Quark Chronicles?

[Farrar]

After all the good reviews on here, I'd like to read these with the kids, but I'm a little hesitant because I'm not clear what the perspective is. I know the authors are Christian, but are the books written with a Christian perspective and if so, what does that look like? Are they "neutral"? Other secular types, what's your take? I keep reading the good reviews, but I have to admit that I'm not super interested in reading a "neutral" zoology of all things (as in, a zoology book that completely leaves out evolution) at this stage in the game.

[FawnsFunnyFarm]

I think I read somewhere at they talk about evolution???? Gah, I can't remember now. We decided to not buy them, my kids weren't all over the moon when I read the sample to them, so they got pushed into the dark recesses of my brain.

[mamamindy]

Farrar,  I would e-mail the author directly.  She will give you a clear picture about the creation/evolution ideas in the books, and I am confident she wouldn't try to sway you either way.  I can't answer because I don't own Zoology book.  I do have Botony, but at the time we started it, it was really too advanced for my kids.  Kathy and her husband are science fiction fans, and the books are intended to be a fun, well written adventure book that you can add more reading to if you want to flesh out the ideas.  In her additional reading lists in Wayfarers, there are 2 reading lists: one for young earth, and one for old earth.  Not sure if that helps you or not. 

[silver]

I have not read it, but from looking at the TOC in the notbooking sample, I'm pretty sure the Zoology book focuses mostly on classification and doesn't cover evolution.

[Sammish]

We're on chapter 3 or 4 of the Zoology book, and so far it looks like silver is right- it's more classification than evolution. The kids are in space, and they run across different species that remind them of species they know from home, and they make comments about how they're similar to those species. They talk about characteristics of different groups, but not how those groups got that way. 

 

I just checked out the notebooking pages for Zoology (which is where you'll find her suggested readings to go along with the book), and "The Magic Schoolbus in the time of Dinosaurs" is one of the optional books. But there doesn't appear to be anything specifically on evolution.

[fourisenough]

We're secular hs'ers. Dd11 is reading & loving Botany currently. Really entertaining with lots of science sprinkled throughout book. Haven't come across anything that sets off my 'radar', but honestly I wasn't reading aloud fast enough, so DD has absconded with the book and is now reading independently.

[Farrar]

I found it. Don't know how I missed it. Clearly wasn't looking closely enough at the website. Neutral, as I suspected.

 

Sigh. Evolution is such an important unifying theory in biology. I'm not sure what I think of using a resource that totally leaves it out past the little kid stage.

[TheAttachedMama]

I could be wrong, but I don't remember anything in Quark that would NOT work for a secular homeschooler.**

 

Quark feels like a very full program.   I too was worried that the books might be lacking since they don't cover evolution.    However, they are honestly VERY in depth.   

 

Of course, we don't rely on any one single book to teach things like science or history.   It is hard to get a full, unbiased picture that way.  So we always add in extra readers, documentaries, outings,  etc.  So evolution was covered in our home even though we used Quark.   And I would suggest that anyone do the same if they are using Quark----or any other science book.     I personally don't know of any, single science resource that covers EVERYTHING in biology.   Something important is nearly always left out or glossed over.    For example, there are some biology books that cover evolution but leave out reproduction all together.  Surely reproduction is just as (or even more) important than evolution when studying life science.   But so many science books leave it out!  OR, there are books which cover evolution and reproduction, but only quickly gloss over classification and taxonomy.   

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**Writing this as a Christian who teaches her kids evolution.   I'm not sure what name that is given.   But pointing that out in case I have any unknown biases when I read.  :)

[hands-on-mama]

Yeah, I don't see anything against evolution. We are using her full curriculum and will just add in books that cover that aspect.

[*Jessica*]

I'm an atheist and I haven't seen anything that disappoints me in the books so far. We love them. We tend to use tons of resources, though, so evolution is covered that way. The zoology book is basically about taxonomic classification.