Which Science Curriculum is considered rigorous?

[butterfly113]

I had considered starting Apologia Sciences in 5th, working towards middle and high school, yet have read a few times that it is not really considered to be as rigorous... hhmmmm....
What else would you consider... to really prepare them for what is needed in high school?

[Karin]

Honestly, I just think a lot of good science will prepare a child for rigorous high school science. For good quality science material, we've found RS4K good. After I there is now a RS4K Chem II for jr high level that is excellent. But by the time we discovered this, my eldest was past that. My eldest has a fabulous handle on science and did it mostly on her own because she loves it. We have some science encyclopedias, used our library, and used various and sundry other things. We took a few homeschool science classes for lab work.

We also do a lot of math around here, and she's doing a rigorous Algebra program in gr 8 to help prepare her for next year.

I'm sure you'll get some more specific course recommendations, but dd is one eg of a child who did it because it is a passion of hers. In fact, she learned more this way than if I'd done a specific program because I'd have taken the joy out of it. NOT a very WTM way, of course, but we were busy doing that way in other areas. For my younger dd, doing the same science all year (classical way) is too boring (she loves history, not science.) I will say that the RS4K has been the most successful with her, especially since we bought the history Chem KOGS so she's doing the history that goes along with the chemistry she's covering at the time.

[butterfly113]

thank you karin!

any others?

[Michelle in AL]

I LOVE Holt Science Spectrum Physical Science. It's appropriately rigorous and has all the chemistry foundation you'll need to be prepared for chem & bio. I have the TM and the student text. I'll be using this with dd next yr.

I also really liked RS4Kids Chem level 2. I used that with dd1 and it prepared her well, but had to piece together the physical science with less than satisfactory texts.

[Shari]

There has been a lot of science discussion recently. Check out these threads:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86682

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86856

HTH!