LLB Chemistry Questions

[Trivium Academy]

I just received my copy today and I have mixed feelings about it. I understand it is more hands-on but I really expected MORE reading, especially it's "living books learning". I'm not very disappointed in the content, just I wish there was more or maybe my thinking is askewed in some way.

There's a page regarding the crux of the unit...a page. Then the biography, which I do love and references to pages in the Kingfisher or Usborne encyclopedias. That's it. I love the vocabulary (not the word find/crosswords), experiments and the student's notebook pages.

I want science to be engaging, interesting and fun to learn. I can't decide if the transition from making our own science lessons to using a curriculum is the root of my uneasiness. I am appreciative that I don't have to "create" something, truly I am. I'm just having a hard time figuring out what if anything needs to be added, and if I DO add something- will it be too much or over dd's head?

Above and beyond what LLB Chemistry has, this is what I think I'll be adding:
- Periodic Table song & poster, possibly game
- DK Eyewitness Chemistry book
- living books about matter, atoms, periodic table, solids, liquids, gases, molecules, acids, bases and salts. I've listed books previously on this board to use for 3rd-4th grade chemistry
- Videos and websites

I also have Janice Van Cleave's Chemistry for Every Kid which about kitchen chemistry geared toward 4th and up that I can pull from. I'm pretty satisfied with the experiments in LLB Chemistry though.

What do you think?

[Karen in CO]

Jessica,
I don't have LLB, but from what you are looking at adding it looks to me like you would be making your own thing again. I think you might be a tweaker or even a maker and not a follower.

:rolleyes:

[Beth in Central TX]

I agree that LLB Chemistry is a very light science program. Other than the experiments, there's not much to it. I didn't add as much as you did because I don't put as much emphasis on science until high school. However, I don't think it's wrong to add to the program like you are doing. We did go to the library for more science books when we used LLB Chemistry, and I also included Men of Science from the Imitation in Writing series.

[Trivium Academy]

I also included Men of Science from the Imitation in Writing series.

We're not quite ready for this but thank you for telling me that you added to LLB Chemistry, we'll be using Writing Tales 1 next year for writing as well as Primary Language Lessons. I'm trying very hard not to get intimidated here! lol.

[Trivium Academy]

I really want to be a follower, it's so much easier! Lol.

[Linda...inOwasso]

Hey Jessica,

I must've missed that you were planning on using LLB Chemistry next year or I would've at least shared my opinion with you. First, I purchased LLB Earth Science & Astronomy for use this year and I was really disappointed. Science isn't my greatest passion so I wanted something put together for me, but this curriculum definitely didn't measure up. I thought the topics were randomly presented and the order seemed highly disorganized to me. So, I rearranged the entire sequence and in that amount of time, I could've just done my own. I am going to design our Chemistry plan for next year (when I get some extra time) because I'm just not comfortable with LLB.

BTW, did your copy of PLL come in? If so, what do you think? I received ours on Monday and love, love, love it!! It's exactly what I've been looking for!

Take care!

[Beth in Central TX]

Oh no, my intent was not to imply you should use that particular writing program or any other writing program for that matter, but just showing you that I felt the need to supplement LLB Chemistry too. Take care,

[WABeth]

We have just begun LLB Chemistry (starting Molecules this week) but so far I am really happy with it. We are adding living books just as you have listed for atoms, periodic table, chemical reactions, etc. It is not hard to find one or two good books from the library for each unit that help round it out a little, but really the activities are good. I am also allowing my dd to visit the recommended web sites which have some fun activities.

Now, to be fair, I should mention that we have accelerated the program to finish it in about 20 weeks, so we are skipping days that only have the student doing a review page or writing definitions and combining those with other days so that we are reading and doing some type of activity almost every day that we do science. Otherwise it may have moved too slowly.

[Trivium Academy]

Hopefully tomorrow PLL will arrive, it's been sent media mail. But with LLB, I think I'm going to just add living books, age-appropriate. I need to sit down and go through the chapters and determine which subjects would be best to add and then go through the list I've created and see if there are books that would cover multiple topics.

I'm still working on the living book list for chemistry for younger kids, I've found more titles. https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1C1J134JIJ7PE/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go
I'll post about it more when I'm completely done. I've decided that I'm not going to put much effort into this, it's why I bought something and I'd rather add a little than have to edit like I felt I would have to do with other programs. I think I got my money's worth for this age, keeping it at the right learning level. It's so tempting to go with a program like Christian Kids Explore Chemistry that is much more involved and rigorous.

I would love to see your lesson plans though!
Thank you Linda

[Trivium Academy]

Thank you Beth for adding about your schedule! I'll take that into consideration when I really read through all the lessons.