Bird Watching on a Hotel Balcony

Unlike History, Science is not my favorite subject. Seems people are wired one way or the other, doesn''t it? I'm a writing/reading girl, not an abstract math/sciences girl. Regardless, science is something that children need to be exposed to and educated in, so there''s just no getting around it. Whether I feel like it or not, we've chosen to educate our children at home and so science must be a part of my life.

It seems I bumbled through the first five years or so of science. We used Considering God''s Creation, which I did love, but which is very hands on (lots of cutting and pasting) and while one of my boys loved it, the other loathed it. The book covers all aspects of God''s creation, including the natural world, solar system, the human body, animals, plants, and weather. It comes with a CD of science songs created for each chapter, but we found them highly annoying. Maybe you won't :)

After Considering God's Creation, I floundered. Providentially, at about the same time I was needing to decide what to do next, I read an interview with Dr. Jay Wile in the Winter 2003 issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. This one article changed my whole thinking, and left me shouting, "Hallelujah!" Dr. Wile, a Nuclear Chemist and author of the Apologia Science Texts, explains that elementary-level science isn't science. Without an understanding of advanced mathematics principles, science simply isn't. All the pressure was off me for the elementary years, and we switched to nature study and observation, science non-fiction books (such as the Christian Liberty Nature Readers), and science biographies.

I now approach elementary science with unit studies in mind. It's actually fun stuff for this non-science loving mom. Most recently we've done a cooking science course using a free lapbook from Homeschool Share, an excellent resource for science unit studies. And free!

Other elementary science units we've done and loved include My Body, Exploring Creation With Astronomy (an Apologia-published book in a series that lays terrific groundwork for junior high and high school science), and Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day (also in the Apologia elementary series).

DVDs are a great tool for all levels of science study, bringing to life many concepts and teaching in a way that is visual and memorable. We have several favorites, DVDs that my kids actually ask to watch. I'll be bold here and say that our family is not terribly fond of the Moody science series; they seem dry and crusty, in need of a good update. Here are the DVDs we've loved most:

Children's DVD Pack from Answers in Genesis

Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution

Planet Earth

Biology 101

The World of Nature

We utilize our public library often, and I'll check out a whole subject at a time. I plop the books in a big basket in our living room and just let the kids casually read through them. Non-fiction science-related books well-loved here:

Find the Constellations

The Weather Book

The Geology Book

The Fossil Book

The Ocean Book

Many of the DK Eyewitness Books, such as Ocean

Nature Finds

We also, as I'm sure you've picked up if you''''ve spent any time on the Preschoolers and Peace site, love Amanda's nature and craft kits from Hearts and Trees. Amanda is a homeschool graduate and daughter of Barb, who also has wonderful blogs and materials for nature study. She inspires me to get my kids out and about looking at things, really looking at things in nature. Barb's Handbook of Nature Study blog and e-book could fill your elementary years with all the nature study you need.

Beyond elementary science/nature study, we use Apologia in our home. Neither of our first two children (the first two to use the Apologia texts) are science-lovers, and while they would say they don't love their texts, we see them as really the best and most complete option on the market for Creation-based science study. Alongside the Apologia texts are some businesses that have created auxiliary products that enhance the texts and provide materials such as lab kits.

Creation Sensation was started by a homeschooling family who recognized the need to gather all of the materials required for the junior high and high school labs. Gotta love a kit!

Live and Learn has created module-by-module mini-books that will help your student learn to study the materials in a way that reinforces the concepts by having them create notebook pages. This is a memorable way to study and my boys both say the Live and Learn books have been a big help to them this year.

A final word about evolutionary inclusions and material. Fundamental to laying a strong foundation in Truth for our children is exposing them to the materials from Answers in Genesis. AIG gives us tools for combating and arguing against the evolutionary theory so prevalent in books, video productions, and texts written by secularists. Our older children openly and boldly argue against evolutionary theory because they have been well-equipped to do so.

Recently our eldest child was discussing a book with me and he said, "Mom, there is no book I could read that would change my beliefs. If it doesn't line up with Scripture, I know that it isn't Truth." Wow. That's a mouthful, isn't it?

We teach our children when they rise up, when they lie down, and when they walk along the path. We also teach them to be wise as serpents and as gentle as doves, which means knowing when to saturate them with Truth and how to equip them to fight lies.

Start with Kids Answers.

