Cabin In The Woods: Our Home School Downfall

Friday, January 11, 2013

Our Home School Downfall - Science

I will be the first to admit that we are weakest in the area of Science. Neither me or Grace is very interested in the topics that fall under Science. In her younger years I thought she would be more interested in nature study and journaling, but she never was, which translates to not much getting done. We did do the Apologia series for elementary students (Zoology 1, Zoology 3, and Anatomy) and we are currently waiting on Zoology 2 for a review for the Crew. So far this year we did a small study on volcanoes, weather, and its and bits of topics that I felt she needed to know. Though I bet she doesn't remember any of it. Today was to be the start of a class on electricity with a friend of mine but enough kids didn't sign up so it got canceled. That made me frantically yesterday start looking for something interesting she could do. I actually found some interesting stuff.

I have zeroed in on the four above books. As you can see we are not in to using textbooks for our subjects. We would rather read a good book and put our information that is learned down into note booking or art journaling pages. Today we are starting with I Wish I Knew Science with atoms and some chemistry information. The manga guide has all sorts of titles (physics, chemistry, electricity, and so many more) which made it hard to choose. Of course Grace is still crazy about all things manga/anime so I am hoping that one will appeal to her the most. Getting through these four books will probably take us the better part of 6-8 months along with any science review materials we need to review for the Review Crew. I know there are at least two more science reviews that are coming up this year we can try to be a part of.

I will post soon some of the note booking pages we create with the above books.

3 comments:

Nicole said...: I personally think you can learn much more reading something interesting about science, and maybe doing something hands-on to reinforce it, than reading a textbook, answering questions, and taking a test. That's how we do things, too!!; January 11, 2013 at 4:41 PM
Erin D - The Usual Mayhem said...: You might want to take a look at History of Science by Beautiful Feet Books. We have it, and it's very much in the learning style that I think you, Nicole, and I all apply. M really enjoys it. It actually uses a couple of the books you mentioned there, too.; January 12, 2013 at 7:39 AM
Sue Elvis said...: Diane,

I have been pondering high school science as that's this month's theme for the homeschooling high school carnival I participate in.

I love the look of the books you have chosen to use with your daughter. We have the last two but I'm going to track down the others. Thank you for sharing.

I really feel children learn so much more from reading good interesting books rather than using textbooks. I don't see the sense in completing a structured course that doesn't appeal just because children are supposed to study science. As you said, they might not remember any of it. It could be a waste of time.

I've been enjoying your blog and posts!; January 31, 2013 at 3:46 PM