Not to get into a debate, but if it is creation based I will not be interested.

That said, I am INO a science something for my kids, LOL. We were loosely doing KONOS and I loved that...BUT.

I am not so great at preparing weeks in advance to be sure we have the library books on hand at the right time for things. I don't like to have a lesson plan worked out 1-2 months in advance and I felt obligated to do so with KONOS. It wasnt' somethign we could just DO. We skipped the biblical studies in case you were curious about how I did KONOS and was not interested in creation.

I'm so much looser than I feel KONOS allowed for (it was pretty loose for the kids but way time intensive for me), and in the end we'd end up NOT doing it for weeks at a time, which is very effective, :lol:

SO. We've started Story of the World and so far the boys like it. I'm doing First Language Lessons for my eldest (7 1/2) and HWT plus K12 Phonics with my second (6). We also use Saxon for math and enjoy it.

We need science help. I have some great usborne books-should I just go through those? Or is there a really good "curriculum" for elementary ages that gives basic concepts? I saw real science 4 real kids and that looked nice-but $$. I don't want to seemingly skip around things, I'd like to be more cohesive. I'm finding I'm definitely more of a curriculum mama than a unit study mama. I like having someone else already working out the "what when where" stuff for me.

What have you tried that you liked?

ETA: we're really not wanting to look into any curricula that are Christian based even if a particular unit/level doesn't go into Creation...so are there any suggestions for secular science for elementary students? Thanks!

We use Living Learning Book Science 1 and we haven't encountered any discussion of origins of life. The guide is written by a Christian, but it uses Usborne books as the spines and Library books for the rest. I have only used level 1, though.

Also My World Science is supposed to be good. It is also written by a Christian, but she states on her website that the curriculum doesn't go into origins of life. HTH's. Both of these work well with classical education.

Here are the links:
http://www.myworldscience.com/

http://www.livinglearningbooks.com/

we have tried just about every science and truthfully (even though i am not a unit study kind of mama) we like the ten terrific weeks series from usborne. usborne and DK book (and the target brand that are just like DK and usborne but 1/3rd of the price) teach maire more than any of the other methods we have used. we are about to use them in conjunction with the "walking with..." series from discovery. oh and backyard scientist, is great for simple homebased experiments. if the living learning science place (in woodstock) wasn't soooo very christian i would love for maire to be able to take some science courses there. they have this huge thing where they take a trip to jekyll at the end of the year and perform all sorts of science experiments. at one time i know the woman who owned "the treehouse" was going to teach some science classes (something like "the creepy crawlies" and "your icky sticky insides" using oakmeadow/waldorf as a basis. but i haven't receive any emails since she went to being a midwife fulltime.

anywho, that probably didn't help you at all - but we just returned home from the atlanta dogwood festival and i had to down a red bull to try and stay awake. i really need to learn NOT to ask andy to go with me to these things, he's such a party pooper.

you know what i would like? some of the women on the canton group paired with some friends from LLL and they have this kindergarten co-op thing going where each person teaches one subject every week - i will i could start something like that for maires age and have one for lyls age too. she is working on saxon k stuff, but she would have much more fun if there were other kids around.

ohhhhhh sharon/earthrain! whatever happened with that JASON project you guys were doing? that science sounded AWESOME!

babbling, babbling...

Another vote for Living Learning Science.

christy mentioned backyard scientist too. she's bringing it for me to see tomorrow (we're going to a hotel furniture liquidator! wanna come along? SUPA CHEAPO FURNITURE!)

Talk to me about the usborne 10 weeks thing. I had a HUGE usborne party last summer late (had no idea you sold or would have called you!) and got a ton of stuff free (yeah!) and they were just starting to offer the 10 week things...our rep didn't know much about them since she had much younger kids.

I'm trying to buy this huge lot of earth science unit stuff for earth day off of vegsource or some similar board, can't recall what exactly. That would be great for right now-now that we own a home I'm starting a compost pile (a WHAT? pile mama?) and of course we recycle (mama, why do you recycle? LOL) what with earth day coming I figure that would be timely and fun. I hope she respond to my email.

I may be up for a cohesive science unit from Usborne. I love their stuff.

