1st Grade Science - Can I just not?

[ktgrok]

We will be doing AAR, CLE 100 (already part way through it this year, but we will go to full lessons instead of half lessons next year), probably Sonlight Core A, and some kind of Catholic supplement possibly. We will add in crafts. Do I really need a real science curriculum too? My instinct says no, that watching Magic Schoolbus will pretty much give her all the science she needs. We also watch nature documentaries at night, and check out random science books from the library. 

 

Or is there a GENTLE science that isn't a ton of work for me, but also isn't so gentle it is really kind of pointless? Oh, and a lot of them seem to be workbook pages that I'm not sure she'll be able to read...I looked at Sunlight's 1st grade science and they have words like rainforest on there! Or am I supposed to read each question to her, in which case what is the point of a worksheet rather than just orally doing questions?

 

Because unless there is something awesome out there, I'm thinking documentaries, Sid the Science Kid, Mr. Wizard, and Bill Nye the Science Guy will be her science curriculum :)

[KeriJ]

You absolutely don't need a science curriculum for 1st.  Watching Magic School Bus, etc. is plenty.  Wild Kratts was perfect for mine at that age too.

[HomeAgain]

Would watching videos be a sufficient education if you put her in school?

We enjoyed Mystery Science this year (interactive video, hands on science).  There's always Nancy Larson, Noeo, or doing a unit study with a kit a month. 

[73349]

My kid is pretty sciencey, so to speak, and I didn't find that using a curriculum was really valuable in 1st or 2nd. I'd say go for library books, nature exploration, and one-off activities as she's interested and as there are opportunities around you. Worksheets are not going to add anything to that.

[justasque]

For me and mine, a curriculum wasn't necessary or even helpful.  They were never deep enough for topics that interested us, and it was hard to match to ability and pre-existing background knowledge to a text or workbook.  For us, the best approach was to choose a topic, immerse ourselves in library books, go on a field trip or do an activity with friends, perhaps do a hands-on activity, and then when we felt ready or something else caught our interest, move on to another topic.  We got more formal in middle school, but until then, interest-led reading and outings laid a good foundation for later work.

[carriede]

Check out Catholic Heritage Curricula's Behold and See. I've heard it's gentle.

[nature girl]

Worksheets for science are pretty pointless, IMO. We loosely follow BFSU, but I think enough topics come up naturally through discussion, through play (things like force and motion) and through nature study that we wouldn't need to supplement. My DD loves experiments though, and I think that's the absolute ideal way to learn, not just learn the answer to the question but the scientific process, how science really works. So if she asks questions that might be answered through experiments, I'll try to find a way for us to dig deeper and discover the answers. (For example, she recently asked me why our bread dough rises, and we did a whole study on yeast, including a few experiments I found online...I think it's something that she'll remember far better than she would have if she'd just read about yeast in a book, or even seen it on a video.)

 

We do get occasional kits as well (Thames & Kosmos has some good ones.)

[Hilltopmom]

No curriculum necessary!

 

Nature walks, trips to a kid science museum if you have one close, Let's Read & Find Out science books from the library on whatever topics you grab of interest, grow a bean plant, look at clouds, visit a farm, play with magnets, a magnifying glass, & water, catch tadpoles, watch the videos people have suggested, maybe a few kits if she's into that & you get them as gifts;)

 

Have fun!

 

Just FYI- no school I've taught in has ever actually done Science in early elem anyways.

[Kalmia]

Outdoor play. Cooking. Gardening. Visits to nature centers and science museums. Really, that's all you need in first grade.

 

ETA: I have read about 20 autobiographies of scientists. All but one spent a great number of pages writing about the vast amounts of time they were allowed to mess around in nature as children.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Kalmia

[Janeway]

We just did Magic School Bus at that age.

[Dmmetler]

Yes, you can skip it. And I say that as a parent of a science focused kid who eats, sleeps, and breathes the stuff. Nothing I found for the lower grades was anywhere near what she wanted, so we watched a lot of TV shows, read a lot of books, and spent a lot of time outside with various stuff. She covered a lot of introductory biology, chemistry, geology and physics in the backyard in those early elementary years.

