Posted by erica on 21:12 Jul 4
In Reply to: 4th grade science (m) posted by Dana in NC
It looks very light, and the work is very quick, but it's excellent for critical thinking -- the answers to the workbook questions are not all regurgitation, and they expect you to remember what you learned last year. I also like the way they're organized... so that each unit actually does stick together rather well, and follow from what precedes it, even though it's not all "life science" or "physics" or something.
Since the lessons are so brief, they are very easy to supplement -- so you can do the activity book and the workbook for "evidence" if you need it, but then you can pick up a dozen more books at the library and go off on whatever tangent it inspires. And the experiments are almost all very homeschool-friendly, with some very minor adaptations (like you don't need a retort stand just to hang a magnet on a string! LOL)
If your kids had the math background I would say you could skip to Interactive (middle school), but the math in a couple sections is pretty heavy... It matches up rather well with the level of Singapore Primary 6A or 6B I think. And it is NOT childish at all! Interactive's experiments are less homeschool friendly... not terrible, just not grocery store stuff. Still worth doing, certainly, but there will be a couple to just skip altogether and a couple where you might think "I could do that more easily with ___" instead of buying one thing that you only need for that... kwim?
I think what I would do if your boys are not ready for the math of Interactive would be to buy all the books of My Pals Are Here (they're pretty cheap) and supplement with library books and whatnot to stretch it out until they are ready for Interactive. Skip what needs skipping and run off on tangents when the interest is there.