[ViolaMum]

Originally Posted by marbles

Partly, I don’t know. This is my first child so a lot of this is very new. I want something fun and interesting and that doesn’t jump around too much. We’ve done astronomy, anatomy, backyard ecosystem, but just on my own and I was hoping to cover things like living things and matter and scientific method. General science.

A great book for learning the scientific method at that age is How to think like a scientist. by Stephen Cramer.

Noeo is great if you want a literature-based approach. It's classical/Charlotte Mason-y science divided by subject, though, not general science (Biology, Physics, Chemistry). We've done several levels. Then Chem and Physics spine books are super fun to have on hand. The experiments are explained well and not hard at all to do; I had most of the household supplies around and anything else was easy enough to find.

Sassafrass covers the topics decently but is poorly written. Last time I looked at it, the copy editing was AWFUL. They may have done a re-write since then, though.

A similar approach is the Quark Chronicles - the story line is much better and it's better writing and editing, but you need to find the supplemental materials. Much of it can just be from library books - read the chapter to get the overall concept, then go to the library to flesh out the details. I bought the notebooking book the first year just to get the hang of it. It's got great booklists.

Ellen J McHenry's stuff is information-packed, but also organized by topic. Units tend to be shorter, than other programs but can be stretched out a lot. She has loads of games and projects that are fun for younger kids, but they can get very involved. It worked a little better for my younger kids to tag along than to do them on their own.

If you can find them in print, the Backyard Scientist series is fabulous for kids that age.