Multisensory curriculum

[jabuford]

I am looking at History Odyssey Ancients 2nd year for History next year. Noeo science for science. My children will be 5th and 7th grade. Are these curricula multisensory?

Thanks

[Sue in St Pete]

We used Noeo Biology 2 for 5th grade science and are currently using HO Ancients 2 for 6th grade history (we're a year behind).

I would not consider either of these multi-sensory.

Noeo might be considered multi-sensory if you take into account the experiments, although many were fairly lame, like looking at dust under a microscope. Some were good though. The body book was all cut-and-paste. Do your kids like cut-and-paste-and-color? Mostly, Noeo was reading 2 pages in the Science Encyclopedia and writing a paragraph about it.

History Odyssey is similar because it is a lot of: read 2 pages in Kingfisher, write a summary or outline, fill in the map, fill in the timeline, keep track of the major characters. They use 2 history pockets. Do your children like cut-and-paste-and-color? That's what they mostly are. I must admit that the depth of material is much greater in HO than in Noeo.

I have more detailed reviews of both these curriculums. Email me if you would like them.

[Lorna]

If you would like to look at another multi-sensory science curriculum, we are dong Ellen McHenry's 'The Elements'. It is for fourth to eighth grade. It has: games, experiments and skipping and hand-clapping songs. What I like about it is that it is by no means dumbed down either. I have yet to find a chemistry curriculum that properly explains everything using real scientific language and symbols at this stage.
There is a link to her curriculum in my signature (click on 'science'). She also has lots of free downloads on her site and so you can great a great idea of they way she does things from them and add them into your current curriculum. She sells the cds for the clapping, skipping songs separately but they also come as part of the curriculum if you decide to go with that. She is also extremely helpful!

[Sue in St Pete]

Hi Lorna,

Would you elaborate more on The Elements? It looks very interesting. I have a 12yo still wiggly boy. But, arts-and-crafts are not his thing. We used to do the Shurley jingles a few years ago, but he might be too old to do skipping and clapping now.

[Lorna]

The Elements (http://ellenjmchenry.com/id25.html)

It has a teacher's manual with activities such as periodic table trading cards; 'symbol jars' where you guess what element is 'inside' the jar; very do-able experiments (such as water electrolysis with pencil stubs and a 9-volt battery); a periodic table jump-rope rhyme (with an MP3 file to help you learn it at the beginning); hand-clapping rhyme (also with an MP3 on an accompanying cd); making an electron cloud model using balloons; making a periodic table pillowcase cover; skits (short plays about the discovery of elements etc.); a good bibliography and online activities and so much more. There is a student workbook with beautifully done cartoons and written in a very engaging manner.
All the activities are ready for you to just cut out and play/make/do. She sells it either printed out or on disc. It really is quite exceptional.
You can take a look at the first chapter of it on her website, but the actual curriculum has a surprising amount. Look under the free downloads (http://ellenjmchenry.com/id72.html) too to see a few of the activities.
I just wish she had more of these for the future!
Please ask if you have any questions.
Best wishes,
Lorna