madteaparty Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 (edited) I know how one poster uses it (thanks @Roadrunner) but still a bit baffled by the thing. I have the summer to plan. For reference, I bought the first book for DS and chucked it. I’ve now rebought it for DD and have fresh determination to start anew (and time to prepare since we won’t start until the fall). Hit me up and speak slowly please 😉 Edited April 2, 2019 by madteaparty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 Caveat - I've used all three books with my oldest two, and am in book the with my youngest, so I am happy with the curriculum. However I don't recommend it to people because it takes work to set it up and keep it going and not everyone is suited (?) for that. If you WANT to use it, though, more power to you! I'm happy to help in whatever way. 😊(😢 hmm, that crying emoji came out of nowhere...) For the first book I would read a couple of lessons ahead and make notes in the margins about what I wanted to discuss and any supplies i needed handy. I also cross-referenced experiments from the "730 Easy Science Experiments" book. Then, we would chat and experiment or way through a lesson or an hour, whichever came first. We could set a pretty relaxed pace, 2 or 3 times a week, and still get it all in before aging it to the next book. After each lesson was completed, I would write a summary and have my kids draw a picture of a representative part of the lesson. We put that in a binder, because even in the third book we still occasionally refer back as a reminder. The website didn't exist, But it might be helpful. Also I thought they published a more user friendly book 1, so that might help. Books 2 and 3 were slightly more complicated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 Take your book to the office supply store and have them cut off the binding and 3 hole punch the whole thing. (It will cost a few bucks.) Staple together each individual lesson into packets and put them into a 3 ring binder. Use the lesson plan above, or design your own using the prerequisite flow chart to create your own sequence. Pull out the first 3 lessons in your sequence. Read through carefully. Put the books in their reading list on hold at the library about a week in advance of teaching, and add additional books from the same shelf and correlated Bill Nye videos. Also a couple of weeks in advance, order any needed materials for demonstrations. Run through the demonstrations on your own to work out the kinks. Spend about 10 minutes a day 5 days a week on science. (This time consuming, but I find some of the challenging material takes some time to sink in. Follow his script with maybe a demo on the first day, reading books on the next day, watch the video another day, etc, so it's broken up into pieces with time for your student to mull over the info. As you complete each lesson, add another lesson to your 3 lesson prep pack and repeat with ordering books and materials. HTH. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah0000 Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 I skimmed the whole thing. I casually talked to DS over lunches about the important points in the beginning levels of each strand. Since nothing was absolutely new because of lots of reading aloud, I mostly made sure he understood key concepts. I occasionally play the simple games or orally review vocabulary as I think of it. I do a bunch of othe science stuff for a year then check back with BFSU again. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madteaparty Posted April 3, 2019 Author Share Posted April 3, 2019 23 hours ago, SusanC said: Caveat - I've used all three books with my oldest two, and am in book the with my youngest, so I am happy with the curriculum. However I don't recommend it to people because it takes work to set it up and keep it going and not everyone is suited (?) for that. If you WANT to use it, though, more power to you! I'm happy to help in whatever way. 😊(😢 hmm, that crying emoji came out of nowhere...) For the first book I would read a couple of lessons ahead and make notes in the margins about what I wanted to discuss and any supplies i needed handy. I also cross-referenced experiments from the "730 Easy Science Experiments" book. Then, we would chat and experiment or way through a lesson or an hour, whichever came first. We could set a pretty relaxed pace, 2 or 3 times a week, and still get it all in before aging it to the next book. After each lesson was completed, I would write a summary and have my kids draw a picture of a representative part of the lesson. We put that in a binder, because even in the third book we still occasionally refer back as a reminder. The website didn't exist, But it might be helpful. Also I thought they published a more user friendly book 1, so that might help. Books 2 and 3 were slightly more complicated. So you write the summary instead of having them do it? Is it so you can revisit it later for review or? Would you mind texting me what “output” for a book 1 lesson would look like(kid- produced included)? Thanks so much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 I started writing the summaries because I wanted to be sure to capture the key point(s) of the lesson and they had a tendency to only tell me about the vey last thing they did. Even now, in book 3 with my 4th grader, if a lesson is coming back to a topic we haven't seen in a while, we will take a look at the prerequisite lessons which can include lessons from book 1. Last week we started a chemistry unit and began by reviewing what we had learned about matter over the years. I think my kids "believe" it me when they see it in their own handwriting. 