Edexcel IGCSE Biology Books

Posted on August 30, 2023 by ofamily

The Edexcel International GCSE Biology exam is one of the exams that we are working towards writing this year. I know quite a few home educators like to do it in 1 year but for a number of reasons we opted to do it over 2 years, so that being the case we have already spend a year working on it and have found which resources work for us. (I very much agree with the idea that just because certain resources work for one kid does not mean they will work for others but I also know how helpful it is to read what others are finding useful so this is our list of what we are finding useful for our Edexcel IGCSE Biology prep work.)

Okay our main book and the one we can not do without is the Hodder Education International GCSE Biology Student book. This is our text book – the one with all the explanations and information in it and really if you get just one book it is this one. As much as I like the GCP Book that I mention below, it is a summary book and it does not include the same amount of information and detail as this one does. And after looking at questions the kids actually need this detail. We are totally happy with the explanations included in here, nothing is ambiguous, and 90% of the time my daughter works through it totally independently. They do also include questions for the kids to practice on and the answers are free to download from the website. Really everything you are going to need.

  • Hodder Education Edexcel International GCSE Biology Student Book
  • Hodder Education Edexcel International GCSE Biology Student Book
  • Hodder Education Edexcel International GCSE Biology Student Book
  • Hodder Education Edexcel International GCSE Biology Student Book

Okay the CGP Edexcel IGCSE Biology book is a Revision Book. We use it as a Summary book and it is just the way my daughter likes to learn she likes having a summary books for all of her subjects that she can read once she finishes the topic. But I want to stress as much as we like this book it does not contain the detail of the Hodder book I mentioned above.

Okay then our Edexcel IGCSE Biology Workbook. There are questions in the Hodder Book but I am just one of those home educators who believes the more the kids get to practice answering the questions the more confident they will be. So that is why we opted for a workbook. There are no explanations in this it is straight forward questions on the topics that the kids need to cover and there are answers at the back of the book. For me this is the 2nd must have book after the main Hodder student book.

  • CGP Edexcel IGCSE Biology Workbook
  • CGP Edexcel IGCSE Biology Workbook
  • CGP Edexcel IGCSE Biology Workbook

And our last book is the CGP Edexcel International GCSE Biology ten minute test book. We do the quick tests in here as revision and a way of making sure we understood everything. They really are very quick tests and they do highlight if there is something that we need to go back and visit.

And lastly we are also using the Cognito site for Biology (we also use it for Physics and Maths). I have not paid for the premium version and we are just using the free version but we do find it useful. There are explanations and some questions on there.

For those of you who want Amazon links these are the books mentioned in the post

Just to update – my daughter has sat her exams and she got an 8 (just 2 marks short of a 9)

Admin- I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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The Best KS3 History Books

Posted on August 27, 2023 by ofamily

I have written a few posts about these books but with everyone starting to think about which books to buy for their new home education year I feel like it is worth mentioning this series again. This series is my ultimate best History buy (and we have bought quite a few different history books for our History crazy daughter). It is the Oxford Aaron Wilkes History series for KS3 which consists of these three history books – Invasion, Plague and Murder (Britain 1066 – 1558), Revolution, Industry and Empire (Britain 1558 – 1901) and Technology, War and Independence (1901 – Present day).

These 3 books are really everything you are going to need for your KS3 History. Everything. And in all honesty I have looked at other History books for KS3 (which is the UK school years of 7, 8 and 9) and the other options just do not match up. And by this I mean they don’t match up in terms of both content (the information they include) and questions included in the books.

Content – I have found these books include more information than other books but the important part is the way in which they information is communicated to the kids. They use cute cartoon strips, lots of diagrams and key boxes, it makes the pages inviting. So although there is a lot of information in these books it is set out in a really reader-friendly format. Easy to read without getting overwhelmed and you walk away having gained a lot of important facts and knowledge. Really a good format.

  • The Oxford KS3 History Book Invasion, Plague and Murder. Britain 1066-1558
  • Invasion, Plague and Murder. Oxford KS3 History book includes detailed drawings and comic book strips to explain events
  • Revolution, Industry and Empire. Tudor Makeup KS3 History book by Aaron Wilkes

The other key point about these books is the longer questions which they include at the end of each chapter. Not only do they include great sample questions but they have step-by-step guidance on how the kids should go about formulating and setting out their answers. These end of the chapter questions and the step-by-step answer guides are something that I have been so impressed with. And as a mom who now has a kid preparing for her IGCSE History exam I am so glad we spent the KS3 years working through these questions and building up the skills on how to tackle longer answers.

