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Science Curriculum?


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We've started 7th grade with Ana and it's going great so far! She's trucking along in Barton Level 4, Math U See Gamma, and a 4th Grade US History book. She's also really taken to Rhythm of Handwriting Cursive and is doing a calendar notebook daily to practice skills and keep a good sense of time.

 

But science is the one subject that neither of us is loving for her. I got her CHC Behold and See 4: Human Anatomy and Health because I thought from a practical perspective she really needed a better grasp of those. But it's sooo boring to me, a bit preachy, and is so much reading aloud that I wonder with her comprehension issues if she'll retain enough. My 2nd grader is doing REAL Science Odyssey: Life Science and sooo excited! Heck, I look forward to his lessons too with the simple labs, meaty notebook pages, and activity sheets. I decided to try Ana using his curriculum this week and today was a total bust. She couldn't grasp the concepts or complete the activity sheet alone at all and the lab (very hands on-two cells made from jello) seemed lost on her. She liked the lab, it just didn't teach her anything :(

 

So any ideas for a science curriculum we can love? She's working so hard this year, has a great attitude, and matured a lot socially this summer...I hate for science to become a source of frustration for her when the rest of school is going so well.

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Have you seen Exploring Nature with Children?  I'm NUTSO for it.   :)  It's $15, super easy to implement, and you can easily make it work for that age, with or without the ID.  She could journal, draw, using a phone to take pictures and make a photobook, use pages from the Giant Science Resource Book if you want worksheets, add library books, etc. etc.  Totally customizable.  Like literally you open it up and go oh this week it's seed dispersal.  GSRB has several nice pages, pick the ones that apply, send her on the walk, make a collection, discuss, take a pic, trace or journal things.  It's just SO easy to make happen, and it would fit that in-between girl who maybe needs hands-on but content, etc.

 

https://payhip.com/LynnSeddon

 

That should be the link.

 

Btw, you know why I love ENC so much?  It's a lot like the zoo days we did last year that my ds loved.  He learned a lot more from them than I expected, and I think it was their strong combination of multi-sensory with a single point.  Like if we were learning about predator vs. prey, we spent 2 hours doing nothing but that, reinforcing it lots of ways (visually, kinesthetically, auditorily, with games, with application, etc. etc.).  And ENC, in its own way, is a lot like that.  I'm really impressed so far.

 

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:grouphug:  :grouphug:  :grouphug:

 

What might she actually have interest in studying?  Maybe you could find something at a mid-elementary level that is something she genuinely wants to learn about? Can she follow very visually based science shows?

 

She's reasonably interested in Human Anatomy, it's just the way it's portrayed in the Behold and See book that's a bit dry. She loves cooking so anything that incorporated that would be good. I was planning to do a cooking/measurement lap book and extend the Behold and See health unit to include meal planning and cooking this spring. She enjoys watching science shows like Magic Schoolbus, Sid the Science Kid, etc. but doesn't always grasp the concepts. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. She does okay with those Let's Read and Find Out picture books....all my kids adore those things. Usually Tobias reads them aloud to her and they have fun reading and discussing the pictures. I should try and see which ones have caught her eye lately, that might give me a hint. 

 

If I do find a topic, is there a particular elementary curriculum provider/series you'd recommend that would be good?

 

Have you seen Exploring Nature with Children?  I'm NUTSO for it.   :)  It's $15, super easy to implement, and you can easily make it work for that age, with or without the ID.  She could journal, draw, using a phone to take pictures and make a photobook, use pages from the Giant Science Resource Book if you want worksheets, add library books, etc. etc.  Totally customizable.  Like literally you open it up and go oh this week it's seed dispersal.  GSRB has several nice pages, pick the ones that apply, send her on the walk, make a collection, discuss, take a pic, trace or journal things.  It's just SO easy to make happen, and it would fit that in-between girl who maybe needs hands-on but content, etc.

 

https://payhip.com/LynnSeddon

 

That should be the link.

