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Hi. I did the placement chart for my 4 boys and this post pertains to PHFHG, which the lovely ladies on this forum helped me to decide upon for my two oldest - 9 & 12 yr olds (going with the program the 9 yr old placed into and will be beefing it up for my 12 yro.) My question has to do with the science for 7th grade this fall. My initial impulse is to choose Apologia General Science, mainly because my impression has been that it's just "the thing to do." (not a good reason, I know.) However, I do think it's time he has a broader intro to the various branches of science. We've tended to take long periods of time to cover one topic. For example, this past year was mainly Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day (along with his first trip to the ocean - we handled living creatures like starfish in a beach lagoon!) Then we just finished a one-month Human Body Unit study, after touching on volcanoes very briefly. He's had astronomy in the past, but little on plants, rocks, physic, or chemistry. He does have something akin to Asberger's and is quite passionate about creation science and reads everything he can get his hands on (remembers everthing, too.) I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with Apologia General Science? Did you like it? Was it too overwhelming? How much time does it take each day? Is there something else you like better for 7th grade??? This is so new to me.

My son's a slower-than-average handwriter and a reader of average speed. As far as his other basic skills, he can read anything you hand to him, so reading level would not be much of an issue. He does lengthy written narrations at the computer, but his cursive ones are shorter (2-3 paragraphs at most.) He's a good writer with great spelling and grammar (though he's only had a little formal grammar so far, other than copywork/dictations.) He's done some experiments here and there, but I really believe he needs a more formal introduction to the scientific method, especially because I think it would help him to better interpret the science reading he does on his own. (I have a solid background on scientific method myself, and I do think it's important for my son also.) Since science is a major interest for him, I want to make sure he gets a good education there, and to prepare for high school. I do NOT want to destroy his love of learning, though, so I want to go with something that won't be too overwhelming.

I guess I'm just throwing this out there to see what ideas any of you may have for 7th grade science with PHFHG. Thanks! I am really looking forward to purchasing my first HOD program soon!

Kelly

The experiment part of PHFHG will be having your son do the scientific method for his lab reports so that is a nice way to have that incorporated. We're just going to be starting PHFHG ourselves in the fall and I haven't done any of the middle school sciences with my dc yet, but I have personally been reading some of John Hudson Tiner's books in the Exploring series. Exploring the History of Medicine is used in CTC and Exploring Planet Earth is scheduled in RTR. If your son is very science oriented and can read at a higher level, you might consider Exploring the World of Physics, Exploring the World of Chemistry, or Exploring the World of Biology all by Tiner. All of these are laid out with questions at the end of each chapter so they could easily be used as supplemental material having him read the chapter, answer questions, and perhaps narrate to you. I've also been reading Building Blocks in Life Science by Gary Parker. He also has one called Building Blocks in Science. Both of these are interesting creation science books that he could use to delve deeper. Perhaps he has already read these. Anyway that is just a couple of thoughts I had for you as some supplemental reading. Another thought I had was perhaps you would want to have him do the science, Exploration Education, that is in the new Rev2Rev guide. It's a nice physical science study that would be fairly independent and by the time you get to Rev2Rev, he might be ready for something more than this so doing it now probably wouldn't hurt. Those are just a couple of thoughts that I had. I'm sure others who have been there can offer more advice.

Patty,

Thanks for the helpful reply. I'll look into those recommendations. I'm still hoping to hear from someone who has some experience with Apologia's General Science. Just wondering why it seems to be so popular for 7th grade.

Kelly

You could just have him do CTC's Science. That would be an easy way to beef up the science for him and still have it be independent. It would also have him using CTC's manual for science, while your younger uses PHFHG's manual. But that's just an idea!
In Christ,
Julie