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New science based curriculum is finished!


jenn&charles
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Jenn, I cannot thank you enough for all that you do.  I have used your American History I and II with my older son and am about to use it again with the younger.  I peeked at your geography program and will probably ditch the two I already bought in favor of yours. 

 

Thank you!!  :blush:

 

I would love your feedback on the American history. I'm getting ready to redo it soon with a complete overhaul, so any suggestions or comments you might have would be really appreciated.

 

I'll leave the old version up, too. The new one will be in my store.

 

I'm trying to find a good spine book for the new version and am pulling my hair out over that, as I can't find anything that is "just right". Once I get that settled, I can work on the rest. 

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Is there a printed version of this curriculum or is it only online at this point?

 

There is a printable version here:

 

http://guesthollow.com/store/shop/knowledge-of-nature-curriculum/

 

Basically when you purchase the curriculum you get the following:

 

  • 3 printable schedules in 3 different formats (PDF, Microsoft Word, Open Office)
  • A login and password to the online version of the schedule (which makes it easy to use via a tablet, etc.).

I try to provide as many options as possible so that customers can edit, print, or just view the schedule online. :-)

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Thanks for the recommendation!! I'll take a look at them. I really like the preview on Amazon!

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Thank you!!  :blush:

 

I would love your feedback on the American history. I'm getting ready to redo it soon with a complete overhaul, so any suggestions or comments you might have would be really appreciated.

 

I'll leave the old version up, too. The new one will be in my store.

 

I'm trying to find a good spine book for the new version and am pulling my hair out over that, as I can't find anything that is "just right". Once I get that settled, I can work on the rest. 

 

When I used it the first time my older son was in 3rd and 4th grade.  I can't remember if we even had a spine.  I remember going to every used book sale, thrift shop, and library book sale with your list of resources in my hand and darn it if I didn't get almost every single book on it.  I think I drove my husband crazy in my quest for books :lol: .   

 

I am using it for my younger son this year (5th grader) and am using Notgrass America the Beautiful as the spine, but over 2 years.  I don't particularly love that book, it but I haven't found anything else I like.

 

We made very few changes to what you presented in Year 1.  I think we shortened the first 8 weeks down to about 4 and moved the last few weeks of Civil War in that first year to the second year.  Some of the explorers we covered in SOTW 2 so we cut them out as well.  We ended up spending extra time on the colonies (maybe 1 week on each of New England, Middle and Southern), Revolutionary War (we really got into this and spent 4 weeks on it), inventions (early 1800s - most specifically the Erie Canal and steamboats), the Constitution, and I think the Pony Express.  But really that was just personal preference for what I wanted or what we ended up getting in to.  I just love having your resources at my fingertips and a breakdown of topics that really fit with where I was trying to go with history.  You put together such a great plan that I felt (for the first time) that I could go spineless and still accomplish what I wanted.  That idea was revolutionary to me at the time.

 

I did use that free DVD that was available to teachers a few years ago from CSPAN - the Story of America, I think it was?  I will look back and see if I can find my planning book from that year because I remember using those DVDs along with your syllabus. 

 

I cannot for the life of me remember what we did with Year 2.  That entire school year is one big blur to me.  That can't be good, LOL. I will have to see if I can find my planning book from that year.  I am pretty sure we followed along with the topics closely.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Wow, this looks really neat. I'm tempted but I'd like to know if anyone here has used "Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics"? I'm comfortable with the moderate Christian orientation of something like Story of the World, where it is easy to make it less or more religious. Would anyone who has used the Exploring Creation book be able to speak on whether it is like SOTW or if it is more Christian leaning than that?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

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I always check your lists for resources and pass your site along to friends. Thank you for all your hard work.

 

I am also wondering about "Exploring Creation" We are not Christian, but can make some christian materials work with adaption.  Can anyone tell me what this is like?  Is it YE?  Is it fairly straightforward science?  Derek Owens is a christian teacher, but we had great luck with his physical science curriculum because he kept to the science. It was a non-issue for that class.

 

I can adapt on the fly, but a science course that is similar to Rod and Staff, for instance, is just not going to work for us. 

 

I have a science loving 5th grader who loves hands on, and I know that Jenn tends to be very hands on, so my instinct is to give it a shot. But I don't know if I can make it work

 

eta: I am looking at samples of the book from the publisher. I see there is an introductory section called 'in the beginning' where it references biblical creation. I can skip that..but the rest I am seeing looks more concerned with the actual science.  Is that correct, or is there a lot of religion woven throughout? It isn't a huge sample

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I always check your lists for resources and pass your site along to friends. Thank you for all your hard work.