😁 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 Having a flow chart of the lessons was really important for me and the regular continued performance of science. When I got to a lesson that needed more preparation than i could do in 5 minutes I would mutter and then use the flow chart to find another lesson i could do instead, rather than skip science (again). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knitgrl Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 You can find an abridged version here: https://outskirtspress.com/bfsu1abridged. The author of the abridged version worked closely with Dr. Nebel to make something that is a bit more open and go. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard J. Nebel Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 The author of BFSU also hosts an on line support group: BFSUcommunity.com/ (at no charge). Users of BFSU know that there are many places in the text of each lesson where it is suggested that you Google ____ to find additional supporting information: images, videos, diagrams, etc. At BFSUcommunity.com you are able to click through to any lesson where you will find direct links to the best videos, supporting information, etc. that I have been able to find. Additionally, each lesson provides a space where you can post questions, leave comments, or contribute additional items. I keep a watchful eye on BFSUcommunity and try to address any question or problem within a day or two. (Rules prohibit posting ads or solicitations.) I invite all BFSU users or anyone else to come and explore BFSUcommuniy.com and register as you wish. I apologize that registration is a multistep procedure and I have to give a final okay before you get in. This has been necessitated because of spammers seeking access. This said, I hope you will find BFSUcommunity a benefit in using BFSU. Also, one of my fans has created a BFSU Facebook group that you may be interested in. It is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/308651699340117/permalink/1311845535687390/ This site goes without input from me. 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 First I listed the order in which I wanted to do the topics. (Some have prerequisites. It isn't written to use from front to back, but in strands.) Then I assigned each lesson to a week. The week before, I'd read it and see if our library catalog had kids' books on the topic. Then that week we'd discuss the topic a bit, read any books DS was interested in, maybe do a little experiment to illustrate if it wasn't a familiar topic, and/or look for a short youtube video. (Dude is one of those 500-questions-a-day kids, though, so many weeks, the material was familiar. In that case we just talked for a few minutes and I made sure he had the vocabulary and didn't have any misconceptions.) It was really casual--just making sure that we covered the bases. He mostly learned elementary science stuff just by looking around and asking about what he saw. (We used the first book in kindergarten and the summer after, so school was short generally.) Then we did other things for a couple of years, and came back and did the second level in grades 3-4. This was how I laid the first book out. D-3 Draw/read maps (We were beginning geography also.) D-3A N/S/E/W D-4 Land forms & Biomes A/B-1 Categories B-2 Living/ Nonliving B-3 Plants/Animals & online tree of life B-4A Same/Different B-4B Species A-2 Solid/ Liquid/ Gas chart & water activity A-3 Air (library book ""Air is All Around You"") A-4 Particles/ Matter C-1 Energy makes things go. A-5 Distinguishing materials A-5A Magnets (also in Science is Simple; pins) Finish/review. D-1 Gravity D-2 Day/Night D-5 Earth’s turning D-6 Seasons Finish/review. A-6 Air Pressure A-7 Air: a mixture A-8 Evaporation & condensation C-2 Sound/ vibrations (also in Science is Simple) C-3 Kinetic energy C-4 Matter vs. Energy B-4 Life Cycles B-5 Food chains B-10 Plant structure B-11 Seeds B-12 Plants, Soil, Water Finish/review. A9 Solutions. Make rock candy. A10 Rocks, Minerals, Soil (see pin) D8 Rocks and Fossils (Make fossils with clay, leaves, shells, toy animals, etc.) Observing and measuring rocks B6 Skeletons and Muscles B7 Animal Phyla B8 Nervous System B9 Energy to run the body D7 Gravity, Mass, and Weight C5 Inertia C6 Friction C7 Forces D9 Resources 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 I find it pretty open and go, once I have my topic order sorted. Even then, I sort of just follow threads until I hit a pre-req and then go back. 😄 I would have a scan over my plan for the year in the summer and get any big materials needed. A lot of the materials were easy to pick up or already around. What I really liked to do was look at the book lists at the end of each lesson and order a few. I found them very good. I'm teaching through vol 1 again with our co op at the moment and love it! I'll read through the lesson again a day or two before and just make sure I have what I need on hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.