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mamaslearning
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| Posted: April 09 2011 at 7:29pm | IP Logged
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If you are doing a living books approach to science, how do you choose your topics? My dd is not that interested in science, so I need to introduce her to the topics/ideas (and hope she develops some interest). I thought I was going with BFSU, but now I'm waffling again and thinking that maybe a more open and go approach would be better for us.
I'm thinking of maybe just doing these kits for the year and adding in related books.
Can anybody share an overview of topics they've use in the early grades (we will be in 2nd grade next year)?
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Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool
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JodieLyn
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cooking.. involve them but talk about what is happening when you add levening and such.. one thing for instance we talked about was the concept of dilution.. but not in so many words.. we talked about how yummy cloves are in pumpkin pie or date nut rolls but how icky it is right out of the jar.  water into steam and ice and measuring and just so much going on.. just talk about it a bit and it'll stay with them quite well.
Talk about weather.. lots of fun weather books..
grow plants..
go on nature walks and identify plants and animals (maybe just tracks) and birds and bugs etc as you come across them
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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herdingkittens
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 8:19am | IP Logged
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Last year and this year, we have used Usborne science books as a spine (this year is earth science, so we are using the earth science encyclopedia). I get a stack of books from the library on the topic (i.e. volcanoes, clouds, etc.). Read the Usborne page, discuss, read other books. Narration page, experiments (usually from Mudpies to Magnets or related like book). It has been a nice base to go off of, as anything more involved would have stifled me - it has been a busy last 3 years  . If I am not able to do anything else for a week, we at least have read on a topic.
Those kits look like fun! 
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 12:46pm | IP Logged
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Thanks. I'm going to spend some time looking at table of contents for some science books at the library. I think that might also help me narrow down some studies.
Jodie, my two oldest love to cook with me and are learning so much already. I keep forgetting that all the daily things add up to a good introduction to science.
Herdingkittens, are you following the WTM rotation of topics?
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Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool
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herdingkittens
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 9:50pm | IP Logged
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Yes, we are.
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Aagot
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 9:57pm | IP Logged
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I like looking at the NOEO science site. They follow a cm and classical approach using living books. You may find some great titles to look up in your library. We have also enjoyed their experiment kits.
HTH,
Aagot
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mommy4ever
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| Posted: April 26 2011 at 8:14pm | IP Logged
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I purchased an ebook at www.activitybags.com for science activities. I chose a science one and a preschool. I'm very pleased with it.
It is multiple sets of instructions to create 'experiments in a bag". I took the time to print it out first. Sorted out the colored pages. instructions for the kit and answer keys were white, and the 'lab report' pages were colored, yellow for general, blue for biology and green for nature. Once that was done I went through to see what supplies were needed to do all 20 experiments in the book. I had about 1/2 the supplies and then went shopping at the dollar store for the rest. $7 later I had everything.
The next day I sat down and put kits together. It took me about 25 minutes to get 10 experiments done while being distracted by tv. I need more bags, dh has some in the garage or at work, I don't remember what he said. But I have a bin with 10 experiments ready for her.
It supplies basic info in the answer key to be able to grab a few books from the library or look it up online. Or just leave it as an experiment, that is what my dd loves best. Lots of experiments. So for the initial $15 for the ebook and about $7-10 in supplies, we will have 25 experiments to just do and hopefully grow more interest. I toss in a Magic School Bus book where applicable or other fun science books if it works out. But is all she wants is that experiment this week, we're good, we did science, which is more than we've done for weeks on end at times.
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kristacecilia
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| Posted: April 26 2011 at 9:51pm | IP Logged
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I just pick things we are interested in, particularly things we are seeing going on around us. My son got a weather station building kit for Easter so we're going to study us some weather for awhile using Mater Amabilis' weather lesson plans and some resources we already have.
Next we'll be starting a garden so we'll do some botany...
I have a budding astronomer so we do a lot of that, but later this summer I am going to build a more structured study of the heavens using some resources we have compiled.
We are finishing up a fairly detailed study of birds spawned by reading The Burgess Bird Book and setting up our bird feeding/watching station over the winter.
Of course, mine are still very little! I am going to use Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding starting in the fall with my rising 2nd grader and Kindergartener...
I really like Science Wizardry for Kids along with lots of read alouds to go with it. Science Wizardry takes a very self-led approach to learning fundamentals through hands on, basic experiments and simple explanations. We are just starting to use it for my 7 year old son along with Usborne books and other resources. It has chapters on several major divisions of science (weather, colors, astronomy, botany, etc.)
ETA: I have an older version of Science Wizardry for Kids, and after using the 'look inside' option on both the older and newer versions, I can see they have added and changed a lot. My recommendation is definitely on the older version.
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Krista
Wife to a great guy, mom to two boys ('04, '06) and three girls ('08, '10, '12!)
I blog at http://kristacecilia.wordpress.com/
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Topic: What to teach?