Don't forget Cheryl's Marvelous Monday post on Science. We have quite a few similar thoughts this week.

And sorry for the quotation marks all over the place. It's yet another server/provider issue.

Just in case you're joining us for Marvelous Mondays for the first time, you can see our previous posts here: Math- Cheryl's Review Math- Kendra's Review History- Cheryl's Review History- Kendra's Review Literature- Cheryl's Review Literature- Kendra's Review English and Grammar- Cheryl's Review English and Grammar- Kendra's Review ♥ One of the best pieces of advice I received early on was to teach my kiddos to write their names with a capital letter first, followed by lower-case letters.  Most of us teach our little ones to write their names in all caps, only to have to re-teach them the correct way later.  Good idea, isn't it? We begin with Ready Writer, which has been around since before we were homeschooling. Fun little exercises like "cutting brownies" (making horizontal and vertical lines through rectangular "pans") and "cutting" zig zags with "saws".  Four to five-year-olds will get basic handwriting stroke practice, which is essential for legible handwriting. The workbook pages can be photocopied; we've had the same copy since 1995. Ready Writer isn't a complete program, but it's a fun way to develop fine motor skills. After Ready Writer we move to Handwriting Without Tears.  It is what it says- we've never had tears over handwriting practice.  Plus, we all now sing the little ditty, "Where do you start your letters?  At the top!"  Handwriting Without Tears is straight-forward and laid out in a manner that is extremely homeschool-mom-friendly.  The consumable workbooks can be handed right to the child and with a sentence or two of instruction, they are on their way. The Draw Write Now series is a classic on homeschool shelves.  These fun books which teach children to draw so many different subjects (people, animals, vehicles, etc.) are also teaching them basic handwriting strokes and then giving them sentences to copy which tell something about the drawing itself.  Children don't even know they're doing schoolwork.  Pretty tricky! I have been reading about "cursive first", the philosophy that says children who learn cursive before manuscript have an easier time altogether learning to write.  I have a friend whose four children seem to prove this philosophy, as all of them have beautiful handwriting, even at young ages. Last September I decided to try cursive first as taught by Memoria Press's New American Cursive with my second grader, hoping that she would develop beautiful cursive.  Perhaps we started too late because we haven't seen a huge difference between her handwriting and the handwriting of her siblings who learned manuscript first. Is it just us?  I'd love to have testimonials from others who subscribe to the cursive first philosophy because I'm not sure which direction to go with my up-and-coming kindergartner/first grader.  The New American Cursive book retails for 22.95, which I find pricey for a consumable workbook at this grade level. With my others who've done manuscript first, we used Classically Cursive.  If we're going to have them writing and copying as part of their education, should they not be writing and copying text with some worth to their souls and minds?  The texts used for teaching cursive in Classically Cursive are Scripture (including the Ten Commandments), the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and the Attributes of God. Along similar lines are copywork books which provide useful sentences or paragraphs to copy.  We adore the Happy Scribe books, and each year I pair up the historical copywork with our history studies for our youngest students.  Happy Scribe covers a whole lot of subjects- really, there seems to be a Happy Scribe copybook for ever interest- and because you have the ability to download and save the books to your computer, the pages are a snap to print out. Similarly, we have loved the Wisdom Kids ebooks, particularly the Thanksgiving copywork book.  It is a perfect example of giving kids good things to copy, which helps to shape their worldview and thinking early on.  Who of us doesn't want to raise thankful children? Last fall our eighth-grader came to me and said, "My handwriting is terrible.  Can you get me a handwriting book?"  And I ask you, who of us is going to turn down that request from a teenage son?  I did a little investigating, thinking that simpler would be better, particularly since we knew for certain that we didn't want something overtly childish.  We landed on Getty Dubay Italic, and I've been very happy with the improvement in his handwriting, as has he. We'll leave the world of handwriting now and move on to spelling, which brings to the surface yet another philosophy I hold to.  Ready?  Spelling tests are dumb. Do we really think that memorizing a list of twenty words for a test at the end of the week is going to assure that our child will remember that "weird" is spelled with an e before an i?  I mean, really. I firmly believe that good spelling comes from word usage.  Over and over and over again, until the common words become familiar.  One of the best ways to insure familiarity?  Copywork. And then there was my fourth child, whom we call a "math-head", but who cannot spell to save her life, despite the copious amount of copywork she's done over the past five years.  Knowing I did not want to go the memorize-then-forget route, I took the plunge into Sequential Spelling and found something that made sense. With Sequential Spelling, the child studies nothing. Instead, she remembers patterns used to spell words- even after the test.  I read the word, the child writes it down and then self-corrects it immediately.  The word lists are sequential and emphasize the patterns of spelling.  I see our daughter stopping to think through words that stump her; even if she must do so as an adult, she'll have the advantage of remembering patterns taught through all seven levels of Sequential Spelling. It's been a winner of a curriculum in our home. Don't forget to stop by and see Cheryl's Marvelous Monday list here!

