Anyone use Singapore Science/My Pals Science Books?

[MissRubyandKen]

I'm thinking of purchasing Singapore Science/My Pals Science Books. They have text and activity books. Has anyone tried them? Love them, not so much? Can you give me a review/recommendation for or against? They look easy to read and colorful with lots of pictures. I think that may appeal to ds who is eight. I'd probably opt for the grade 5/6 rather than the 3/4 because of content. TIA

[mrsjtc]

Didn't even know there was Singapore Science! We LOVE Singapore math. Hope someone has experience to share

[prairiebird]

I am using Singapore My Pals Science for my 9 year old right now. We have just nearly finished working though the Cycles text and activity book, and I bought Diversity for the second half of our year. The reason why I went with it is that I am on my first year of returning to homeschooling after three years (I homeschooled my son for K, but both DH and the school district didn't count it even though he was five- that's another whole yucky story...) As this is my 'convince husband we can do this' year, he wanted me to choose a more school-like format, and we wanted a secular text book.

Okay, my general opinions: I don't mind it too much, and it does help me keep things organized. I chafe at it a bit because sometimes I'm more eclectic and would just like to go with the flow science-wise, and I have a ton of background higher ed in the life sciences/natural history areas, so that colors my opinion. I would probably do something different next year, but maybe not. It can definitely be used as a base for study. However, saying that, I think this is a really good choice for a parent that doesn't have science as a strong point. If you are not science-minded and really would rather prefer having it all out there right in front of you (I know they sell tests/answer books/and other helpful materials for you to use if you need background or answers.)
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Okay, some more specific stuff: It is a 'text book' sort of presentation. The way it's written, it will say to work in small groups or 'your teacher will hand X out', but everything is easily adapted to a single learner. The chapters are short, it's organized well, and terms your child should learn are highlighted and gone over in the chapter end. There are a ton of color pics and illustrations to explain things and side bar activities my son really seems to like.

As you go though the textbook, it'll tell you when to do a lab from the activity book. This is kind of nice if you really need to keep your science organized. For example, CH 3 is "Life Cycle of Plants." It has about three pages of pictures/text/questions in a fairly readable format. At the bottom of the third page, there's an arrow directing you to the activity book for activities 3.1 and 3.2 (I call them labs.) 3.1 is a lab about the growth of seeds. It's set up following the scientific method basically. You don't have to introduce it to them if you're not ready for that, but I like that the labs are set up the same way you might do an experiment when you hit upper-grades/college because they can get used to collecting the data that way.

Anyway, Lab 3.1 takes a bit of set up and then a few weeks of observation to measure the seed. It's like every other seed growth activity in the world, but the workbook is set up with color picture guides and tables already made to collect your data. 3.2 is a shorter lab you can do while the other lab is in progress and is just some questions/thinking activities.

I like that the activity book has perforated pages if I wanted to tear them out, and has holes like notebook paper if I wanted to put it in a ring binder. Some of the activities require equipment that most people don't have laying about the house, so you might have to buy or rent some of it. (We just finished a thing on matter and density and had to borrow a balance and weights/graduated cylinder from the library). Or you could just obviously skip the ones that are too much of a pain to find the equipment for/improvise.

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I'd probably recommend this most for someone who wants to follow a very organized secular science program where you can move at your own pace. This would be good for someone who wants to plan ahead of time for longer periods (and give you time to prep the lab stuff you might need.) It has a nice mix of the natural and physical sciences, and things are explained fairly clearly for someone who is uncomfortable with science. It is a very textbook approach, but it doesn't annoy me too much. There's not pages and pages of dry text- just a few between each activity.

I really like the activities. I thought I would prefer having the kids notebook/lapbook the things they do, but it's really nice, for example, to have the chart already made to record growth data of the plants. And when we did the matter-mass experiment earlier in the week, the kids did the mass lab with the scales, filled in the stuff and answered the more thoughtful questions, and then they went on to do their own little experiments with the equipment to explore and play with it. So the activity book lab was sort of a teaching tool to get them to learn how to use the equipment and think with it, but they could go on and just do more stuff if they show an interest in it.

I hope that helps! I found basically NO info about this when I was looking for secular science programs online, so I wanted to give you some details. I found it when I was buying their Singapore Math books and saw the link for Science on the side. I thought I would give it a try.

I also incorporate Nature Study into our homeschool week as well on top of this program because I think this skips out on that. But that's obviously a personal choice due to my own preferences. I've found this really useful for the more physical science types of things because I would probably end up avoiding them unintentionally since I'm not crazy about matter-mass etc.

ETA: holy long-post, batman! I think this is my longest ever!

[mrsjtc]

Thanks SO much for the great review!

[Madame Pomfrey]

Originally Posted by prairiebird

...However, saying that, I think this is a really good choice for a parent that doesn't have science as a strong point...The chapters are short, it's organized well, and terms your child should learn are highlighted...Some of the activities require equipment that most people don't have laying about the house, so you might have to buy or rent some of it...It is a very textbook approach, but it doesn't annoy me too much...I also incorporate Nature Study into our homeschool week as well on top of this program because I think this skips out on that.

Awesome post prairiebird! How I wish someone had posted something like this when I was looking years ago. Part of me thinks that nobody wants to praise or pan it because the program doesn't really inspire or fail - it's sort of a C+or B-. IMHO

I could ditto just about everything you said except that we had no rental options on equipment so we ended up not doing over half of the activities from the 5th grade activity book.

Overall, it's good for what it is. By 5th grade, most of us want more than just unrelated experiments and Singapore will give you some structure. I would use the textbook parts again and maybe buy the acivity book but supplement with Janice VanCleave's Biology for Every Kid for more home-friendly labs.

...and for some reason, mainstream science books seem to really underestimate nature. Joseph Cornell's Sharing Nature website has some really fabulous activities online - try them as a supplement to any science program.

Prairiebird, you really ought to put your post in the reviews section for reference!

Warm regards,

Lucie