 

Btw, you know why I love ENC so much?  It's a lot like the zoo days we did last year that my ds loved.  He learned a lot more from them than I expected, and I think it was their strong combination of multi-sensory with a single point.  Like if we were learning about predator vs. prey, we spent 2 hours doing nothing but that, reinforcing it lots of ways (visually, kinesthetically, auditorily, with games, with application, etc. etc.).  And ENC, in its own way, is a lot like that.  I'm really impressed so far.

 

Hm, I like the nature study thing (it looks fun and Charlotte-Mason-y!) but I'm not sure she would. She's not a fan of the outdoors and doesn't do well with open-ended assignments like "pick a tree and draw something about it" or "take a walk and write down 3 things you observe". She'd often write something totally random, like "I see a mailbox, a driveway, and a boy." which would be true but not help a nature study, lol! ;)  

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Does your dd wear hearing aides?  If so, are you able to run any of the read-aloud or even computer-based program through them?  My ds (now 21) is hearing impaired and what made the biggest difference was running the lecture (we did BJU online for a course and some Great Courses) through his aides while he watched the visual. Some portable DVD players use bluetooth which would connect through the aides and large-sized headphones can fit over them and connect into the computer allowing for better/clearer/louder sound.  Work on reducing the stress of trying to hear things - she might retain more.  Also, unfortunately, hearing impaired kids tend to take longer to retain information no matter what process you use so know that she'll most likely learn this stuff again somewhere later down the road and will remember some and add more to her memory bank.  I'd be inclined to let her read or listen/watch to any of the science books and series she enjoys reading and learning about.  I know kids need exposure to working with a textbook, etc. but I have found that later is better.  Let the science be interest-driven.  If she likes cooking, I know there is an experiment book that uses the kitchen - something about chemistry experiments in the kitchen.  Just expose her to the ways of science - forming hypothesis, guessing what will happen and then watch and see.  Figure out what went right/wrong.  Let her focus on reading while remediating on her dyslexia and have fun with science.

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Hi. I'm new here, but have been lurking a year or so:)

 

My almost 13 year old (dyslexic, LD) is using the Steck Vaugh Wonders of Science series this year. I had them laying around from when I taught public school special Ed. They're hi LO workbooks, each on a different topic. She's starting with The Human Body. (I think land animals & water life are too easy). Pairing them with Amazon prime or Netflix videos & some hands on labs is my plan.

 

She's thrilled because she can do them on her own now that her reading level is high enough.

 

I just saw that they're for sale in the Remedia publishing catalogue currently.

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Hm, I like the nature study thing (it looks fun and Charlotte-Mason-y!) but I'm not sure she would. She's not a fan of the outdoors and doesn't do well with open-ended assignments like "pick a tree and draw something about it" or "take a walk and write down 3 things you observe". She'd often write something totally random, like "I see a mailbox, a driveway, and a boy." which would be true but not help a nature study, lol! ;)

It's not open-ended like that.  That's why I was trying to describe it to you.  It's very concrete, with very specific things you're looking for.  Like it will explain the types of seed dispersal.  You'll read it to her, look at that science resource book I listed to see their pages, then discuss what you're looking for and make a list.  So yesterday we were looking for mini beasts with 0 legs, 6 legs, 6 legs, 8 legs, 14 legs, many legs.  We spent an hour digging, talking, look at the numbers of segments and legs.  Then we brought them in and looked at them under our hand lens.  But the point is it was ONE THING the whole time.  We spent 2 hours on it, but we were only going over ONE concept, that mini-beasts have different numbers of legs, that this corresponds to patterns (whether it's a worm or an arachnid or an insect or ...) and that we could notice them.  

 

CM is like you're saying, go out and look at a tree and hmm what do I think of that... This is not like that.  This is very specific and goal-oriented.  

 

Here's the book I was telling you about.  Honestly, your dd and my ds, in their own ways (his giftedness and her disabilities) seem to be functioning about the same level.  This book makes it easy to have a page or two to go with the topics.  Giant Science Resource Book  It will have cut and paste, coloring, labeling.  It complements the ENC really nicely.

