And Now ~ Science

To start off the year, J.T. and I read a library book The Birth of the Earth by Jacqui Bailey and Matthew Lilly. A small, easy-to-read-in-one-sitting book. We chose this book because we've read and watched so many scientific theories about the beginning of the Earth that it was nice to have a compact, concise explanation to get us started with this year's Science.

And then we moved onto our "real" science book for the first part of the year. It is also a library find. It's one of the Eyewitness Science series titled Evolution. I really like this book because it's chock-full of information...from people of the time, timelines, types of animals and fossils, etc...but is still easy to read. We read about half the book then had a few days of review and a test before J.T. left on his "working vacation".

I should probably explain our tests and grading. I don't do grades. I don't see the point. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that J.T. does a subject or concept until he gets it, so he'd eventually get As on everything. The reviews and testing are mostly because we're so brainwashed by the way public schooling happens that it just feels "right" to have a conclusion for each chapter or section of a subject. And J.T. likes the casual way we do tests...if the tests caused anxiety we wouldn't do them at all. He gets a kick out of showing off what he knows though ;-)

Back to Science. We'll finish up this book on Evolution and head back to the library to figure out what we want to learn next. J.T. is torn between anatomy and learning more mechanical science. He has been dying to dissect a frog and I'm hoping that he'll be satisfied with a frog dissection CD-ROM.

We also use tons of TV programs and DVDs for science. There's so much good stuff out there! I bet J.T. watches three times as many programs that could be considered science than I actually keep track of. With library DVDs, the Discovery channel, the Science channel, National Geographic, and PBS we could probably do nothing but programs for science. The only problem is how it skips around from the different branches of science.

This year I simply let J.T. lead the way and pick out books that looked "cool" at the library. For Math, there are certain concepts he needs to learn in more or less a specific order. But, for just about everything else, he'll naturally learn best when he's picked out subjects that interest him. And with all the great websites, library options, and tv programs, I have yet to see a need for an actual science curriculum.