I am a grammar fanatic. The truth is, I just love language, whether it's English, Spanish, French... I love the feel of words as they roll around my mouth and I have favorite words that sound like musical phrases to me. Conversely, incorrect grammar grates on my nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard. "I seen" instead of "I saw" is currently at the top of my grammar hit list. I am not, however, so blinded by my own love of language that I mistakenly believe that my children will embrace a grammar text with the same enjoyment I do. That's right-- I enjoy grammar texts. We began with Rod and Staff, going from Phonics to their English texts, but somewhere around second grade I decided to go with English for the Thoughtful Child instead. I can't really remember now why, but I know I learned of EFTTC from The Well-Trained Mind. I like both Rod and Staff and EFTTC, but each are quite different. EFTTC is gentle, slow, and not text-like while Rod and Staff English is gentle, rigorous, and definitely a text book format. Now, here's where personal philosophy comes into play. While I love grammar and all things word-related, I do still feel strongly that later is better for the majority of children. Certainly children need to have a basic understanding of punctuation, capitilization, and sentence structure. Those things can be introduced naturally through copywork and reading. English for the Thoughtful Child does this nicely as well, as do the Pathway Reader workbooks if you're inclined to use them with your early readers. My children have loved the Pathway series and I see good fruit in the simple, straight-forward daily exercises which cover vocabulary, word usage, spelling, phonics, and reading comprehension. We have used the wonderful series of Ruth Heller books in our Circle Time. I read a page or two depending on the flow of the text and everyone thinks of a sentence using the words we are studying (ie verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc.) You can see a sample of one of our son's funny drawings here. Eventually, a thorough and comprehensive study of grammar is necessary, and for that we have used Rod and Staff English, Grade 8, Preparing for Usefulness. If your student has never studied grammar formally, Rod and Staff English 8 will cover everything: parts of speech, punctuation, capitilization, sentence diagramming, note taking, outlining, paragraph construction, letter writing, proofreading, outlines, story writing, and poetry. There are copious exercises for practice and reviews every chapter. Our current 8th grader isn't a natural writer so I've had him using Rod and Staff English 8 this year. His compositions have improved in such a way that I am once again affirmed by our choice to use this text. As with my previous Marvelous Monday review on Math, I feel that Rod and Staff puts out timeless, thorough, and proven texts. We did use Daily Grams for several years, but I did not see that my children retained the information over the long haul. Again, this is where the idea that later is better plays a part; because an 8th grader in our home is writing so much for the Veritas Press Omnibus, they need to put all of this grammar study to good use. Daily Grams seemed to teach snippets out of context; there was simply a disconnect between the short daily exercises and the writing they were instructed to do for Omnibus. If you want to improve your own grammar and have a good laugh at the same time, try Spogg. And, of course, don't forget to visit Cheryl's blog to see her Marvelous Monday post, too!

Everybody Loves a Great Book

I know I just talked your ears off last Marvelous Monday when we covered history, so I promise I won't be quite so chatty this time. It sounds so nice and thoughtful of me, but really the truth is that I don't have terribly a lot to write about literature curricula because I'm one of those odd types who believes you should just READ. Forget the snippets chosen by some so-called expert and regurgitated with insipid questions in a literature text. Pick up a good book and read to your kids. Then make lists of books you want them to read by the time they leave your home and have them READ. The list I've used most over the years when deciding on good literature for our home is The 1,000 Good Books List. I also scan the Veritas catalog and the Sonlight catalog: Veritas for its solid classic picks and Sonlight for its unique Christian content, such as missionary biographies and the like. Our junior highers and high schoolers utilize the Veritas Press Omnibus curriculum, and through that they get a deep and wide discussion of literature. But before then, we simply read. Don't forget to hop on over to Cheryl's blog to see what she has to say about literature, too!