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Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
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Subject Topic: Nature Portfolio throughout the year Post ReplyPost New Topic
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AmandaV
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Posted: April 20 2012 at 4:26pm | IP Logged Quote AmandaV

Has anyone used this?

Nature Portfolio

It is a one use item and is a bit costly but looks really neat. Thinking of it for my 1st grader next year.

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lapazfarm
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Posted: April 20 2012 at 5:28pm | IP Logged Quote lapazfarm

I think it looks great, too. I have not used it as we have already started a different notebooking method, but I did consider it at one time.

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AmandaV
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Posted: May 08 2012 at 7:42am | IP Logged Quote AmandaV

bumping, anyone used it? Thanks Theresa, it does look great, doesn't it?

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AmandaV
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Posted: June 16 2012 at 8:28pm | IP Logged Quote AmandaV

bumping one more time, as it's available through Emmanuel books and they have free shipping through tomorrow over $50. I know the boards are about to close...

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Mrs. B
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Posted: June 20 2012 at 5:59pm | IP Logged Quote Mrs. B

Well, we have have it. I'm a little hesitant to recommend it because I feel that while it was a good concept, the instructions were kinda vague and hard to follow. I feel it could have been organized better.

Is that really helpful? I don't know...

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SallyT
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Posted: June 20 2012 at 9:09pm | IP Logged Quote SallyT

How so? I'm seriously considering this resource for next year, so I'd love to hear more details -- particularly what you didn't love about it and/or felt made it hard to use and less-than-optimally organized.

Thanks!

Sally

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Posted: June 21 2012 at 7:01am | IP Logged Quote amarytbc

We bought this a few years ago and didn't like it either. My daughter loved the look of it and I needed specific assignments that year, but once we started using it the weaknesses were obvious. The reference material wasn't strong or clear, the drawings weren't to our liking, much of the nature focused on wasn't relevant to our area and her age at the time, and it generally had a very contrived feeling. We went back to using a sketchpad, comstock and seasonal suggestions from
http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/
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Mrs. B
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Posted: June 21 2012 at 9:05am | IP Logged Quote Mrs. B

I think the part I disliked the most about it was that there were no good directions and purpose to the lessons. Also, there were some books that they wanted you to reference and read and if you didn't have them on hand, the lessons couldn't be done very well. It left us with an aimless feeling.

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AmandaV
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Posted: June 21 2012 at 10:03am | IP Logged Quote AmandaV

Thank you Mrs. B and amarytbc, for those reviews. Its disappointing that it didn't work out better for you. I think I'll stick to our nature journals and field guides, then, as well.

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Posted: June 21 2012 at 12:18pm | IP Logged Quote SallyT

Hm, that is disappointing. I really want something *like* that, all made up for me so that I don't have to make it up myself, but maybe that's why God gave me this summer . . .

:)

Sally

PS: I like the look of her history portfolios, too, as a manifestation of the Book of Centuries idea . . . not interested in one for this year, since we're doing Greek/Roman history over two years and Greek was last year, but was considering the Medieval one for the *next* year. I wonder if the same weaknesses are manifest in those? But that's OT for this forum, so if anyone wants to message me with thoughts on that subject, feel free!

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AmandaV
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Posted: June 21 2012 at 12:33pm | IP Logged Quote AmandaV

Me too, Sally, on the history ones - junior, I think. Maybe we can start a new thread :)

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Posted: June 21 2012 at 1:20pm | IP Logged Quote AmandaV

SallyT wrote:
Hm, that is disappointing. I really want something *like* that, all made up for me so that I don't have to make it up myself, but maybe that's why God gave me this summer . . .


Here's another option for nature study, with guidance: Queen's Discovering Nature

A friend of mine has used her copybooks and is considering one of this series for her 2nd grader.

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Posted: June 21 2012 at 4:44pm | IP Logged Quote Mrs. B

The Queen's books look very engaging.

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Posted: June 28 2012 at 8:29pm | IP Logged Quote Grace&Chaos

Mrs. B wrote:
The Queen's books look very engaging.


I just saw the link to this thread on another thread and thought I should comment. My third grader read through A Nature Walk With Aunt Bessie. It is engaging and is broken down by 36 lessons. While it doesn't say day1,day2... there are five parts/pages per lesson. The first is the chapter reading followed by 4 other activity type pages. These vary depending on the topic. For example a coloring page, a do some research on, some copywork, hands on activity, a comparison page...you get the idea. I'd say this is as CM here's how to follow up a living science book as you might get. If you haven't done science with a living book before this is a great intro to it. Hope that helps

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Posted: June 29 2012 at 11:57am | IP Logged Quote Mrs. B

Well, I finally had a few minutes to look at the samples on the Queens Science and I must say I was so impressed! I bought the first two books for my 3 and 5'th grader.
The layout in these books is similar to Writing Tales which is a literature/writing/grammer program that is made for dyslexics, and it follows the same kind of story and exercise format, so I think this going to work really well for us. Thank you for linking these.

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AmandaV
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Posted: June 29 2012 at 12:24pm | IP Logged Quote AmandaV

Mrs. B wrote:
I think the part I disliked the most about it was that there were no good directions and purpose to the lessons. Also, there were some books that they wanted you to reference and read and if you didn't have them on hand, the lessons couldn't be done very well. It left us with an aimless feeling.


How would it be if you bought the main books? are there too many extras? I thought the main ones were the old seaside and wayside nature readers.

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