When I got into the whole homeschool world, one of the things I loved was that I would have the ability to put more emphasis on history and science for my children. Unfortunately, with the No Child Left Behind act, and the California school systems in the budget crisis that they are, History and Science are 2 things (among many) that are being left behind, in favor of focusing more on the subjects that the end of the year test (STAR test) surveys them on (only reading and math for the lower grades). These subjects are of course, very important, but so are all the rest, so I was really looking forward to digging deeper into both history and science with the girls. I knew that since I had control over what they learned, I wanted to teach them a Creation Based science, while making sure that they understand all of the rest of the theories out there, but also understand why I feel this is the truth for my life. I chose to go with Apologia's science curriculum, but then I let the girls pick which area of science they would like to study this year. They chose (after some negotiating LOL) Astronomy, so Astronomy it is!
We're loving Apologia so far! The girls each have their own age appropriate notebook where they take notes, do crossword puzzles, have copywork, make mini books, write summaries, etc of the things they are learning. It should be a fun thing to look back on at the end of the year to remind them of everything they did in this course. The first thing we started learning about was the planets in the solar system. Right off the bat, this was all new for me, so I went right along learning with them. We learned about the order the planets rotate around the sun, we learned about Copernicus and Galileo and what they brought to this field of study, we learned gravity and how the planets all stay balanced in their position, and so much more. The girls made up a silly mnemonic phrase to help them remember the order of the planets. The cool thing I like about this is how they brought in the Magic Tree House audio books we've been listening to in the car, in their phrase: Morgan visits everywhere, means just some ugly new place (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune & Pluto...more discussions later about Pluto's planet status removal).
Our first science project for this year was to make a model of the solar system out of balloons. This is obviously not an exact process, but is more of a fun, hands-on way to get a feel for the difference in sizes of the planets, along with the order that they rotate the sun. We did this project on a weekend, so that Daddy could be there to do it with us. It was so much fun for the girls to bring him into their school lessons with them. There was measuring of planets involved, decorating of planets using markers and construction paper, and lots and lots of blowing up balloons. Normally our science time is done when Miranda is napping so that we can focus a little more on the actual studies, but we wanted to make sure she got to be there for the fun of this project also. This just meant that there was a little more spit-swapping in the balloon department than we might have had otherwise, but she loved it so that was what it was all about. Here's some pictures of our first project:
We're loving Apologia so far! The girls each have their own age appropriate notebook where they take notes, do crossword puzzles, have copywork, make mini books, write summaries, etc of the things they are learning. It should be a fun thing to look back on at the end of the year to remind them of everything they did in this course. The first thing we started learning about was the planets in the solar system. Right off the bat, this was all new for me, so I went right along learning with them. We learned about the order the planets rotate around the sun, we learned about Copernicus and Galileo and what they brought to this field of study, we learned gravity and how the planets all stay balanced in their position, and so much more. The girls made up a silly mnemonic phrase to help them remember the order of the planets. The cool thing I like about this is how they brought in the Magic Tree House audio books we've been listening to in the car, in their phrase: Morgan visits everywhere, means just some ugly new place (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune & Pluto...more discussions later about Pluto's planet status removal).
Our first science project for this year was to make a model of the solar system out of balloons. This is obviously not an exact process, but is more of a fun, hands-on way to get a feel for the difference in sizes of the planets, along with the order that they rotate the sun. We did this project on a weekend, so that Daddy could be there to do it with us. It was so much fun for the girls to bring him into their school lessons with them. There was measuring of planets involved, decorating of planets using markers and construction paper, and lots and lots of blowing up balloons. Normally our science time is done when Miranda is napping so that we can focus a little more on the actual studies, but we wanted to make sure she got to be there for the fun of this project also. This just meant that there was a little more spit-swapping in the balloon department than we might have had otherwise, but she loved it so that was what it was all about. Here's some pictures of our first project:
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