We’ve gone through lots of different things for elementary science and it was fun in K-2nd grade. But now we find most of what we’ve seen geared for primary school is just dull and boring past the 2nd to 3rd grade level. Too slow paced and lacking action for my action packed little boys. As they begged for more science experiments – cause we LOVE those – with some meat, I’ve struggled to find something that will meet their expectations without using chemicals and such that might hurt their less than careful mentalities. The other night I remembered that I have in my library the Apologia 7th grade science program – Exploring Creation through General Science. Our daughter used this when she was in the 7th grade. While the textbook was excellent for her “own your own” reading level and the questions were appropriate for her, we found ourselves delving deeper through research assignments and searching for more challenging experiments. She kept saying “This experiment is cool, but we did it in elementary school. Can’t we do something new?” Of course we didn’t home school the girls through most of elementary school. They went to a private Christian school. Therefore, we had to enhance the experiments as well.

That got me thinking that maybe my 8-½ year old might like that course. Now, it’s too much reading and hand writing for him on his own. So we began yesterday with the first section of the first chapter. I read it to him and he answered orally the “On your own” questions and then we all (little 4 year old brother included) did the experiment and discussion of the findings. He made a laboratory notebook and recorded his findings. It was amazing. They both seemed to really enjoy the experiment. The four year old not so much following the reading and discussion, but the 8 year old really responded well. He got up this morning asking if we could do more. Ha! Now I’ve got bait to get that other seatwork completed. ☺