[Momto6inIN]

We watched Magic School Bus videos and did Magic School Bus experiment kits (super easy and fun) and read books and did a narration page every week or two for 1st and 2nd. It generated lots more excitement about science than anything else we tried at that age and it was much easier on me as well!

[Bluegoat]

No, you don't need to do it.

 

I think that really, science, in classical education terms, is really a logic stage skill. 

 

I would take some time to do nature study, and if you don't want to take the time to organize it, do it very casually.  Just go, outside, in nature, on a regular basis.  Ideally to the same places so they become familiar.  Look at stuff in ponds, visit a salt marsh, sit in the woods, whatever.

[Rachel]

You guys are making me feel better. My son is a voracious reader and we are attempting REAL science this year, but it doesn't get done and he tends to already know the information. He does enjoy doing demonstrations but definitely learns more reading my husband's Mechanical Engineering magazine that comes every month.

[SilverMoon]

Totes. My last little one read through a stack of Getting to Know Nature's Children with me and watched Magic School Bus videos for first grade. You can almost always find lapbooks or something on the internet for free to go with any MSB episode if you have a crafty lover. We explored local nature. That's it.

 

My last little one will be K/1st next school year. Somehow all the older students are taking biology or life science, and he's been listening to them chat about it and getting interested. I'm leaning toward doing one of the first human body encyclopedias ala TWTM and adding coloring pages or paper crafts as he's interested. If we finish that early that stack of Getting to Know Nature's Children is still around, and there's always Green Thumbs. Or the MSB DVD collection...lol.

[Carol in Cal.]

Magic School Bus books are fantastic for that age.

Long visits to science museums and natural history sites with a focus on observations and on discussing principles.

Science experiments at home from "Awesome Ocean Science" or "Adventures with Atoms and Molecules"

And some kind of physical intro to simple machines.

 

That would be much better than any science curriculum I know of for this age and the following year or two.

 

My inclination would be to use Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry, prelevel, at some point in grades 1-3, but it only has 10 lessons so it's not a full year course by any means.

[Holly]

I would do "something" for science.  I'd want to add something hands-on, even if it's just a few activities like planting some seeds or visiting a pet shop/zoo to see some animals.  In addition, I'd want to add a few library books to the Magic School Bus videos.  Gail Gibbons has lots of great science books to elementary ages.  

[MeaganS]

We aren't doing formal science, and I'm a very "formal" homeschooler. It seems to work very well to just create a science-rich environment and go with it. My girls watch shows like Magic School Bus, Zula Patrol, Wild Kratts, Dinosaur Train, Sid the Science Kid, and Bill Nye the Science Guy. They also watch nature documentaries like Life and Planet Earth. We have passes to the zoo and science museum and go to both regularly. I always try to point out interesting scientific things in our daily lives. The girls learned quite a bit about prenatal growth when I was pregnant with baby sister, for example. If they have a question about something, we look it up and try to find videos or pictures on the topic. We take nature hikes and talk about what we see ("Mom, there are tiny pine cones and large pinecones." me: "Why do you think that is? Can you make a hypothesis?").  We look up plants, flowers, and trees we find and read about them. We have a large selection of science apps that they are allowed to play with and toys like Snap Circuits that we get out regularly. We've done a few little projects like building a My Body and growing butterflies. When we cook, we talk about what different ingredients do, if they are healthy and why, if they are in season, etc. Daddy is a doctor and tells them about things patients are going through and procedures/medicines he does or gives to help them and why.

 

All that to say, while we don't do formal science, I feel like my girls are getting a very good elementary science education. They are being exposed to ideas and things around them on a very regular basis.