  • Literacy Focus page from the Key Stage 3 History book by Oxford
  • History Skills page from KS3 History book from Oxford University Press

This entire series is really one of the best education resources that we ever invested in. We highly recommend this series.

For anyone who wants the Amazon links for these amazing books here they are

Book 1 (ideal for Year 7) – Invasion, Plague and Murder (Britain 1066 – 1558)

Book 2 (ideal for Year 8) – Revolution, Industry and Empire (Britain 1558 – 1901)

Book 3 (ideal for Year 9) – Technology, War and Independence (1901 – Present day)

Admin – I do sometimes Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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Top Two English Lit books for Year 7

Posted on August 24, 2023 by ofamily

When I was trying to choose our English Literature units for my son’s Year 8 I ended up thinking a lot about the English Literature units that we have already worked through and the ones that were the biggest successes with my kids (I like to try and choose books that will really engage the kids). Just to clarify I am not talking about the books that the kids read in their own time, I mean the books that we read together and then use for English activities.

Two books that I really stick in my memory as being brilliant are these two – Sky Hawk and Bug Muldoon.

Both books were gems and both books are books that we still sometimes mention and refer back to (that for me is always a great indicator of when a book has truly ignited something in the kids minds).

Okay so why do these books stand out for us. Sky Hawk was an incredibly moving story which deals with friendship and kids overcoming obstacles. It was beautifully written and we loved the fact that the story revolves around an Osprey. This book was the first book that we ever read by Gill Lewis and after we had finished it both of my kids went on a bit of a Gill Lewis reading craze and just devoured book after book after book. She ended up becoming a favourite author in our house.

As a home educator I felt like this book fitted in with Year 7 ages. The writing style and also the topics that it covered, for us, it did just slot really nicely into that age range and it meant that the kids were old enough to have some proper discussions about being a true friend, what a bully is and other things like judging a person based on their income verses judging a person based on who they are. For me if there is only one book that you read with your kids in year 7 then this is the one. (And bonus it is part of the Rollercoaster series so there are free lesson plans and worksheets that you may find useful). Oh and I want to say all three of us really enjoyed this book (my daughter, my son and myself).

The Second one that really stand out for me as a fun Year 7 book is Bug Muldoon and the Garden of Fear. And the reason that this one stands out was because the writer did such an amazing job making this funny, engaging and so entertaining. I mean come on, a bug who is a private investigator and goes around solving crimes in someone’s back garden, you just know it is going to have the kids giggling along. When we were reading it as one of our books my son would often read ahead just because he could not wait until the next day. He enjoyed it so much that he went on to read the next book in the series and he got his sister to read it as well (she also really enjoyed the book). Oh an this is also part of the Rollercoaster series so there are also free to download resources.

The two books that I mentioned are two very different books, but I like that. I like finding books that deal with different topics and are written in different writing styles.

All three of us highly recommend these two books. We think they are both engaging, well written stories, stories that will make you want to continue reading page after page.

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Edexcel IGCSE History books

Posted on August 22, 2023 by ofamily

We have been working on our IGCSE History topics for a year now and are planning on writing the exam this year. History is a bit different to other subjects because you can’t just buy one student book which covers all the topics, you actually select topics yourself and they buy a book which covers that topic. There are 2 papers and you need to select 2 different topics for each paper but you get quite a good selection of different topics to choose from. For Paper 1 there are 8 topics and you only need to select 2. Now if you think about that if they put all 8 of those into 1 book that would be a monster book so multiple smaller books do make sense.

For paper 1 we started off with choosing Dictatorship and Conflict in the USSR and then we also selected A World Divided Superpower relations. Now with both of those I first selected The Pearson published Student books (Pearson History Dictatorship and Conflict in the USSR and Pearson History A World Divided: Superpower Relations).

And I think these books are excellent (I have gone on and bought them for all of our History Topics that we have selected) but while we were working through the topic I did feel like it would be good to have a second source. I think that may stem from the fact that we have are new at doing IGCSE History and possibly I was just a bit nervous that I may miss something. And I think it also stems from the fact that I did not find as many online History resources as I did for our IGCSE Biology and our IGCSE Physics. Possibly also because my daughter is the kind of student you actually prefers using books for her learning than online. Okay it was probably all of these reasons combined but I did feel like two books for each topic would be better than just the one.

