Ema Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 So...we are in our 7th week of school and I am looking for some ideas to help out DD with science. She is in 4th and we have done RSO Life and RSO Chemistry the last two years and really enjoyed them. I thought about doing RSO Physics, but didn’t think I was up to all the experiments this year with a 2nd grader, pre-k, and a busy almost 1 yr old. I needed something open and go for DD. Enter MP Mammals. I like the material, the drawing (DD is more artsy), and that she is more in charge of her own learning. However, as much as I think the comprehension questions are great—I don’t want to completely ignore them—I would like a bit of a change. DD still struggles with sentence structure and spelling (had a speech delay (no other disability) that did affect her writing and delayed her reading though she is reading at least on level now ). We alternate her writing her own answers, her dictating them to me, and us discussing them instead of writing them. But the quizzes have not been great. I am looking for some ideas on how to avoid the monotony of the comprehension questions every week, how to help retention of the readings, and just how to have a bit more excitement, because a whole year of those questions will get old. I am looking for independent work ideas, as I don’t want to spend a lot of time on prep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syllieann Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Discuss the comprehension questions together. Write down the answer in a complete sentence. Have her copy it into her workbook. Have her make flashcards for the review section. If it says "marsupials are mammals with pouches" the front of her card should say, "what are marsupials" and the back should say "mammals with pouches.". Set up a memory box for her and have her practice new cards daily. Last week's cards can be on odd days, the week before that on even days, etc. Before a quiz she should make sure she can still answer the comprehension questions without looking. If not, she should review and quiz herself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 If it will relieve your stress, I have never given my elementary (or middle school ) kids comprehension questions, quizzes, or tests for science. I have a chemE and a theoretical physicist adult children. My current high school sr is planning on majoring in meteorology. So, if they are killing her love of science, there are lots of ways for kids to master science concepts without worksheet/traditional ps approaches. If she likes drawing, can she build/draw models, create drawings summarizing the topics she is reading? Can you just discuss topics orally? Have dad ask her questions during dinner about what she learned? FWIW, imho, there is nothing learned in 4th grade science that is make or break for their futures. High school science and even college level science all start at an introductory level. Elementary science should be focused on fostering curiosity and love of science interests. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 52 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said: If it will relieve your stress, I have never given my elementary (or middle school ) kids comprehension questions, quizzes, or tests for science. I have a chemE and a theoretical physicist adult children. My current high school sr is planning on majoring in meteorology. So, if they are killing her love of science, there are lots of ways for kids to master science concepts without worksheet/traditional ps approaches. Same here. No formal assessment in primary or intermediate school. My goals for science are about engaging, questioning, finding answers, investigating, experimenting, dabbling, delving deep, enjoying, etc. I want my kids to be exposed to lots of different content areas of science so they can begin to see the big picture, but I also want them to find something they are passionate about and really go full force into deeper learning and thinking - comparison/contrast, analysis, synthesis, evaluation. I am not super interested in retention at this age. When my kids *want* to put something they are interested in to memory, then we do a unit on that (e.g., memorizing mineral names by appearance was something my older wanted to do, memorizing all the order names for bugs in our yard was something my younger wanted to do). But these were one-off projects. Retention did not drive our science studies when my kids were young. Ruth in NZ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Have her do a science notebook with drawings a few times a week that she labels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 My dd is in 6th grade and has been in a MP Core since K. I kind of remember mammals. We have never utilized all the quizzes, tests, etc. Most of it we did orally. Even in 6th grade she doesn't always do all the comprehension questions and we haven't done any quizzes yet this year. I also tend to let her take the tests open book as a review if we do them at all. So I am positive back when we did Mammals she did not do the book work as assigned. I have always been flexible with the MP science. We've enjoyed it and learned plenty but you don't need to be doing all the book work with it. My kids have done very little formal science before high school and then did fine with high school and whatever gen ed science courses they needed in college. I have no doubt they could have pursued higher level sciences if the interest was there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 How about having her keep a journal with pictures she draws, labels, etc instead? Or print out some note booking pages that are kind of generic where she can choose what she wants to tell about and illustrate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ema Posted September 17, 2019 Author Share Posted September 17, 2019 On 9/12/2019 at 5:20 PM, Syllieann said: Discuss the comprehension questions together. Write down the answer in a complete sentence. Have her copy it into her workbook. Have her make flashcards for the review section. If it says "marsupials are mammals with pouches" the front of her card should say, "what are marsupials" and the back should say "mammals with pouches.". Set up a memory box for her and have her practice new cards daily. Last week's cards can be on odd days, the week before that on even days, etc. Before a quiz she should make sure she can still answer the comprehension questions without looking. If not, she should review and quiz herself. We have started doing the questions orally. I would have liked it if there were flashcards included, as in some MP curriculum. Just for the basic traits of the animals studied. Making them is a good idea, but maybe a bit of a stretch for me right now. Maybe over Christmas break when I am itching to get back to our schedule! On 9/12/2019 at 7:41 PM, Ktgrok said: How about having her keep a journal with pictures she draws, labels, etc instead? Or print out some note booking pages that are kind of generic where she can choose what she wants to tell about and illustrate it. She does already do some drawing in the book, but I could implement more. She does really like drawing and is actually pretty good at it. On 9/12/2019 at 5:20 PM, 8FillTheHeart said: If it will relieve your stress, I have never given my elementary (or middle school ) kids comprehension questions, quizzes, or tests for science. I have a chemE and a theoretical physicist adult children. My current high school sr is planning on majoring in meteorology. So, if they are killing her love of science, there are lots of ways for kids to master science concepts without worksheet/traditional ps approaches. If she likes drawing, can she build/draw models, create drawings summarizing the topics she is reading? Can you just discuss topics orally? Have dad ask her questions during dinner about what she learned? FWIW, imho, there is nothing learned in 4th grade science that is make or break for their futures. High school science and even college level science all start at an introductory level. Elementary science should be focused on fostering curiosity and love of science interests. Yes, that does relieve my stress! At first I just wanted her to read in the Christian Liberty Nature readers and get library books on the animals she read about. BUT poor DD is my oldest and the guinea pig for our homeschooling, and I always second guess myself and think we need to do a formal curriculum. Back to the plain old reading, discussion, and library books! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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