 

ETA: We've also done Junior Ranger programs at the National Parks. We love them and the girls like earning pins and badges for them. We're all looking forward to our trip to Yellowstone this summer. :)

Edited March 29, 2016 by Meagan S

[Seeking Squirrels]

My DD7 is very science-y. While she does enjoy doing RSO, we find ourselves doing so many other fun science things that we often don't get to the structured curriculum. We watch MSB, watch Bill Nye, watch documentaries, do MSB kits, other random kits, read lots of books, and just experiment with things. (ETA: and lots of Usborne science books kept out where they notice them.)

 

Lately we have been getting a lot of science through lapbooking. We get the packs from hands of a child. She chooses the topic and I get several books from the library to supplement. We spend 2-3 weeks on one thing, but she really digs into it. We just finished ladybugs and now she's doing butterflies. She has her eye on the unit on bubbleology for as soon as it's consistently nice out.

 

Yesterday we ended up skipping half our planned work because she got on an engineering kick and I let her run with it for over 2 hours. She used straws, popsicle sticks, tape, ribbon, and cardboard to create a working playground for her stuffed animals. She figured out on her own that triangles gave her more stability and to spread out her swing so it wouldn't tip when in use. I'm guessing she learned a lot more than she would have from the next lesson on rocks in RSO.

 

 

Edited March 29, 2016 by Whovian10

[ktgrok]

Would watching videos be a sufficient education if you put her in school?

 

We enjoyed Mystery Science this year (interactive video, hands on science).  There's always Nancy Larson, Noeo, or doing a unit study with a kit a month. 

 

I'm not sure what you are getting at. They do almost no science in 1st grade in the local school, so watching documentaries would be more than she'd get there. 

[ktgrok]

Thank you all! 

 

And to clarify, not JUST documentaries..although we watch a LOT of those! Wild Kratts of course, but also Nature, the BBC World ones, Wildest Latin America, etc, plus she adores Dogs with Jobs (sort of science), Rock the Park (national/state parks), Unlikely Animal Friends, etc. Daddy is a computer science guy but also likes to build things so she helps him build things, cooks with me, we have weekly park dates that often include a nature walk, and we go out in our own yard daily and I make sure to comment on how the leaves are changing, animals we see, etc. (A hawk dive bombe me the other day!) Oh, and grandparents are on the water and have a boat, so we have seen dolphins, manatees, cormorants, pelicans, osprey, etc etc on a regular basis, plus of course fish :)

 

We have memberships to the Science Museum and the Zoo, and also go to the Aquarium at least once a year. I'm a biology nut, and documentary addict, so she just goes along with me. And we often listen to Science Friday on NPR  as well...much of which is over her head but she gets some of it. She also watched most of the Cosmos series, etc. 

 

And of course, we get books at the library :) We also have Uborne books on the body, various animals, etc. 

[HomeAgain]

I'm not sure what you are getting at. They do almost no science in 1st grade in the local school, so watching documentaries would be more than she'd get there. 

 

I'm getting at: If I plan my kid's day, and look at it as a place I want to send him for his education, would I be happy with it if someone else is offering it?  Frankly, no, I would not be enticed by the idea of plopping my kid down in front of videos and calling it science class.  I'd look at a teacher like they had three heads if they even had the gall to suggest that it was an adequate educational method for my 1st grader.  So if I wouldn't be happy with a school doing it, why would I do it myself?  If you can be happy with it, do it.  I'm saying that's my method of deciding *is it enough?*

[Wabi Sabi]

No formal curriculum for science here at that age. We did lots of museum visits, nature hikes, Magic School Bus, nature/survival classes, Bill Nye, bird watching, gardening, hatching eggs and raising chicks, tours of a local observatory, going to zoos, raising butterflies, read lots of non-fiction science books for fun, etc. Very organic and interest led, going down lots of little rabbit trails. 

My oldest is a fifth grader and this is the first year we've done a formal science program and even so, we took what was intended to be a 10 week program on the human brain and have stretched it out over the entire school year by adding in additional reading, nursing home visits, dissections, going to see a temporary museum visit on the brain, writing a paper, listening to podcasts and TED talks, etc. 

