Aspasia Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I'm thinking if doing it. It's just so simple and every book has an experiment or observation activity to go with it. I'm just trying to find a simple, FUN way to do science with little kids. I bought Elemental Science Intro to Science, but my dd just isn't interested in a lot of those topics. Not only were we studying topics she didn't care about, we were also wasting all of her actual science interests. So I'm just going to go at this with her interests in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 When my kids were in K/1st, we read tons of Let's Read and Find Out Science, Magic School Bus, the Smithsonian Backyard series and the Burgess Bird Book, took nature walks, raised butterflies and ants and ladybugs, and did the very occasional "experiment" as the mood struck. No formal curriculum at all. Ah, happy memories! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tammyw Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Yes, in the young ages (5-7) we read almost all of them and never used a formal curriculum for science. We also added in a lot of great science videos and stuff from netflix. Good stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mytwomonkeys Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 in grades K-2 that is our main spine (along with gail gibbons books). it works great. you can notebook, lapbook, watch go along shows, read other books, etc. it works really well! i still use them often actually. my kids read them independently and write summaries based on the information. i can't imagine getting rid of them even when my kids outgrow them. i love those kind of books. :) eta - we also love the clp nature readers and fun with nature books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Great books for sure! With a little planning (grouping like books together), I think it could definitely work. We're reading the one about fossils today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countrygal Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 We ditched Apologia Astronomy at page 6.... and I requested a bunch of these books through ILL. I think the are just right! Ds is 6/1st grade and finds them interesting. I was suprised to see little experiments in each one, too. I hope to keep up with it. Now I'm excited to all different kinds of topics!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 When my kids were in K/1st, we read tons of Let's Read and Find Out Science, Magic School Bus, the Smithsonian Backyard series and the Burgess Bird Book, took nature walks, raised butterflies and ants and ladybugs, and did the very occasional "experiment" as the mood struck. No formal curriculum at all. Ah, happy memories! :) :iagree: We did this as well for those grades. We loved it. For first grade, I lined up LRFO and MSB books with the WTM schedule and it worked really well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Yes, I used these with my kids when they were younger, and even put together a whole year's nature study program with them as the basis. We really enjoyed these books! I occasionally still will use one here and there as a quick and easy way to cover a concept. Here's my book list/project list, etc. from that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Absolutely! At these ages (5-7) it's just a matter of fun, exposure, and discovery. These books by themselves will do it. We use BFSU for discussion and artsy dd5 enjoys mini books, but that's just because I already had it. We take it slowly, making sure dd understands all the concepts. In your case, I would add nature study and call science done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zuzu822 Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 OP, I love that you asked this today! I am in the midst of a science crisis, and was contemplating this very thing yesterday. I did some unsuccessful board searches about it. :tongue_smilie: We ditched Apologia Astronomy at page 6.... and I requested a bunch of these books through ILL. I think the are just right! Ds is 6/1st grade and finds them interesting. I was suprised to see little experiments in each one, too. I hope to keep up with it. Now I'm excited to all different kinds of topics!! Um, yes. This exactly. DS 6 loves astronomy so much I thought I could look past the worldview stuff and make this work for us. Nope. So now I'm looking for beefy astronomy resources for him to explore and planning to do something like others have mentioned in this thread with other topics. When my kids were in K/1st, we read tons of Let's Read and Find Out Science, Magic School Bus, the Smithsonian Backyard series and the Burgess Bird Book, took nature walks, raised butterflies and ants and ladybugs, and did the very occasional "experiment" as the mood struck. No formal curriculum at all. Ah, happy memories! :) Love this! We have many of these books, and I can see this working for us for several more years and allows the younger boys to participate as well. I have been way overthinking science for the early school years! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruthie in MS Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Yes, I used these with my kids when they were younger, and even put together a whole year's nature study program with them as the basis. We really enjoyed these books! I occasionally still will use one here and there as a quick and easy way to cover a concept. Here's my book list/project list, etc. from that time. Thanks so much for posting this. We tried Apologia Astronomy and we got to finish Chapter 5 (the moon) and I lost all enthusiasm. For now it's going back on the shelf and making way for science that me, my dd8 and dd6 is interested in. We have been using Homeschool Share's Read and Find out about science book list for FIAR books and have loved it. Really looking forward to diving into your post. