Saturday, January 14, 2012

Science - The Saga Continues....

Well, we've tried WinterPromise Animal Habitats for 2 weeks and decided it's not what we were hoping for.  Ruben hates it.  RileyAnn is tolerating it.  I'm not crazy about it.  I should have known since I'm not a fan of Usborne and DK books as spines.  This was the biggest reason why we didn't stick with Sonlight.

On a positive note, we do really like the One Small Square book we're reading about the Tropical Rain Forest.  I think I'll continue to incorporate the One Small Square series into our Galloping the Globe study.

Tropical Rain Forest

Last night and this morning, I sat down with several science curricula and came up with some random thoughts.  The Apologia Young Explorer series is too advanced for K-2nd in my humble opinion.  I could see if you had an older child, maybe 4th to 6th grade that was using the series, then you could include younger siblings in some of the projects.  But, as a starter for those early grades, I just feel it's too much.  Therefore, we will not be completing "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day" this spring as mentioned in another post.  I put it back on the shelf for a later date.

I spent a great amount of time this morning looking at Answers in Genesis God's Design for Life series and I really think it will work for us.  AIG recommends doing 3 lessons per week to complete the 3 book series in one school year.  I think I will break them up to 2 books per school year.  I'm leaning toward completing The World of Plants this summer/fall, followed by The Animal Kingdom.  Then we may do The Human Body the following year.  I'll keep you posted on this when the time comes.



For now, I've decided to write my own curricula using Among the Farmyard People by Clara Dillingham Pierson. You can read the book free here.  We own a couple of books in the Among the....People series and they are so cute and cleverly written with a moral or character lesson in each chapter.  Riley and Ruben have wanted me to read this aloud for some time.  RileyAnn wanted another science study like the Simply Charlotte Mason Outdoor Secrets study we just finished.  So, I spent the afternoon in a feeble attempt to write one.

[Cover]

I'm planning to use Draw Write Now Book 1, Favorite Poems Old & New, and Bible verses for copywork.  I'll also be pulling some picture books off our shelves for supplemental reading about various animals.

Draw Write Now, Book 1: On the Farm-Kids and Critters-Storybook Characters (Draw-Write-Now)     Favorite Poems Old and New: Selected For Boys and Girls

If this works well, I may publish or post the plans here at a later date.  We'll do a test run first...  :)

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