Singapore Science
Like a lot of homeschooling families I know, I have already started ordering our books for next school year. It was particularly jarring that I was ordering the Primary 4 books from Singapore Math. It's another one of those things I have to count out on my fingers to make certain. Already Myles has been through five years of instruction in Singapore Math. With two years of Kindergarten books, and then the grades one, two, and three, the total is brought to five years. Like our initial move to China, I really thought homeschooling was only going to be temporary.
This year I added Singapore Science into our curriculum mix. We've been very happy with Singapore Math, particularly as it suits Myles' learning style perfectly. It couldn't hurt to try the science books. I have to admit I was initially put off by the series' title, My Pals are Here. It sounded potentially diluted, with kiddy-style over substance. However, I knew that was probably not the case coming from the Singapore publishers.
More after the jump
Similar to the math program, the science program follows a well-ordered, repeated pattern through the years of use. While math follows the same structure year-on-year, the science course takes two years before it returns to the beginning. The five themes are Diversity, Cycles, Systems, Energy, and Interactions. Multiple scientific disciplines are touched upon in each themed book. For instance, in Diversity, the biology lessons deal with classifying living things into their Kingdoms, Phyla, et cetera. That same book also covers methods for identifying and sorting non-living things as well, like an introduction to material science.
It's the multi-disciplinary approach that has sold me on these books. Even if the child does not pursue a STEM career, the foundation laid in this book series is practical for real life. For instance, everyone should be able to identify this failure mode and be able to correct it with the proper substitution or even prevent it in the first place.
At one time, I joked on this very blog that because Randy and I spend so much time discussing metallurgy in our home, that Myles may benefit from that as well. Maybe I was actually right.
Perhaps he is ready to start talking about liquid-phase sintering aids.
This year I added Singapore Science into our curriculum mix. We've been very happy with Singapore Math, particularly as it suits Myles' learning style perfectly. It couldn't hurt to try the science books. I have to admit I was initially put off by the series' title, My Pals are Here. It sounded potentially diluted, with kiddy-style over substance. However, I knew that was probably not the case coming from the Singapore publishers.
More after the jump
Similar to the math program, the science program follows a well-ordered, repeated pattern through the years of use. While math follows the same structure year-on-year, the science course takes two years before it returns to the beginning. The five themes are Diversity, Cycles, Systems, Energy, and Interactions. Multiple scientific disciplines are touched upon in each themed book. For instance, in Diversity, the biology lessons deal with classifying living things into their Kingdoms, Phyla, et cetera. That same book also covers methods for identifying and sorting non-living things as well, like an introduction to material science.
It's the multi-disciplinary approach that has sold me on these books. Even if the child does not pursue a STEM career, the foundation laid in this book series is practical for real life. For instance, everyone should be able to identify this failure mode and be able to correct it with the proper substitution or even prevent it in the first place.
At one time, I joked on this very blog that because Randy and I spend so much time discussing metallurgy in our home, that Myles may benefit from that as well. Maybe I was actually right.
Perhaps he is ready to start talking about liquid-phase sintering aids.
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