How I Teach Science in a Large Family

This is our first year using a formal science program.  In the past nature has been our science curriculum.  Nature walks, field trips, just being outside has been enough.  Science for us has been a go and do activity.

If you have young children, being outside and experiencing nature, going to science museums, and taking other field trips are enough.

Being able to experience science in this way is actually one of the reasons we moved to Florida!

My oldest is getting older (7th grade!) and he doesn’t love nature as much as some of my others so I wanted to provide more of a structured experience for him.

Because we use Tapestry of Grace as our core program, I wanted, needed, a program that was basically pick up and go. I really didn’t have the time to implement a fussy science program.  I knew I would never actually use it on a consistent basis if there was too much planning involved.

Last summer I researched a bunch of science curriculums and landed on Nancy Larson Science.  My oldest requested that we learn about physics.  Science 2 is the best of both worlds, it is all about physics with a bird unit at the end. Birds are something we are interested in as a family.

I like to do as much family style learning as possible. It makes life easier for me and I like that my children can work on subjects together.  Technically my oldest is too old for the age range of the program, but because he has had limited formal science it works. It’s does come easy for him, but I wasn’t looking for a challenging program that was going to take copious amounts of time at this point.

My science goals for right now are to expose and lay a foundation and that’s exactly what this program allows me to do.

We do science two afternoons per week.  Each lesson lasts about 30-45 minutes. My children look forward to science, they ask to do science. To me that’s a big win.  My little kids are learning words like buoyancy and luster.  They remember new material from one lesson to another.

My oldest likes the fact that we are doing are doing “real” science – his words! I like the fact that we still have lots of time for go and do science.

This is what’s working for us right now for science!

My entire How I Teach in a Large Family series

Be sure to check out the rest of the Winter 2014 Hopscotch