[ktgrok]

I'm getting at: If I plan my kid's day, and look at it as a place I want to send him for his education, would I be happy with it if someone else is offering it?  Frankly, no, I would not be enticed by the idea of plopping my kid down in front of videos and calling it science class.  I'd look at a teacher like they had three heads if they even had the gall to suggest that it was an adequate educational method for my 1st grader.  So if I wouldn't be happy with a school doing it, why would I do it myself?  If you can be happy with it, do it.  I'm saying that's my method of deciding *is it enough?*

 

Ok, that makes more sense. I guess what I'm trying to decide is if a 6 yr old NEEDS a science class at all, or if that kind of structured learning is better left until later. Would she be better with more free time versus dong science workbooks? Would she be better off watching a Nature documentary than me reading from a textbook? Better off going for a walk on the boardwalk through the local state park versus a class? All the science I've found is either over her reading ability or totally boring and stuff she already knows. So I want permission to stop looking and just do what I described above. 

Edited March 29, 2016 by ktgrok

[KeriJ]

Ok, that makes more sense. I guess what I'm trying to decide is if a 6 yr old NEEDS a science class at all, or if that kind of structured learning is better left until later. Would she be better with more free time versus dong science workbooks? Would she be better off watching a Nature documentary than me reading from a textbook? Better off going for a walk on the boardwalk through the local state park versus a class? All the science I've found is either over her reading ability or totally boring and stuff she already knows. So I want permission to stop looking and just do what I described above. 

 

Permission granted. :)

[ktgrok]

Permission granted. :)

 

 

thanks :)

 

And to be clear, it's not that we dislike science. It's that we really are a science household, and the science curriculums seem redundant to that. For instance, this afternoon the kids wanted to play outside but it was thundering. So I pulled up videos of lightening and we discussed it. Then that somehow led to tornados, and videos of them. Then pictures of storm damage. Then pictures of storm cellars, and diagrams of them. Then when it stopped thundering I let them go for a walk around the cul de sac with their umbrellas, in the rain. Compared to that, a CLE workbook page that has them cut and paste pictures of rain and clouds seems like busy work. Another example was Behold and See...it has them learn that seeds grow plants, tape seeds to the workbook pages, etc. I'd rather just plant some seeds in pots and let them take care of them. Which we've done several times. 

 

Edited March 30, 2016 by ktgrok

[OneStepAtATime]

thanks :)

 

And to be clear, it's not that we dislike science. It's that we really are a science household, and the science curriculums seem redundant to that. For instance, this afternoon the kids wanted to play outside but it was thundering. So I pulled up videos of lightening and we discussed it. Then that somehow led to tornados, and videos of them. Then pictures of storm damage. Then pictures of storm cellars, and diagrams of them. Then when it stopped thundering I let them go for a walk around the cul de sac with their umbrellas, in the rain. Compared to that, a CLE workbook page that has them cut and paste pictures of rain and clouds seems like busy work. Another example was Behold and See...it has them learn that seeds grow plants, tape seeds to the workbook pages, etc. I'd rather just plant some seeds in pots and let them take care of them. Which we've done several times. 

See, what you are doing seems a lot more engaging to me than a bunch of worksheets.  Absolutely, no formal science needed at 6.  Lots of time for more structured science when she is older.  Give her a chance to just explore and learn whatever inspires her in the moment...:)

[ktgrok]

See, what you are doing seems a lot more engaging to me than a bunch of worksheets.  Absolutely, no formal science needed at 6.  Lots of time for more structured science when she is older.  Give her a chance to just explore and learn whatever inspires her in the moment... :)

 

 

Thanks. I thought so, but wanted to be sure I wasn't being neglectful. She also watched Unlikely Animal Friends, Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin, and part of a documentary about the development of the Apple computer today (but fell asleep during that one). 

 

[Garga]

At that age we got easy books from the library. We'd pick a topic and see what the library had. Dinosaurs, plants, volcanos, mammals, reptiles, water cycle...and so on.

 

In 3rd grade I had one son draw a picture of something from each book with a caption he made up that described the picture.