 

I am also wondering about "Exploring Creation" We are not Christian, but can make some christian materials work with adaption.  Can anyone tell me what this is like?  Is it YE?  Is it fairly straightforward science?  Derek Owens is a christian teacher, but we had great luck with his physical science curriculum because he kept to the science. It was a non-issue for that class.

 

I can adapt on the fly, but a science course that is similar to Rod and Staff, for instance, is just not going to work for us. 

 

I have a science loving 5th grader who loves hands on, and I know that Jenn tends to be very hands on, so my instinct is to give it a shot. But I don't know if I can make it work

 

eta: I am looking at samples of the book from the publisher. I see there is an introductory section called 'in the beginning' where it references biblical creation. I can skip that..but the rest I am seeing looks more concerned with the actual science.  Is that correct, or is there a lot of religion woven throughout? It isn't a huge sample

 

 

Wow, this looks really neat. I'm tempted but I'd like to know if anyone here has used "Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics"? I'm comfortable with the moderate Christian orientation of something like Story of the World, where it is easy to make it less or more religious. Would anyone who has used the Exploring Creation book be able to speak on whether it is like SOTW or if it is more Christian leaning than that?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

 

There is religion woven throughout, but they are usually small statements with the exception of some paragraphs that are almost entirely Christian content (see below). It is MORE religious than SOTW.

 

The book does not make it clear whether it comes from a Y.E. perspective or not (that I noticed). It doesn't mention millions of years, but also doesn't give the age of the earth as young (that I remember). I believe it stays neutral on the issue (though I'm not 100% positive, I don't remember anything one way or the other).

 

I believe the science is pretty straight-forward. There are mentions of God and Christian material, but they are not tied to the science itself other than to say things like "God did this" and "Isn't it cool that God used that" and so on. If that doesn't make sense, see below.

 

If you are doing the book as a read-aloud, it would be easy enough to skip the Christian content, for the most part (imo), just the same as I would skip some evolutionary content on the fly, when reading to my kids (especially books that are really heavy with it). I'll page through part of the book and give you some examples of things you'd have to skip...

 

Each chapter has small sections to read so I'll mark the sections that have Christian content with an asterisk and bold text, as I skim through the material in a few chapters:

 

Chapter 1 - 15 pages (I'm putting how many pages are in the chapter, so you can see how many mentions of God or Christian content occur throughout by looking below and put that in perspective.)

 

Intro* - contains Christian content throughout

In the Beginning* (talks about creation)

Forming the World* - God mentioned throughout

Everything Matters

Matter Matters

Turn Up the Volume

Mass Matters

Density Matters

Buoyancy Basics

More on Matter

Luster Matters

Color May Matter

The Shape of Matter

Hardness Matters* - a brief mention of how the Bible says the streets in heaven are paved in gold in the first paragraph

Smell Matters 

More Properties Matter

End of chapter material* - mention of how wonderful it is that God created different things, etc. in the first paragraph 

 

Chapter 2 - 13 pages

 

Moving Matter

Moving Atoms

Solid Matter

Liquid Matter

Viscosity Values

Gas Matter

Expanding and Escaping Air

Gas to Liquid to Solid to Liquid to Gas

End of chapter material* - First paragraph gives God credit for creating matter (easily to skip the 1st to sentences that mention that)

 

Chapter 3 - 19 pages

 

Building Blocks of Creation* - mentions that God has a fave building block (atoms) - in the 1st paragraph

Also mentions that when God created the earth, He made about 94 different elements in the 5th paragraph and other mentions about God (in that 5th paragraph)

Variety of Atoms* - 1st sentence mentions God creating atoms and elements (easily skipped)

Attaching Atoms* - 1st sentence mentions God knowing what elements to connect to make everything (easily skipped)

Atom Anatomy

Charged Up* - in 3rd paragraph it says, "There are so many things to discover about God's world and all He made." and the following sentence also mentions God.

Primary Positives

Neutral News

Electric Electrons

Electron Energy

Clouds, Shells, and Orbitals

Valence Valor* - in 3rd paragraph it says, "God created these to atoms to bond together..." (easily skipped)

The Periodic Table of Elements

Bonding Basics

End of chapter material

 

Chapter 4 - 20 pages

 

Compound Chemistry

Crystallized Creations* - Christian content in title: creations, in paragraph 8 mention of the verse "You are the salt of the earth" (3 sentences together that talk about that)

Subsection in the above chapter: Pressure and  Perseverance - the entire paragraph is Christian and talks about pressure as mentioned in the Bible (James 1) - not necessary to read that paragraph to teach the lesson as it's not science based but is about character.