Who all is in that canton group thingy you were talking about? I may know most of them, ROFL.

Seriously, not just blowing steam but Christy & I have talked about doing a Magic Tree House book dealio co-op style once a month and have considered doing a co-op school thingy too. Not gathering much interest though.

I'm having a hard time finding a support group locally. I just recently joined C.O.A.C.H., and the mamas sound really great on their emails. Will try out a park day next week. AAEN is so freakin far for me-it takes me nearly an hour to get there and longer to get back with traffic that time of day. But I enjoy the people-I know lots from LLL. We've all kind of graduated from boobies to homeschooling together, yk? CHE was a bust. I'm not pagan (am pagan friendly)and besides that got wacked. What to do?

Ok, rambling here too. Talk to me about Usborne :)

Another vote for Living Learning Science.

I appreciate the suggestion but DH & I are really not interested in a Christian curriculum, even if it doesn't directly go into Creation. It seems like there are alot of choices that are popular if you don't mind that detail, but it's pretty big for us.

Thanks!

another reason for us to get together next week! i just got the 10 terrific weeks egypt set!
ack bebe awake

just name a day/time. i'm there, :lol:

We're reading about Egypt in SOTW right now. They love it...

This is my favorite:

http://gravitaspublications.com/default.asp?DomName=gravitaspublications.com

I appreciate the suggestion but DH & I are really not interested in a Christian curriculum, even if it doesn't directly go into Creation. It seems like there are alot of choices that are popular if you don't mind that detail, but it's pretty big for us.

Thanks!

Living Learning isn't a creation science curriculum. It gives you a topic, you get books from the library and do corresponding student activity pages.

Maybe I just don't understand what you are looking for.

We would love to be a part of the Magic Tree house book club co-op thingy LOL Bri loves Magic Tree house books.

I've had a horrible time finding secular science. Ended up buying LIFEPACS and skipping the Xtian stuff. Loved the look of Living Learning Science. Even ordered it. That was in June. I've been told it is on back order still. Between that and doing living books for so many other subjects, I think we wont' be bothering with it. I'd like to have just one subject that didn't require as much reading and prep work.

We would love to be a part of the Magic Tree house book club co-op thingy LOL Bri loves Magic Tree house books.

I've had a horrible time finding secular science. Ended up buying LIFEPACS and skipping the Xtian stuff. Loved the look of Living Learning Science. Even ordered it. That was in June. I've been told it is on back order still. Between that and doing living books for so many other subjects, I think we wont' be bothering with it. I'd like to have just one subject that didn't require as much reading and prep work.
what is magic tree house? though i can probably safely say that if sharon and bri like it, i will too.

sharon have you seen the 10 terrific weeks thingy? the egypt one i bought looks so cool! it has everything laid out and it seems like it is pretty much for the child to teach themselves (except for some help with art projects). how cool would it be if everyone could come over and do the egypt series at my house???? i plan on being at the canton playgroup next week, if you havent seen the TTW egypt, i will bring it!

what is magic tree house? though i can probably safely say that if sharon and bri like it, i will too.

sharon have you seen the 10 terrific weeks thingy? the egypt one i bought looks so cool! it has everything laid out and it seems like it is pretty much for the child to teach themselves (except for some help with art projects). how cool would it be if everyone could come over and do the egypt series at my house???? i plan on being at the canton playgroup next week, if you havent seen the TTW egypt, i will bring it!

EarthRain-where are you located? I'm in west Forsyth, still in Cumming, mamaxt (Christy) is in south Forsyth, actually Alpharetta.

Bran...Magic Tree House is a series of books for elementary kids-Morgan LOVES them. He and Dylan (Christy's son) were part of a MTH thing that met in Gwinnett for a few weeks where they did activities with other homeschoolers based on certain books-the kids had to read a certain one before each meeting and the activities were all about that one. A book club for the young set, LOL. It was just too far and fizzled out-she would get stuck on 20 going towards mall of ga and just sit. And the mama doing it then didn't want girls or boys under 7, so that meant she had to sit in the car with the younger kids (it was during the time I had speech with Charlie so she took Morg for me). Not so cool. But we're tossing (seriously) the idea of doing one here or at her house, depending on the group we get I guess. Dylan really wants it there but if everyone else coming is in Cherokee I am probably closer. We'd not ostracize girls (coming from a female-only education that one irked me even though I have all boys) or the younger kidlets.

http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/magictreehouse/

Bran, when is park in Canton this week? Where? Need some info & if we don't have swimming or soccer then we are there :) I'd drive over to Canton to do Egypt for 10 weeks. Sweet!