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aminuteorless Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Yes, I used these with my kids when they were younger, and even put together a whole year's nature study program with them as the basis. We really enjoyed these books! I occasionally still will use one here and there as a quick and easy way to cover a concept. Here's my book list/project list, etc. from that time. Looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystie Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 That's all we did (plus some nature walks and lots of outside time) for science until second grade. :) My goal for elementary science is for them to see that the world is an interesting place. Real scientific study comes when they are older and have a solid math foundation and broad understanding (which comes from broad reading, including those books). :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I didn't with my oldest and now I wish I had. My goal is to buy the entire level 2 series for my little guy for K but I will have to add several encyclopedias too since he loves real life pictures. I have several experiment books to add to them too. My oldest read most of the titles between grades 1 and 2 on his own, from the library. We love these books :)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in MS Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 When my kids were in K/1st, we read tons of Let's Read and Find Out Science, Magic School Bus, the Smithsonian Backyard series and the Burgess Bird Book, took nature walks, raised butterflies and ants and ladybugs, and did the very occasional "experiment" as the mood struck. No formal curriculum at all. Ah, happy memories! :) This looks a whole lot like our science so far from K-2 with FIAR and AO. I have an ABeka 2nd grade science book and a CLP 2nd grade science book and they can't touch the above. There is no comparison. I feel like our science is so very rich. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Not sure if anyone has mentioned this (skimmed the responses) but Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding has a reading list for each lesson, and almost all of the lessons have a Let's Read and Find Out book on the list. I use BFSU as the "activity guide" if you will, and LRAFO books as the "spine". We are loving it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamindy Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 This is what we're doing. I have a K & 1st grader. I am learning so much from the Let's Read And Find Out series! (I can find most of them at the library, which is a huge bonus since curriculum is expensive the first go round.) We also spend lots of time outside studying "nature" on our 5 acres and taking care of our fowl. ;) I consider my kids to be getting a lot of science. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamindy Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Yes, I used these with my kids when they were younger, and even put together a whole year's nature study program with them as the basis. We really enjoyed these books! I occasionally still will use one here and there as a quick and easy way to cover a concept. Here's my book list/project list, etc. from that time. Bookmarking this! Thank you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aspasia Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 I didn't with my oldest and now I wish I had. My goal is to buy the entire level 2 series for my little guy for K but I will have to add several encyclopedias too since he loves real life pictures. I have several experiment books to add to them too. My oldest read most of the titles between grades 1 and 2 on his own, from the library. We love these books :)! Is there a way to buy an entire series, hopefully at a rate discounted from individual books? I've looked but can't find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Is there a way to buy an entire series, hopefully at a rate discounted from individual books? I've looked but can't find it. I haven't seen it as a full package but (if you haven't seen it already) Rainbow does sell them in smaller packages based on the subject. It does work out to less than buying them individually :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Not sure if anyone has mentioned this (skimmed the responses) but Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding has a reading list for each lesson, and almost all of the lessons have a Let's Read and Find Out book on the list. I use BFSU as the "activity guide" if you will, and LRAFO books as the "spine". We are loving it! BFSU did not work for me as is (with my oldest) but I have been wanting to take it apart for a while now and make a list of some of the activities. Love your idea :D! I think it will work great for my little guy when the time comes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zuzu822 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I haven't seen it as a full package but (if you haven't seen it already) Rainbow does sell them in smaller packages based on the subject. It does work out to less than buying them individually :). :iagree: Also they are part if Amazon's 4-for-3 so you can compare prices there too. I've been working on that the past few days too. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I bought most of mine from half.com. If you find a seller who has one, they often have others available. Shipping is $3.99 for the first paperback, or $4.74 for hardcover. But then each subsequent book from the same seller is shipped for just $2.95 HC and $1.89 softcover. I was able to get about 70% of the series for like new used or ex-lib hardcovers and paid an average of $3 a book shipped. The rest I just bought from Amazon on 4-3. This was all we used for Science for grades K-2. We filled in with Magic School bus and some Bill Nye. ETA: Anne Rockwell also has some pretty good science readers for that age group. I picked up a few used ones of hers as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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