Science

My younger two and I are so excited ---- the new Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology book is FINALLY out (well almost - it is due to be shipped on or about 4/23) We have been waiting a whole year for this book. It was suppose to be out last November but got delayed due to a redesign by the publisher.

I will let you know how we like it once it arrives. I broke down this year and actually also bought the notebook journal to go with the curriculum. Whooo hooo!!! Eagerly awaiting its arrival.

more frustrations with TOG

This is just a never ending saga.

Here is the latest thrilling discovery of the new digital version of TOG year 4:

Last year during the redesign process, they put the Poetics and Frameworks on their website - on the Loom. You had to log into your account (therefore, only those authorized were able to get the documents). Then it was downloaded as a PDF file. Many of us do not like reading on the computer screen and we chose to print this document. Depending on what printer a person has and what type of ink utilized, many times it is cheaper to take the PDF file to Kinko's to be printed.

Well, the new change is that everything is now protected by Locklizard and therefore can not be taken to Kinko's to be printed. When I say everything, this also means the whole digital version of the curriculum. On many homeschool yahoo groups there has been talk about buying the digital and taking it to a local printer - possibly just printing certain pages such as the teacher's notes. YOU CAN'T DO THAT! Locklizard prevents it. While we as customers have purchased this product we do not really own it - in my opinion we are renting it for a year. If it was truly mine I would have rights to take it to be printed if I so chose to pay that money.

Interesting take by another company on the frustrations that Locklizard caused their customers can be read here:

http://blog.ine.com//2008/07/30/bye-bye-locklizard/

In essence it is a balancing act between protecting the author's hard work and yet not causing undue frustrations to customers. What I believe TOG has not learned is that good companies do not tip this balance too far the direction of protection because customers will stop being customers. So far, while the customer service reps at TOG are nice when I share my concerns and issues, they can do nothing about them. This is the direction the company is taking - and that is that. As a customer of TOG for the last 8 years, I can say it is a very bad direction. I used to be such a supporter of TOG that I hosted teas for them. I gained nothing financially but just felt that strongly in the product. Now I blog to warn others away. If you are in the process of deciding between something else and TOG --- please let this tip the balance in the other curriculum's direction. TOG has turned into a product that will give you major headaches.

More frustrations with TOG

I emailed them back on July 9th to ask to have the pages numbers for the R level literature readings in Poetics and Frameworks for both year 3 and year 4 redesign. I was pretty firm in letting them know I did not want to upgrade my curriculum but just wanted to utilize the curriculum I had and in order to do that I needed to have the page numbers of the assignments. I never did find this information for year 3 redesign and just never did do Poetics and Frameworks last year. Since this year we are in a co-op, I will need to have my son do all the assigned readings as they will be discussed and therefore we need to know what those actual assignments are.

Guess what, I haven't heard from them so far. No response so far. Not very good customer service to have such a long delay in answering a customer's concerns / questions.

I can't tell you how frustrating I find that company to be. I wonder just how long I will have to wait for an answer. I also wonder if I was looking to upgrade if I would get faster service!!

latest frustration with TOG curriculum

Okay, my latest frustration with the TOG redesign digital -----

They have listed in their R level literature readings in Poetics and Frameworks but in the curriculum it doesn't tell you what information to read. So I emailed them to ask this simple question and the answer I got back was to check out their new Beta Version DE. Excuse me????

I just want to have the page numbers to read so I can schedule the readings for my son. If I wanted to go so far as to have to decided what belongs with each week I would write my own curriculum and not buy a curriculum. I feel this is an assignment in the current curriculum I own and that it should clearly tell me what that assignment is. I don't feel I should have to 'figure it out on my own'. And more importantly, I shouldn't have to pay for a new version to get the reading assignments listed plainly --- with page numbers.

I read their response to me and was furious. I had to wait to respond and ask the same question again - this time clearly letting them know I am not interested in buying an upgrade but just wanted to know the page numbers of the reading assignments listed in my current curriculum. Too much to ask???

What we do

Lately I have had several homeschoolers asking what we use for curriculum. I thought I would share some of what has worked well for us. I do want to add a note here: there are LOTS of choices out there for homeschoolers. What works for us might not work for you. Each family is different and each child is different. I have found that things that worked for one child, don't necessarily work with the next child. So with that said I will share what we have found to work for our family. I will also try to share what we like and why. This might help add some insight as to whether or not it would work for you. 

For math - we use Bob Jones workbooks for the younger years (K-3rd grade) and then I put them into Saxon 5/4. We do use the Dive cd's for the teaching aspect. Those are fabulous and allow the student to work very independently. My children then only need help once in a while when I can tell they are getting the same kinds of problems wrong -- and so it is a concept they are missing - not just a mistake. Saxon seems to be a curriculum where you either love it or hate it. It seems to be one extreme or the other. It works very well for my boys but I know many people dislike it. Saxon is secular - but in math I am not so sure that matters. I do find that students that use Saxon tend to really know their math. 

For science - in the younger years we use Apologia's Exploring Creation books - by Jeannie K. Fulbright. We love them. They are fabulous. And we tend to lapbook them. My two youngest are doing the Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day. I back it up with more books from the library on the various animals --- so they are getting a fairly good in depth study of animals. Then we do a lapbook piece for many of the animals we studied. Not all of them but many of them. Here is a site that we get a bunch of stuff (free) for lapbooking. 

Lapbooking animals

For my older son - we also use Apologia - he is just finishing up Physical Science this month and will then begin biology. We would take the summer off but I found a great on line class (yep - virtual stuff again) that helps to teach this course and he wants to do it. He would rather not have time off and be part of the on line class then take the time off and have to do it all on his own. 

Apologia recommends - General science for 7th graders 

Physical science is recommended for 8th grade

Biology is recommended for 9th grade. 

After that the student will have a couple of things to then choose from - such as chemistry, Marine Biology, or Physics. Here is the site that explains more about Apologia (but don't buy there - you can get it cheaper through Rainbow Resources or Pennywise Learning - but this has a nice layout and explanation of the product. I bought the biology through Rainbow Resources because they also have the dissection kits and slides for the microscope that we needed.)

 

Apologia Science

One of the reasons we like Apologia is that it is one of the few science curriculums that teaches that God made the world and while the Theory of Evolution is explained it is clear the authors are creationists. The author also lends toward a young earth view point. If that is not the view that you want to teach, then Apologia is probably not the curriculum for your family. 

I will continue this subject in the next post or so. I have to run get kids to bed.