 

Putty, Plastics, and Pencil Erasers

Acidic Acid* - in 3rd paragraph it says "Do you remember that most of the elements God created are metals? Acids can dissolve and corrode a lot of the elements God made."

End of chapter material

 

************************************************

 

I hope this helps to show how Christian content is interspersed throughout the book. I personally think it's easy enough to skip most of that, if you are going to read the book out loud to your children. I'm good at skipping things on the fly though. Some people may not be. 

 

For those who'd like to avoid Christian content, I can see why you would not be comfortable using it. However, please note that I do schedule in so many other books (some that even mention evolution). I think someone who is not a Christian could still use the spine book as a read-aloud, explain to your kids that it's a Christian book, so you might come across some beliefs that don't match your own, and then just don't use the 1 other book that is Christian (and clearly marked in the resources). 

 

Of course it will be up to you as to what you are OK with and not...but I think overall the curriculum is so awesome (if I do say so myself :lol: ), that perhaps you can get past the Christian content in the one book to enjoy the activities and all of the other great books, etc.  ;)

 

Please let me know if I can answer any other questions, or if you'd like more chapter examples to make a better decision as to if the spine book is OK for you or not. I want my curricula to be a good fit for whomever uses it, and I recognize that the Christian content in the spine may be too much for some (as I would not use some things that are just too way off base for my family's Christian beliefs). 

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That was exceedingly kind of you, to go through the book and make notes of all that. I hope you make a copy of that to use on your website or if people ask, lol.

 

I am able to edit on the fly and I don't mind it, but some people do.

 

I had already made my 5th grade science plan...but I have been so impressed with what you have done before that I am seriously thinking that I need to reconsider my whole year and give this a try.

 

Drat you for making awesome science curriculum with tons of hands on options that kids love (insert fist shaking smiley)!

 

ETA: Do you have the experiments from the apologia books planned for all or most of the weeks? Their website does have a materials list, do you suggest people take a look at that to get an idea of what will be needed to do the hands on stuff?

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I sincerely appreciate your willingness to give some concrete examples of what the text does. That helped a lot.

 

Personally, I am able to edit on the fly (most of the time) but mostly I edit for YE stuff and anything that would be explicitly against my values. I am okay with God talk in general, I just think science should be clear about the difference between God talk and lesson - you certainly made it seem like the text was very clear. So thanks for that, and I think I'll give it a try.

 

 

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That was exceedingly kind of you, to go through the book and make notes of all that. I hope you make a copy of that to use on your website or if people ask, lol.

 

 

You're welcome!  I did put a copy of it on my website, lol. Thanks for the idea. 

 

I am able to edit on the fly and I don't mind it, but some people do.

 

I had already made my 5th grade science plan...but I have been so impressed with what you have done before that I am seriously thinking that I need to reconsider my whole year and give this a try.

 

Wow, thanks so much for the compliment!! May I solicit you for a testimonial to put on my website? LOL

 

Drat you for making awesome science curriculum with tons of hands on options that kids love (insert fist shaking smiley)!

 

LOL, you totally made my day...

 

ETA: Do you have the experiments from the apologia books planned for all or most of the weeks?

 

Yes, I have all of the experiments scheduled out in the curricula schedule. Every single week has several activities. 

Even though I think of them as being optional, most of them really illustrate the concepts being taught in an easy-to-understand manner. I hope that answers your question. I'm kind of foggy brained today, lol. Let me know if I totally didn't get it. ;-)

 

Their website does have a materials list, do you suggest people take a look at that to get an idea of what will be needed to do the hands on stuff?

 

That's a good idea. Yes, I'd recommend looking at the supply list ahead of time. Most of it is stuff you'll have laying around the house, but there are some items you'll want to make sure you have on hand so you don't have that last minute "aww crud" moment where you are missing something like a pie tin or something, lol. 

 

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I sincerely appreciate your willingness to give some concrete examples of what the text does. That helped a lot.

 

Personally, I am able to edit on the fly (most of the time) but mostly I edit for YE stuff and anything that would be explicitly against my values. I am okay with God talk in general, I just think science should be clear about the difference between God talk and lesson - you certainly made it seem like the text was very clear. So thanks for that, and I think I'll give it a try.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

 

I'm so glad it was helpful!! 

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