[pehp]

Casual nature study, library books, simply observing the world: that's science for a first grader, in my book. ;) You have my permission to Just Not!

[MerryAtHope]

I would do a number of things differently if I had 1st grade to do over--and one is more nature walks and less worrying about science curriculum. That said, mine loved Magic School Bus books at that age too!

[TriciaT]

I think your plans are great, and it sounds like you have a science rich home environment. You enjoy it and make a part of your life normally.

Science curriculum for young kids is for moms like me. My house is a literature rich house. I do not need book lists or literature assignments for the very same reason you do not need science workbooks! (But if I don't have science curriculum, it won't get covered. [emoji4])

 

 

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[TriciaT]

I think your plans are great, and it sounds like you have a science rich home environment. You enjoy it and make a part of your life normally.

Science curriculum for young kids is for moms like me. My house is a literature rich house. I do not need book lists or literature assignments for the very same reason you do not need science workbooks! (But if I don't have science curriculum, it won't get covered. [emoji4])

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[8filltheheart]

Would watching videos be a sufficient education if you put her in school?

 

We enjoyed Mystery Science this year (interactive video, hands on science). There's always Nancy Larson, Noeo, or doing a unit study with a kit a month.

I have never used a science curriculum with my young children. Science isn't a "subject" in our homeschool until 3rd grade. My kids have never cracked open a science textbook until high school level science.

 

Shockingly, well not to me ;), our oldest ds is a chemical engineer, our oldest dd is in health care, and our current college student is pursing a degree(quite successfully) in physics.

 

So, yes, Magic School Bus videos would be "sufficient education" for first grade!

 

LOL, my 11th grader and I are doing a linguistics study and one of the lectures we watched was talking about the communication of animals and started talking about how bees communicate. We both looked at each other and said Miss Frizzle! :)

[ktgrok]

I think your plans are great, and it sounds like you have a science rich home environment. You enjoy it and make a part of your life normally.

Science curriculum for young kids is for moms like me. My house is a literature rich house. I do not need book lists or literature assignments for the very same reason you do not need science workbooks! (But if I don't have science curriculum, it won't get covered. [emoji4])

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

True story! I love books, but detest reading aloud. Well, detest is a strong word,but I've never enjoyed it even as a child. So we are probably going to do Sonlight just so I'm forced to read aloud! So yes, same idea. 

[MeaganS]

True story! I love books, but detest reading aloud. Well, detest is a strong word,but I've never enjoyed it even as a child. So we are probably going to do Sonlight just so I'm forced to read aloud! So yes, same idea.

I'm so glad someone else feels that way. I really dislike reading out loud. This is one of the reasons I have an Audible subscription for my kiddos. It just feels like homeschooling blasphemy to say so. 😀

[KeriJ]

thanks :)

 

And to be clear, it's not that we dislike science. It's that we really are a science household, and the science curriculums seem redundant to that. For instance, this afternoon the kids wanted to play outside but it was thundering. So I pulled up videos of lightening and we discussed it. Then that somehow led to tornados, and videos of them. Then pictures of storm damage. Then pictures of storm cellars, and diagrams of them. Then when it stopped thundering I let them go for a walk around the cul de sac with their umbrellas, in the rain. Compared to that, a CLE workbook page that has them cut and paste pictures of rain and clouds seems like busy work. Another example was Behold and See...it has them learn that seeds grow plants, tape seeds to the workbook pages, etc. I'd rather just plant some seeds in pots and let them take care of them. Which we've done several times. 

 

We are the same way, which is why I don't use a curriculum at that age.  It is redundant. 

 

Lots of intentional time in nature, observing and talking about things, reading library books, watching educational videos.  We have some nature encyclopedias my kids like to look through, even when they can't read yet.  I sometime have them draw a picture from the book.  It's plenty!!

[Peplophoros]

 

 

ETA: I have read about 20 autobiographies of scientists. All but one spent a great number of pages writing about the vast amounts of time they were allowed to mess around in nature as children.

 

I love it when I read things like this.  It's the same with great writers:  they just read lots of great literature.