Teaching Science

Anyone who knows me knows that I abhor science. Things just happen the way they do, it doesn't matter to me how they happen has always been more or less my take on it. I've never been good at science. I much prefer the creative, writing, English side of things.

With that said, I have constantly tried to find a science program for my kids that I could teach, even if I hated it. But every program I have hated. It has always seemed just blah, or very basic. I feel like let's cover the subject, cover it well, and move on.

So I finally bit the bullet and bought a program that I hear people rave about, but I had my concerns. My concerns are that it's a program that teaches Young Earth theory. I can't remember what I grew up learning, but I think it was more or less a young earth theory. I remember learning that evolution was completely wrong and anyone who believes it isn't a Christian more or less. I remember getting in to college and being so frustrated because I had a professor teaching about evolution. Even though most of it made sense, I put up blinders and tried to ignore it and read "A Case for a Creator" to prove my beliefs were right. There was even an evolution exhibit when I worked at The Field Museum in Chicago, and I very cautiously walked through there, only enough to be able to do my job in public relations.

However, over the years, I've come to realize and learn a lot more about creation, and I am now of the thought that the Bible didn't necessarily mean that earth was created in seven 24 hour periods. A day to God could have been 500 years to us, We just don't know. But we know the earth is a lot older than 6,000 years. However, I do believe that there was a Creator, and I believe that it could have been all started with a "big bang". We don't know HOW He created it.

So I was avoiding this curriculum because it taught young earth.  I had a friend who said she used it and loved it, and she just taught that young earth is a theory and here are the other theories. So, I bit the bullet, and already had the text, so I bought the kids' journals, and we began. By some miracle, we finished the entire first chapter this week, and.... drum roll... I enjoyed it!! I had a lot of fun teaching it!

We ended up making gliders and seeing how the different kinds created a drag, and had hypthesis, and all of that scientific stuff. ;-) Today it was so beautiful, we went outside to do school, and it was so neat to talk about birds, while listening to them all chirp and watch the mama stork feed her 4 babies in the nest in the back yard. And get the binoculars and look at them. Then this evening, we went on a walk and their notebooks had a scavenger hunt for a walk, and we had so much fun looking for the things as a family. I always hear that people should go on nature walks, but I never really notice and see anything. Having the scavenger hunt list really helped me and the kids to notice and see more of God's gifts.

All in all, I'm very happy with our new science program, and it has led to some great discussion at the family dinner table- the kids telling Jon how they know the Kingdom, Phylum, etc because of a mnemonic they've learned, or discussions about dinosaurs, or their favorite, about extinct animals like the Dodo bird. :) We'll be working our way through the book over the summer, since we haven't done any science this year, and we need to keep pushing through with our huge move coming.

Big sister helping lil' bit count the storks