"The Plan" - Part 3: Science is Spontaneous

I have not actually followed any particular Science curriculum in the past.  I follow the curiosity of my boys.  I have a lot of reference books and, of course, there is the internet.  For instance, here's a picture of breakfast Saturday morning.  The pencil sharpener had broken and grandpa was taking it apart and explaining what each part is suppose to do.

Other times we find bugs and animals in our yard that lend themselves to lessons; such as the frequent Cuban Tree Frog hatchings in our fountain. Which, by the way, is why I don't clean the fountain, otherwise where would they live? :-)

For "Life Science" opportunities such as this, my favorite resource is a group of books called "Florida's Fabulous".  The books are huge, they are filled with awesome big close up pictures, perfect for identification, and have neat tidbits for simple explanation.  If you live in Florida I suggest collecting them all.

Other times, we go off to the local public garden and wander, exploring the plants and animals, stopping to identify, sketch or photograph what we see.

There's Legos, trips to zoological parks, wood craft classes, cub scouts, and just experimenting to figure out how things work.

Then, of course, there is Classical Conversations (CC).  One of my favorite parts of CC is that THEY do the the messy science experiments for me each week :-). This has previously erased my guilt over not having a specific science curriculum.

Like icky owl pellet (ie. poop) dissections, in Cycle 1  :-)

 

However, this year I am going to be a bit more conventional.  I have decided to do a science curriculum over the summer that ties in with CC Cycle 3.  CC Cycle 3 Science covers Anatomy and Chemistry.

I had already purchased the "God's Design for Science" as a reference collection for CC.  This year I'm just taking the time to use it as a curriculum.

I like that it is nicely laid out to use for different ages at the same time, but I feel sometimes it is still lacking in reinforcing detail work.  Therefore, I am supplementing the "The Human Body" as follows:

General Anatomy & Cells

• "The Functions of the Human Body", this is a felt board system and a book.
• "Human Anatomy in full color" by John Green
• "In Siders - Human Body" by Linda Calabresi. Two pages of evolution to be ignored but the cool 3D pictures make up for it.
• "Newtons Workshop" DVDs - They are pretty corny but very informative in an entertaining way.
• "Body of Evidence" DVDs - These are geared more for middle school and above but like "Drive Thru History" I think kids can gleam more than people think.

Skeletal System 

• "Make and Move My Skeleton", this is a cool pop-up book available used.
•  Free coloring/ID Page from Crayola.  Use to introduce at the beginning and again to quiz at the end. 

Muscular System

• Made my own stuff for this because I couldn't find what I wanted.  It is a pdf document you can download.

Nerves & Senses

• "Understanding Your Senses" by Rebecca Treays, good visuals, explanations and some unique examples.

Digestive System

• "Quest to Digest" by Mary Corcoran. Follow an apple through the digestive system, both entertaining and informative.

Heart & Lungs

•  "The Story of Your Blood", by Edith Lucie Weart.  This is an old Living book.
•  "The Circulatory Story", by Mary K. Corcoran.

One of the activities from their curriculum we had fun with today was to put on their swim suits and use a washable marker to label their body parts. 

Titus just wanted to be labeled "Titus"

As I go through the curriculum in detail, I might make some more worksheets myself, so check back to this post for updates over the summer.