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My oldest son will be in 8th grade this coming year. We are going to use RTR with extensions in the fall. Before we decided on RTR, I had originally bought John Hudson Tiner's Integrated Chemistry and Physics course for him to use next year. It doesn't contain much math, he loves the author, and I think he would be fine with the concepts.

Now I'm not sure. I like the idea of doing Astronomy with him, but he's already read the other books scheduled in RTR's science, including the God's Design weather one. He read those in the last year or so, so I don't think he'd get much out of repeating them. I know there was a discussion of doing Signs and Seasons, but that would replace the Apologia astronomy, I think. I think doing both Signs and Seasons and Apologia Astronomy would be overkill.

So, we have a couple of options. We could just do the ICP (with labs) as purchased in 8th and add in some living books (because we have always added living books to our science spines). That would then have him doing Bio in 9th, Chem in 10th, and Physics in 11th.

Or

We could do Astronomy this year, along with some other books to replace the ones he's already read (Joy Hakim's Story of Science and some biographies maybe?) and then do ICP in 9th, Bio in 10th, Chem in 11th, and Physics in 12th.

Any thoughts appreciated!

Bump.

I know Carrie is super busy, but I'm hoping she gets a chance to answer since she has used the ICP program.

mamas4bugs,

Thanks so much for your patience in hearing back from me! We're in the convention season right now, where life gets especially hectic! As far as your 8th grade son goes, I think either optoin is a good one. I'm just wanting to clarify that your son has already used the resources we have scheduled for Option 1 only for the earth science. These would include the Astronomy book from Apologia, Exploring Planet Earth by John Hudson Tiner, Along Came Galileo, and Isaac Newton from the Sower Series. Option 1 does not include Our Weather and Water, so I just wanted to be sure of what your son has previously done, before making a recommendation.

If he hasn't already done the books I've listed above, and you desire to do earth science with a focus on astronomy, I would lean toward doing that and waiting on the IPC until his 9th grade year. If, instead, he has very recently done quite a few of the books I've listed above, the I'd lean toward the IPC instead.

Feel free to pop back on and share a clarification, and I can advise you better.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks, Carrie!

He's read all of the books in option 1 except Apologia Astronomy within the last year or so. Would you recommend supplemental reading with ICP? I really like the looks of the books in Rev to Rev, which he will be doing for 9th grade. I was sort of rolling the idea around in my head that those books would go well as supplemental reading along with ICP if we did it in 9th grade. He is used to doing a spine science and having living books to read also, so I *think he would be fine with it.

Of course, I'm not entirely certain what we'd do for 8th grade then.

Also, I think either plan is fine for a college bound student, isn't it? Most of the colleges we have looked into just seem to want two sciences with labs, and those that specify seem to require Bio, Physics, and/or Chem, and we'd still have time for all 3 of those with either plan. So I think we'll be good from that perspective either way.

Thanks so much for taking time to answer! I can't imagine how busy you are.

Bump, cuz Carrie's on. Hi! And thanks so much for the personal attention you pay to us. It really does mean the world.

mamas4bugs,

Since your son has just recently read much of what is in the RTR science, I would instead lean toward doing either the Integrated Physics and Chemistry by Tiner or to doing the science from Rev2Rev with RTR instead (and then using the Integrated Physics and Chemistry as a 9th grader). If you'd like to stay to the plan of using Rev2Rev as written as much as possible, then I'd wait to do the science in Rev2Rev as scheduled. Another option with RTR would be to do Signs and Seasons in grade 8, along with some of the suggested experiments in the back of the Signs and Seasons book. This would give you the earth science/astronomy focus. Plus, Signs and Seasons is very well-done!

If you do go the IPC route, there will be no need to add additional reading material, as there is plenty there. Although it looks like a workbook, it actually reads very narratively. My son enjoyed it tremendously this past year.

Blessings,
Carrie