Science

I'm going to write a series of posts on what we're doing for school now.  It seems that I'm constantly tweaking what works.  But each year I get more focused on what is effective, necessary and beneficial for our family.  I feel like we're in a groove now, so I want to document it.

Science is not my personal strong point, and was one of my most intimidating subjects coming in to homeschooling.  It was only after reminding myself that I don't need to teach high school level chemistry tomorrow that I was able to take a deep breath and figure what needs to be done now.  I believe that the main goal of elementary/middle school science is to instill a love for the natural world, lay a foundation of basic facts, and learn how to observe and question.  We do this through:

Classical Conversations.  Every week we memorize basic science facts, covering all science topics over three years.  So at the end of elementary they will have covered each topic at least twice.  For example, this semester CC is covering physics.  This week we are memorizing Newton's Second Law of Motion.  They are all memorizing the same fact, and thus we cover science all together.  

Apologia's Exploring Creation.  Let's Read and Find Out Science series.  We read from these books to supplement our science facts we're learning in CC.  I do not systematically work through the series, but pick and choose what we are learning about and read aloud that section.  I try to read aloud about the topic on Monday so we understand it and can let it marinate for the week.  So for Newton's Second Law of Motion,  I read the two pages in Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics that covers Newton's Second Law of Motion.  It breaks the fact down for us in to manageable chunks, while giving an overarching view of the topic in general.  The Let's Read and Find Out Science series is a picture book series for younger students, which I have available to the girls and read aloud if possible.  

Experiments.  Every week at CC they conduct an experiment or science project relating to the science facts we're memorizing.

Field Trips.  This is where the science comes alive.  I try to set up field trips each semester that correspond with what we're learning.  Tomorrow we visit the University's College of Engineering.  Next month we visit the Strategic Air and Space Museum.  

Getting outside.  I think that the elementary student's framework for sciences comes from nature.  They experiment and observe so much from exploring outside.  We play outside, walk through the woods, visit nature centers, watch birds, grow a garden, and enjoy creation.

Talking about it.  Once you learn about a topic, it pops up everywhere.  We integrate what we are learning from science in to our everyday life through discussion and aha moments.  I do not have all the answers, but steer them in the direction they need to research for themselves any questions that they do have.