Ema Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 Looking at MP Mammals science this year for my 4th grader. Thought about doing the birds one, but thought maybe a whole year of birds would get a bit old unless someone really really loves birds. For those of you who have used the Mammals curriculum or both mammals and birds, did you like the mammals one as much as people seem to like the birds course? What did you/did you not like about them? Would love to hear your thoughts! Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAttachedMama Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 First, you are worried about spending an entire year on birds???!! Who wouldn't want to do that? 🙂 I am just kidding. I just personally would love to spend an entire year on birds. I will say that these longer, single topic focused nature studies on just one topic are what really stepped our nature study game up another level. Before, we were sort of jumping around looking at stuff we found...and not really knowing much about what we were looking at...and reading about various topics..... but not really retaining much about what we were learning. It was fun, and we enjoyed our time outside. However, I wouldn't say that we learned all that much about nature besides how to appreciate it. Studying just one topic for many months though....Wow! That finally made it so that we actually have some sort of knowledge about that topic. For example, my kids can now look up at the sky and get excited about seeing certain constellations now. Or they might see a certain bug in our area and get excited because they know the seasons are changing. Really being able to focus on a single topic has been wonderful. Now to answer your question... I don't actually own mammals. I have only looked at the samples online. However, I feel like mammals is geared towards a much younger age than Birds. I think it would feel very light for a 4th grader. I know my 4th grader probably knows everything in that book just from watching Wild Kratz and going to the zoo. I think that the MP insect study is one of the easiest nature study resources to use. For one thing, bugs are EVERYWHERE and there are so many of them! And, when you go out in nature, they don't run away from kids. (Sometimes we wish that they would.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ema Posted March 15, 2019 Author Share Posted March 15, 2019 On 3/13/2019 at 4:21 PM, TheAttachedMama said: First, you are worried about spending an entire year on birds???!! Who wouldn't want to do that? 🙂 I am just kidding. I just personally would love to spend an entire year on birds. Haha, I know! My nephew is stoked to do a whole year on birds. Just didn’t know if it would get too repetitive... Everyone seems to love MP science. Was a bit skeptical, but will give it a try this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meadowlark Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 1 hour ago, Ema said: Haha, I know! My nephew is stoked to do a whole year on birds. Just didn’t know if it would get too repetitive... Everyone seems to love MP science. Was a bit skeptical, but will give it a try this year. I worry about that too. A whole year on insects? That is SO not my style! I've heard such different things about MP science. Some people seem to love it, and others think it's horrible. I think part of my problem is that I'm a visual person and so the black/white workbooks don't appeal to me. But having said that, I know that they're very well done and very deep at the same time. My kids don't seem to mind either. We'll probably end up trying astronomy or something in a few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calli Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 (edited) We really loved the Birds course. Not only do children learn the physical aspects of a bird (feathers, beaks, etc.) but they also learn to identify them by their colors, behaviors, and sounds. There are fewer questions to answer and it is a shorter study. I think you could spread it out by possibly studying the birds one week and then taking another week to identify that bird in nature, or something similar. When we went through that study, we also practiced drawing the birds. Both are excellent but Mammals is definitely a longer study than Birds. Edited May 12, 2021 by Calli Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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