I was a bit nervous about Chemistry because I couldn't remember much about it. I know I took 4 semesters in college, and I even tutored it, so it must be in there somewhere!
It is all coming back, and I'm having a great time with it - the particular set of kids I'm working with probably helps!
I looked through about six books before deciding how to structure the class. Both traditional textbooks were so junky, I won't mention the names.
My favorite, and the best for self teaching IMHO, was Homework Helpers Chemistry. Clear and concise, it reads like a tutoring session. The next best (and still excellent) was Chemistry Concepts and Problems, a Self Teaching Guide. This was very good, but it did not fit quite as well into the way my brain works. It also seems to have gone out of print in the last 6 months, but is widely available used.
I am also using The Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Chemistry. Fun, well done, but a bit more basic. Great for teaching Chemistry in middle school, and it gives me ideas about how to present things. Also nice when I can't remember a term!
Those are the books I'm using for me, the class itself is centered around the Home Scientist's Home School Chemistry Kit and Manual. The manual can be downloaded for free here. Be warned: the manual is over 250 pages! I had been planning to buy a different, more expensive kit, but looking through their manual, I realized that I could build the entire course around their experiments.
So we have a very lab centered, hands-on (FUN!) chemistry course with extra explanations as we go. What I love about this, is that all information given is immediately useful, and therefore more readily remembered. The proof is in the pudding, I guess, they are being graded on a real world scale: the success of their experiments and the completeness of their lab books.
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