the engineer was very impressed with the gentle way the concepts were taught. He is off every other Friday so he often did the science experiments with my ds.

In glancing through the guide, the science looks like a lot of fun to me. My boys are all very hands on and do not like a ton of writing. The experiments look easy to do, but educational and fun. I can anticipate that my boys will not really enjoy the reading and notebooking part, but that's okay. I love the One Small Square books myself and my nature-loving boys will as well. Lots of great info and pictures. That being said, I have a 7th grader doing Preparing who LOVES science (the more hands-on the better) so I have added Rainbow Science for him. It looks to be a perfect fit. For my ds10 and ds9 I will not add anything b/c the science in Preparing looks to be more than enough. HTH a bit. Carrie has done such a fabulous job making HOD a complete curriculum. I am so excited to begin Preparing this year...and am so grateful for all the reviews and advice here on the board in helping me make my decision!

Thankyou! You are all so helpful. We have just done two years of science using the OSS books, and they are nice, but I am kinda getting tired of them. They are nice books though, maybe I should just do Preparing as it is scheduled, and not worry about adding in anything esle - I am such a tweaker!

We loved the science in Preparing! It was my son's favorite part! (Well he also said that about the creative writing & storytime... ) But he did love the science. HOD science was our 1st time to use OSS books, and we've loved them along with the activities that Carrie scheduled to go along with them. Did you just read the books? Maybe they'd have a different feel when you use them to go along with the plans in Preparing...and use them at the pace they're scheduled there.

The science experiements were by far my son's favorite thing to do! I like the way they're teaching him to think and experiment with things on his own.

Besides the OSS books, you'll also be learning about the Constellations (Grant's favorite part of science in Preparing! ), Pasteur, Edison, how dinosaurs line up with Biblical history. We loved it as-is here.

Kathleen