As for the secular thing and Living Life curriculum, I *really* appreciate the suggestion-but after having looked through Christian developed curricula in the past, even if they don't go into Creation it just isn't what we are looking for. But once again-I do really appreciate the suggestion-it sounds like several of you are fond of it :)

I like the look of Real Science 4 Real Kids. I'm leaning there but it's $145. Ugh. DH is going to go cross-eyed with my money-spending, LOL.

OH! I got the earth day curriculum coming! WOOHOO! Only $25 shipped. If it gets here by next week and looks good I'll bring it along too-maybe we can do that on a different day?

i will answer for sharon :) she lives right down the road from meeeeeeeee
we met in CHE before CHE went all freaky-like
going to look at MTH now

ETA: sharon loves me sooo much she won't kill me for answering for her. since her oldest son is actually my long lost childe (we both have a hot topic addiction)

I'm in Canton. Just south of the city limits.
We haven't set a place for the park yet. Did heritage this week. Some of the kids requested we go to one with slides next time. I'm thining Brown or Barnett. Barnett is more isolated and shaded but has a creek. It depends on if we feel like letting the kids get wet, or fight with them over not getting in the creek. I better pop over there and see where everyone wants to meet.

Bran ... I'd love to look at the 10 terrific weeks. We just finished up on Egypt but was thinking of ordering some of the others. Do you have a print catalog? I hate trying to look at online catalogs.

LOL you beat me to answering LOL

Love you? Hummmm.... You know I do lady. Darn I've missed seeing you.

I'm in Canton. Just south of the city limits.
We haven't set a place for the park yet. Did heritage this week. Some of the kids requested we go to one with slides next time. I'm thining Brown or Barnett. Barnett is more isolated and shaded but has a creek. It depends on if we feel like letting the kids get wet, or fight with them over not getting in the creek. I better pop over there and see where everyone wants to meet.

Bran ... I'd love to look at the 10 terrific weeks. We just finished up on Egypt but was thinking of ordering some of the others. Do you have a print catalog? I hate trying to look at online catalogs.
yep i do have a print catalogue i can bring with me :)

lyl would LOVE it if we did the creek and i have no problem with her getting all wet; as long as if she refuses to get out, someone can hold sarah so i can run after her lol

LOL you beat me to answering LOL

Love you? Hummmm.... You know I do lady. Darn I've missed seeing you.


sorry to hijack your thread tracey :)

you can help me decide if i want to get my septum repierced for my bday :hippy:

Hey Bran... turn on your yahoo messenger

girl you just go ahead and hijack my thread any darn day you want, k? :lol: cause if you don't, mamaxt and megmama will get on here and we will!

Septum, eh? I'm trying to grow kohones and get my tragus done. Been thinking on that one for oh, 6 years? Everytime I get a nerve I end up preggo so that means no tat or pierce for a couple years. It's been nearly 10 years since my last tat...dh and i are thinking on that one too.

But you wouldn't know it when you meet him-he's all business daddy in a tie and khakis, :lol:

Just LMK when and where...if it's not La Caz or wallyworld I'm Canton challenged. I'd need directions. Water is ok too-the kids have been begging me for a sprinkler to be set up-but they don't realize I don't know WHERE my sprinkler is since we just moved in 3 weeks ago. Ahem. Apparently I'm just a mean mama. But water is good if it's not too deep-Daniel is not yet 3 and would so be in it too...

sharon - got a new laptop and i dont have yahoo on it :(

i had my septum pierced for years but when i had my surgery in oct of 2002 i had to take it out and i was so drugged i didnt remember for 2 weeks and it had healed up :(

creek is nice and shallow and clean.
Barnett is on Bells Ferry, just south of Butterworth.
Are you on the Canton playgroup yahoo list?
I'll post a link there with directions. If you aren't on the list I'll send you the directions.

well you just need to get it on there lady LOL
Do you have MSN messenger on it?

