displace Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 DS loves science. We've been mostly doing unit studies and experiments and reading some books for subjects. A lot of textbooks and books we've read (like let's read and find out) for his age are way too easy. Most info he knows is usually from topics I know a lot about and we just talk about day to day but I'm less knowledgeable in some areas like earth science and physics so I rely on kids science sources a lot to jog my memory of those topics. For those who have young science lovers, what do you do to encourage the giftedness? Just supplement with adult sources (I'm thinking documentaries), older aged books (aimed for middle school for my DS perhaps), more in depth unit studies, older grade regular science textbooks? I have trouble coordinating library books with topics and experiments because when we do get the books I then realize he's beyond them and we've usualy already done the experiments. I like GEMS guides but it's been hard for me to actually teach anything. But maybe I haven't gone to a high enough level. I get hesitant to use resources for a forth or fifth grader when he's only in first, but maybe that's exactly what I need to do? One concern I have is DS understands advanced types of concepts but may get caught up in vocab for science terms, which is understandable as it is really a whole new language. So it keeps me from venturing too far ahead since the vocab isn't there. We do have a science museum we get to occasionally and he does camp there a few weeks in the summer. But the camps are for certain grade levels and it's just fun play time really I think. He says he doesn't learn anything there. Currently, he wants to do real chemistry now with real chemicals. I ordered RSO Chem and hope there's some experiments or concepts we haven't covered. Sorry so long, any advice even in passing would be great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 I forget just how old your child is, but I had a thread about a year ago that gave me a lot of science ideas. My daughter was preschool-aged at the time, but many of the suggestions were not age-dependent and we've incorporated a mishmash of many of them to finally get science going here. Some of our favorite resources: Lego Education kits The Private Eye Kids Discover magazines The Happy Scientist videos BFSU, mostly for me to get ideas and refresh my own science knowledge Snap Circuits Library books - I just take her with me to the library, she picks a topic for us to find then chooses her own books. I showed her to flip through them first to judge for herself if they were about the right level. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 For DD, the progression was "Every single book in the local library kids' section, plus lots of science materials at home, mostly at the "toy" level" "Every single science book in the library adult section, high school level books, plus lots of science materials at home, plus attending lots of local events with hobbyists, citizen science projects" "College/professional level texts/journals and attending professional events, started doing own research at a hobbyist level, assisting with professional projects" "College/professional level texts/journals, working in college labs, partner in graduate level research projects with a goal of publication". This all happened between the ages of 2 and 10 or so. I'd say she jumped to professional level materials right about age 8, and at age 6 had basically exhausted anything written for kids. I will also say this was made much easier by the fact that the science she's most interested in is biology. I think we'd probably be stalled at step 2 if she were a chemist or physicist (or, for that matter, if her passion had been biochemistry or microbiology). Field biology, astronomy, and geology all seem to have active hobbyist components which overlap enough with the professional field that it's possible for a kid to be noticed and taken seriously early on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Oh, now I see that he's a first grader. The suggestions in my post above still stand for that, as most really aren't age-dependent. As for the grade level of resources, I've found in the vast majority of subjects the resources that work best for us are ones that aren't written to any particular age. The ones for older grades often require a lot of writing or fine motor skills that are beyond DD. The ones for younger grades contain nothing new content-wise. Almost every subject for her now is more open-ended material. For science I do use BFSU as a guide, but go much deeper than they do for the K-2 book with extra resources and extra investigations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaConquest Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 With my science-loving DS6, we watch a lot of documentaries. He can watch them for hours. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 I didn't worry about the vocabulary portion. When my boys encounter a word they don't know, they check the dictionary and also encyclopedia britannica online. I just let my kids read from adult non-fiction section of the library when my kids wanted to. I think my older boy went up to the adult science section when he was in kindergarten because he finish the astronomy books at the children section. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
displace Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 Thanks for all the responses so far! Yes, DS is 6.5, in first grade. Our library has a middle section of non fiction I could browse for books too. I'll look into BFSU again. I've looked at it over and over and I'm still not sure I would use it. I may get the next level up too. I'm a little bummed as I just learned bill nye was at our local university just last week. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaConquest Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 I use this list to find the best science trade books: http://www.nsta.org/publications/ostb/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I think you just need to level up. Especially with the GEMS guides. When my older ds was that age, he loved Supercharged Science. That might be another one to look into. Also NASA has many free lesson plans and resources on their website. We've used a lot of those as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 If he likes history too, you might try Science in the Ancient World. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
displace Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Thanks I'll look those up too. Everyone seems to have great reviews for supercharged science but the price is problematic. I'll look into science in the ancient world too, and I only think of NASA for space stuff. I should poke around there more. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staceyshoe Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 You may want to take a look at Ellen McHenry's science materials. Very kid-friendly but great depth of content. She doesn't oversimplify complex scientific concepts but explains them in a way kids can understand. My science-lover *adored* her programs. The Elements is a good one to start with. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 You may want to take a look at Ellen McHenry's science materials. Very kid-friendly but great depth of content. She doesn't oversimplify complex scientific concepts but explains them in a way kids can understand. My science-lover *adored* her programs. The Elements is a good one to start with. Yes. We have loved her programs here too. In particular because they included some math integrated with science, which my science lover really enjoyed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I have a set of "My First Encyclopedias" We have a lot of books on various topics Magic School Bus Science videos/streaming Hands On projects/experiments Microscope & slides (ours hooks up to a computer) Bug Vacuum, Bug Books Kitchen Science We do have some general curricula that we follow (I've used Apologia and Real Science4Kids) as they go as well. We usually wind up in high school texts by middle school and college texts/AP-level for high school (at least that's how the first three have gone -- not sure about the last two, yet -- ) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momontherun Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 The Max Axiom Super Scientist series is great to get from your local library. My son loves them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momontherun Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 NOVA on PBS, You Tube, or Netflix are also big hits here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
displace Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 Great recs, everyone! I'm glad I started this thread to have everything all in one place :) I checked out the library's older kid section today. Disappointing in chemistry but looked good for a few years in other subjects, plus we have interlibrary loan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
displace Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 ETA is the Ellen mchenry audio file a supplement or read aloud of the book? This would be great to not have to do it as a read aloud! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clear Creek Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 ETA is the Ellen mchenry audio file a supplement or read aloud of the book? This would be great to not have to do it as a read aloud! It is just a supplement containing the songs that go with the curriculum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
displace Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 It is just a supplement containing the songs that go with the curriculum. Oh, well, another read aloud then :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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