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ALmom
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| Posted: June 06 2008 at 5:28pm | IP Logged
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Ok, folks came up with some great French resources, so here I am asking for a good science spine for children ages 5 - 8th grade  . Now, the caveat is that I really do not grasp science easily so it has to guide me, the poor teacher, in very, very basic things.
Typically what happens in our house is that we start with great enthusiasm and are going to identify trees in our back yard or something like that. Well, I have a botany leaf cabinet (not the cards which I obviously must get) but figured, ok, we get leaf shapes down, and whalla, with a field guide we'll go out and figure out what trees we have. Well, gee - things got so complicated and I was even overwhelmed with just the leaf cabinet - how in the world do you organize all that information in your head. Obviously I need some very basic, simple breakdowns. Where do I go to find very, simple, fundamental information presented in an organized way and yet not dumbed down. Anyways, besides getting overwhelmed with leaf shapes, we kept misidentifying stuff since our yard evidently is full of ornamental shrubs that look like trees so .... what is the difference between a tree and a shrub.
I am not able to just take 3 part cards and run. I need something that tells me where to start simple enough and how to build on this one step at a time.
I thought a basic, detailed textbook would serve as a decent spine for me. I got lost in the detail - as much as my children did. Textbooks seem to baffle you with too much information and just confuse us. The experiments are either uninspiring or do not work.
I had the priviledge of observing a real bona fide science teacher interact with my children (one who never used a textbook a day in her life teaching in the classroom but only used the chapter headings) and I have a really good idea of what I want to happen. I saw what worked.
She started with the first step - what are minerals. How do you identify minerals. She developed a very basic key and they made a kit of penny, nail, glass, white ceramic tile and bottle of vinegar water. They had a magnifying glass to look at shape, etc. She had very good samples to show exactly what she was illustrating. My children were fascinated. They talked about rocks being made from minerals and eventually broke down rock types into sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. They were off and running. My 5 year old is still collecting rocks and the 8 year old retained every single thing she told him plus then went further by becoming curiuos about a few things that turned out to be fossils. My 11 year old really took off and devoured everything in the house we had - from field guides, to textbooks, to references in addition to collecting and labeling his own rocks. My poor 7th grader who had a unit on geology in a textbook learned absolutely zilch and what is worse; he is so glad it is over and has no desire to ever see a rock or discuss a rock again.
Obviously I want the science like the teacher did for us. My problem - I didn't know any of what she told us (even the part about rocks being made of minerals) until I listened in to her with my boys.  Obviously to pull this off, I need some sort of help. We cannot hire her  as she won't have the time, but surely there is some sort of resource for science deprived folks like me. Really, I could get enthusiastic and interested if we could just find a really kept simple, bare bones basic presentation on different categories of science. I will not be able to plan and put it together by myself unless we want endless frustrations over dead ends.
Janet
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: June 06 2008 at 9:39pm | IP Logged
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Janet, I can't recommend a good text, because I don't use one. I am not a science expert, but I do love learning about science. What I've done is check out tons of books at the library. For each topic, I check out craft books, field guides (in addition to those I have at home), lots of picture books and experiment books, Magic School Bus, Janice VanCleave, books with deeper explanations, etc. The Golden Guides (St. Martin's Press) are nice "beginner" field guides (though I use lots of Peterson and others too) because in the front they give good explanations. (For example, Weeds gives brief explanations of the definition/adaptability of weeds, the harm they cause, benefits, and major habitats before the field guide portion. )Here's their Rocks and Minerals guide. Other field guides sometimes have this info too, but the Golden Guides are more visual and engaging. I also use library picture books for this info.
Don't know if this is helpful.
Do you have Anna Comstock's book? It's really nice and has step by step observations and "lessons." I owned it for years before figuring out how to get good use out of it.
__________________
Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 06 2008 at 10:49pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Janette and yes I do have Comstocks books - had it for years before MacFam just did a presentation on science and I finally had an aha moment in how to use it (and actually do stress free nature walks). This will be great, but not much help with vocabulary that I don't know, not provide any kind of scope and sequence.
I have books galore - really, I do. It seems that the books written more as well done or advanced picture books provide more guidance or help to us. We all loved the few Jim Arnosky books that I had checked out of the library (evidently at the same time that Macfam was looking so she didn't think our library had any). I plan to spend a large portion of my school budget this year on science and French- and if I can, a drawing/art program. Anyways these have provided enough to get my 11 year old fan off and running despite me.
For the rest of us, science is very, very haphazard. Having books still doesn't tell me what order to take things. For instance my instinct in looking for rocks would have been a golden field guide or Peterson field guide. I would never have known to give "background" vocabulary on hardness, lustre, etc. that helps you read a field guide. Nor would I have had much confidence that I really knew what it meant till I had it shown to me. I would have muddled various kinds of rocks together or gotten endlessly tied in knots trying to figure out all that additional categories explained in my 7th graders science. It would take us a day or so to decide things were just beyond us unless we could find a good explanation. Now, a little bit of well organized information goes a long way in spurring interest - I am getting glimpses of that for myself.
I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's responses.
Janet
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: science help question