Speaking on Tats
Bran... do know anything about the place near where you use to live? I saw a tat 2 yrs ago on someone at the Ren Faire and that is who did it. It looked great. I am so ready to get my tat and my belly button pierced. Just need to save up the $$$

well you just need to get it on there lady LOL
Do you have MSN messenger on it?

Speaking on Tats
Bran... do know anything about the place near where you use to live? I saw a tat 2 yrs ago on someone at the Ren Faire and that is who did it. It looked great. I am so ready to get my tat and my belly button pierced. Just need to save up the $$$
i only have AIM so far
i only know about the drunken brawls that went on outside the place.

i am going to psycho to get my tat done (when i can get my friend to finish the drawing, or hell - start the **** thing). and i wouldnt trust anyone but psycho to do my piercings (well kelly from here and MD but shes in cali and doesnt know if she will be here for the convention this summer).

I'll have to ask my friend Cat where she got hers done. She and her soon to be ex went to a place that specializes in grey shading. I had to site saved at one point but lost it.

back to science for a min

There was one curriculum that I looked at that looked good. I'll have ot find it. Each book was subject specific and I think was about 1/2 yrs worth of lessons

found it
http://www.commonsensepress.com/greatscience/default.htm

creek is nice and shallow and clean.
Barnett is on Bells Ferry, just south of Butterworth.
Are you on the Canton playgroup yahoo list?
I'll post a link there with directions. If you aren't on the list I'll send you the directions.


nope, not on it. can you send to me at tracey.bond@adelphia.net? i've never actually *met* any of the canton mamas, but i understand that i may know some from LLL. and of course there is bran, whom I "met" on here, MD and CHE before that got weird (didn't we all?) but have never met IRL.

what day? we've got speech, swimming and soccer on Monday, & what LLL stuff we don't finish tomorrow will need to finish with megmama and swimming on wednesday...(we're cranking hard to get her Leader training done by the conference next weekend!)

On a totally OT note, have ya'll ever been to a hotel liquidator? I went today with mamaxt & her neighbor to one out by 6 flags and WOW. I got the grooviest chair and lamp, plus drapes for fabric, WOW. They had king sized down comforters (duvet stuffers) for $25 (I would highly recommend several trips to the dry cleaner first-hotel bedding is the definition of SKANKY but that can be cleaned)! They had lamps for $10 and headboards as low as $35-and they had mini cherry wood fridge/mini bars for $36. Totally cool stuff if you dig thrifting (we all do). Wall art for $19 and up...I was all about one but it was $79 and I think I am going to actually set my easel up now that we bought the house and do my own art for the house, but totally groovy stuff for supa cheap!

I'll send the directions and an invite for the group

thanks! :flowerkit

nope, not on it. can you send to me at tracey.bond@adelphia.net? i've never actually *met* any of the canton mamas, but i understand that i may know some from LLL. and of course there is bran, whom I "met" on here, MD and CHE before that got weird (didn't we all?) but have never met IRL.

what day? we've got speech, swimming and soccer on Monday, & what LLL stuff we don't finish tomorrow will need to finish with megmama and swimming on wednesday...(we're cranking hard to get her Leader training done by the conference next weekend!)

On a totally OT note, have ya'll ever been to a hotel liquidator? I went today with mamaxt & her neighbor to one out by 6 flags and WOW. I got the grooviest chair and lamp, plus drapes for fabric, WOW. They had king sized down comforters (duvet stuffers) for $25 (I would highly recommend several trips to the dry cleaner first-hotel bedding is the definition of SKANKY but that can be cleaned)! They had lamps for $10 and headboards as low as $35-and they had mini cherry wood fridge/mini bars for $36. Totally cool stuff if you dig thrifting (we all do). Wall art for $19 and up...I was all about one but it was $79 and I think I am going to actually set my easel up now that we bought the house and do my own art for the house, but totally groovy stuff for supa cheap!
hey, lmk next time you guys go (give me 2 weeks notice to make some room on my credit card), i LOVE thrifting but never get to go anymore

hey, lmk next time you guys go (give me 2 weeks notice to make some room on my credit card), i LOVE thrifting but never get to go anymore

:lol: about your credit card. BTDT mama. My Charles ran into the garage at the old house trying to avoid hail on his new (November) truck, the DAY we put the offer on this house...he keeps trying to save up to fix it and um, I keep shopping. It's the whole right side of the bed! DOH. Poor guy has a wife with a *need* to decorate the new house. Double DOH.