 

But no matter.  If she wants something else, that's cool too.   :)

 

Hmm, if she likes human body stuff, trying to think here.  Some things would be very accessible to her.  Nutrition, reproduction, babies.  She might even have that complexity that she's feeling certain things (puberty, etc.) and having drives.  You might blend them, like getting her into red cross first aid or babysitting courses where she could learn about things like that.  Some schools have child care programs where kids learn to do daycare.  You might think of her interest sort of vocationally like that.  So study nutrition with a very practical view to how do we know what to feed kids.  Study skin and bacteria so we know how we know what to teach about skin washing, germs, owies.  Study growth and development and maybe have her do observations, recording age, what they like to play with, how they talk, how they play (development and psychology stuff).

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Some ideas for anatomy:

 

The Blood and Guts book  - offers shorter reading sections with hands-on activities.  Since she likes cooking I was thinking that maybe she's like to do some more activities (which may help with grasping of concepts)  It's a 4th grade reading level, but has a good amount of detail.

 

The Body Book -  more of a supplement, but really helps with seeing how the body works.  But only use if she likes coloring/cutting/pasting - otherwise it's not worth the effort!

 

The Way We Work book is very neat but  it's at a higher reading level - maybe see if your library has a copy to look through?  She may enjoy just going through it and looking at the pictures.

 

Good luck no matter what you both decide to study this year!

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Have you seen Exploring Nature with Children?  I'm NUTSO for it.   :)  It's $15, super easy to implement, and you can easily make it work for that age, with or without the ID.  She could journal, draw, using a phone to take pictures and make a photobook, use pages from the Giant Science Resource Book if you want worksheets, add library books, etc. etc.  Totally customizable.  Like literally you open it up and go oh this week it's seed dispersal.  GSRB has several nice pages, pick the ones that apply, send her on the walk, make a collection, discuss, take a pic, trace or journal things.  It's just SO easy to make happen, and it would fit that in-between girl who maybe needs hands-on but content, etc.

 

https://payhip.com/LynnSeddon

 

That should be the link.

 

Btw, you know why I love ENC so much?  It's a lot like the zoo days we did last year that my ds loved.  He learned a lot more from them than I expected, and I think it was their strong combination of multi-sensory with a single point.  Like if we were learning about predator vs. prey, we spent 2 hours doing nothing but that, reinforcing it lots of ways (visually, kinesthetically, auditorily, with games, with application, etc. etc.).  And ENC, in its own way, is a lot like that.  I'm really impressed so far.

 

Thank you so much for your lovely comments :) I hope you are still enjoying it!

 

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  • 11 months later...

Just wanted to mention that the Wonders of Science worktext by Steck Vaughn http://www.wiesereducational.com/preview/wonders-of-science-ld1551.htm

is working out really nicely for my ds this year.  He is presently doing The Human Body, but I think he will do all the worktexts in the series.

I am also having him do Mobymax Science, which is free, very visual and interactive, and self grading, and we both like it. 

So far, these 2 are winners!  

Edited by bluebonnetgirl
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Just wanted to mention that the Wonders of Science worktext by Steck Vaughn http://www.wiesereducational.com/preview/wonders-of-science-ld1551.htm

is working out really nicely for my ds this year. He is presently doing The Human Body, but I think he will do all the worktexts in the series.

I am also having him do Mobymax Science, which is free, very visual and interactive, and self grading, and we both like it.

So far, these 2 are winners!

My dd did Human Body last year, & is working on Water Life right now

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http://guesthollow.com/homeschool/curriculum.html#science

 

Have you checked out Guest Hollow's options. They are created by a homeschool mom (who is on these boards). She offers some of them free (donations are nice :))

There is a junior human anatomy curriculum. I haven't used any of these but they look really well done. Good living books, hands on components, and all layer out. Check it out: 

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