So for our Second book I got us the Hodder Book – Edexcel International GCSE History Paper 1 Depth Studies and this books covered both of the paper 1 topics that we had selected.

Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History Depth Study Book. Exam material for Paper 1

Now I am going to be really honest here. The Hodder book (this one above) is more summarized, (so because we are using them together we tend to read the Pearson published ones first, my daughter actually uses those ones to make notes for herself and then later on she comes and reads this one). But I also found that both books did contain little bits of information that the other one had excluded (so content wise they are not exactly the same). And the way the deal with answering questions and the tips they give you are different. I really liked this about them. The fact that we have 2 books means we get two sets of practice questions and two sets on sample answers which for us is a massive help. We really like both of them and think they work well together but if we had to be pushed and could only choose one book for each topic then I would go with the Pearson ones I mentioned first. And that is because I feel like they go into more detail and include more practice questions.

For us, combining the two books together for each topic really does work well and I feel like it helps to ensure we are covering our topics well.

So just for clarity purposes – this is the combination we are using for the paper 1 topic – Dictatorship and Conflict in the USSR

And this is the combination we are using for the Paper 1 topic – A World Divided: Superpower Relations

(Oh and on a separate note we have found doing these two topics works well together, having some knowledge on the Cold War helps with the USSR topic and having knowledge on the USSR helps with the Cold War topic).

Just to clarify for those interested these are the books that I mentioned in the post.

Pearson History Dictatorship and Conflict in the USSR

Pearson History A World Divided: Superpower Relations

Hodder Education – Edexcel International GCSE History Paper 1 Depth Studies

For more ideas on IGCSE books that we have been using are recommend look here – GCSE/IGCSE

Admin – I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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Starting Year 8 Science

Posted on August 17, 2023 by ofamily

Science is one of the subjects that we are doing a bit differently this year. When my oldest did her Science my son would always sit and listen and often even ended up doing worksheets alongside his sister. So he actually has already covered quite a bit of the Science that he would in theory need to do this year. But at the same time my son is someone who needs to be challenged so I am not just going to say Science is done lets leave it alone. Instead we are going to add in some extras and hopefully challenge him a bit more.

The idea of Science is 3 parts – firstly we will revise / go over a few sections that I think he needs to look at. For this we will use the Activate 2 range. Out of all the KS3 Science books this range is my favourite to use with my kids – it is easy to use – the explanations are concise and they have workbooks which link it to the student books. So my son tends to read the explanation page in the student book and then he will do the corresponding page in this workbook and he marks it himself (answers are at the back of the workbooks). This will be revision for him but I feel like there are a few sections we need to revise so we will do that.

  • Activate 2 Student Book Year 8 Science resource
  • Activate 2 Student Book. KS3 Science. Year 8 book
  • Activate 2 Workbooks. Foundation and Higher. Year 8 Science
  • Activate 2 workbook Photosynthesis. Higher workbook
    Higher Workbook

Sticking with the idea of revising what he already did with his sister I want to also include some “more relaxed” methods. So we will be digging out our KS3 Biology Scramble game and playing that. Oaka Books have board games for Chemistry and Physics for KS3 but as this stage I just have the Biology one. We have used this game before and both my kids really enjoyed it (In fact I have to say we have used a LOT of the Oaka Board games and they have all been big hits with my kids and myself). But honestly if you are looking for a more relaxed way to revise some Science then you should really look at these games.

  • Biology Scramble Board game for KS3 from Oaka Books
  • Biology Scramble Board game for KS3 from Oaka Books

Then he will continue with the weekly home education Science lessons from Theatre of Science. He enjoys these lessons and I love the way Lara does them. She takes a topic and they work on it for 6 weeks so she goes into quite a bit of detail. During her lesson she explains the topic, often does some sort of activity with the kids and then she normally provides a worksheet with some questions which the kids work through and she then goes through the answers. It is roughly 45 minutes long and it is really well done. I really recommend this.

ofamily learning together

And then thirdly something a bit different. We are going to start working through the IGCSE subject Environmental Management. I am not sure if he will write the exam but the topics they cover under Environmental Management are topics that really interest him. So I thought why not, it will challenge him and he will find it interesting. I will still deciding which resources we will will use for this but I will share a post once I have them.

So our Year 8 Science will be a bit different this year, some revision of what he already covered due to the fact that he enjoyed working with his older sister, some fun lessons from Threatre of Science and some new challenging topics under Environmental Management.

If you want to see what resources we used with my daughter in her Year 8 this is that post – Year 8 Science.

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