Saturday, February 28, 2009
REVIEW: Friendly Chemistry
 I grew up in a home where my dad was a chemist and a biologist. My parents even owned a laboratory!! I'm sure that my poor parents were a bit disappointed when I did horribly in high school chemistry!! I tried, but I just was not scientifically inclined! So, now that I have junior and high school level students that really need chemistry, I've been a bit nervous, to say the least! Most of the chemistry courses we've looked into have been boring, straight from the text book type learning (and I just am not too in to that, neither are my children!) So when we were asked if we would like to review Friendly Chemistry, I went straight to their website to see if this was another "boring text book" curriculum. When I visited their website, it was nothing fancy, but what I read certainly sparked my curiosity! This definitely looked like it was anything BUT boring!! So I excitedly said, "Yes! We'd love to use this!" I have to say, we weren't disappointed when it arrived. We received two binders, one for student and one for teacher. We also received many manipulatives used in games that are played throughout the course to help teach and reinforce the concepts taught. There are 32 lessons in this course. They cover everything from atomic theory, quantum mechanics, ion formation, the mole, chemical reactions, and ideal gas laws ~ just to name a handful!!! Each lesson is short and well planned out. In the teacher's binder each lesson starts with a detailed lesson plan and teaching tips. In the student binder, the lesson starts out with a short text to be read, followed by various practice sheets, which are like worksheets, but much more fun! (Since I really don't care for "worksheets", I think these would more accurately labeled as activity sheets!) There are also games to be played with each lesson to further help reinforce the concepts being taught. There are also labs included. The thing I thought was wonderful was that the labs are all done with safe materials, there are no hazardous chemicals or fancy equipment required! (That's a huge plus when there are also younger children in the house too!!) Their theory is that chemistry is found in everything around us so they want their labs to take advantage of the "chemistry phenomena of everyday life materials." I love that! I think it makes everything much more relevant to the student to see real-life application! To view a sample from the teacher and student text, please go HERE. The way that Friendly Chemistry is set up would be wonderful to do with a homeschool co-op. We are not currently involved with a co-op, but I think I just might try to pull this out again when my girls are older and organize a co-op class around this curriculum. The authors, Joey and Lisa Hajda, are homeschool parents themselves...of 10 children! Joey has a doctorate degree in veterinary medicine and a masters degree in secondary and higher education curriculum and instruction. Lisa has a bachelors degree in veterinary science, a masters degree in elementary curriculum and instruction and has completed coursework towards her doctorate in education. Joey has taught science courses at the middle school and high school levels for over 20 years. He has also taught at the local community college level. ~ OK, all I can say is WOW!!!!! Great credentials!!! Friendly Chemistry is definitely one of those wonderful curriculums that I would have NEVER probably found if I wasn't on TOS Homeschool Crew. I am SO thankful that it was something that we reviewed! The curriculum is nothing fancy or frilly, but the way that this chemistry is taught is so unique! Anyone with a high schooler, or in junior high for that matter, that needs a chemistry course, really needs to check this out! I highly recommend it!!! |
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