Will let you know-I'll mention to them that we need to plan for it. I found out on wed or thurs that they were going.

I'm always at the goodwill here in cumming but honestly have better luck down in roswell where the rich people dump gold (or so it seems). :bow: to the roswell thrifts...

:lol: about your credit card. BTDT mama. My Charles ran into the garage at the old house trying to avoid hail on his new (November) truck, the DAY we put the offer on this house...he keeps trying to save up to fix it and um, I keep shopping. It's the whole right side of the bed! DOH. Poor guy has a wife with a *need* to decorate the new house. Double DOH.

Will let you know-I'll mention to them that we need to plan for it. I found out on wed or thurs that they were going.

I'm always at the goodwill here in cumming but honestly have better luck down in roswell where the rich people dump gold (or so it seems). :bow: to the roswell thrifts...


i have never been to roswell thrifts (i have stayed at home so much since having lylly) it would be nice to get out with another mama so that if the kids act out then we could help each other. i miss thrifting so much!

it's a date then (without a date, LOL). Next time I need to go I'll LYK a bit in advance and we'll go.

I too like to go with another mama. Mamaxt and I used to shop together all the time but our particular mix of kids are WILD together, in public or private, so we try to avoid public together unless one or both of us can leave kids with daddy. But apart our kids are all pretty ok in public, how funny is that? LOL.

Still holding out for the farmers market too ;)

yep bri is like that with some friends. I swear she does know how to act in public, she just choses not to at times

So where did you ladies get the pics in your sigs that look like south park characters?
Looks cool I want one of my very own LOL

andy starts his new job this week, so as soon as he gets his first paycheck i will be ready for the trek to dekalb :D

check this thread for the link and instructs:
http://www.amitymama.com/vb/showthread.php?t=235557&highlight=south+park

new job? is all well and good mama?

yes very good so far. he was laid off last week, so we hope this job will be permanent and that they will have good benefits. of course he and his father just started buying foreclosures to fix and resell and they got their first house last week, and the lady is suing the bank for foreclosing on her house - so now we dont know whats going to happen - if and when they can resell it.

oh now THAT is cool. Charles wants us to get into that-if he ever meets Andy he'll have a ton of ??'s I'm sure.

dude you totally didn't need a layoff in the midst of all your stuff. i admire your positive take on it! me, I'd be b!tchy all over myself and my family too. i kind of have a b!tch streak though :lol: but in a cute way ;)

Off to find some woozy stuff for my back/shoulders. yow.

Dylan has pointed out to me (and rightfully so) that the Little Scientists books by Dr. Heidi Gold-Dworkin are explanatory and cohesive. Well, not his words, but he said "Mom, we *do* have books like what you're talking about. Here. Look." My mom gave them to D for his birthday. They are good, and we've used them before at his request, but we never made them an official part of the school day. They're not as in-depth as the Real Science, but I think they're great for right now. I'd probably want to go a little more rigorous (since D loves science) sometime next fall-ish, but these are pretty fab.

http://www.little-scientists.com/default.htm

I don't know that I'd go much past 2nd grade with them, but they may just work for my house for this year. We're doing Chemistry now that D has pointed it out, and we'll see where it goes. Although when I say we're doing chemistry, what I mean is we will do Chemistry as soon as the garden is underway and/or on rainy days. Right now, science is our yard. We caught a snake yesterday and learned about poisonous/non-poisonous snakes, what snakes eat, snake habitats.

Y'all are welcome to look at or borrow any of them except Chemistry. ;)

I need to start figuring out a curriculum for Lindsey. Darn kid isn't even 4 and is begging for "workbook time" and all that crap :lol: