Anyone doing science the WTM way?

[susie in tx]

We're finally to a point where I like almost everything we are doing, and I'd like to add in some decent science. We've done the Real Science 4 Kids chemistry book this year, and while it's been better than I originally thought, I don't intend to use the other books. In fact, I'm having trouble finding any resources that I like a lot.

So, I started reading TWTM book and the science looked great. I'm mostly looking at it for my 9 yo and 12 yo.

If you are doing this the WTM way, are you using the recommended books? We'll start with biology and plants/animals, I think. We haven't done those yet. I'd love any opinions on how this works, whether or not it does work for you.

[mcconnellboys]

I have drawn up my plans for biology for next year. I'm happy to share those with you if you like. I do use WTM methods and have always enjoyed them.

Regena

[susie in tx]

I'd love to see it if you have the time, Regena. :)

[mcconnellboys]

I'll try to email it to you privately.....

Because I know the books I'm talking about in the document, I may not have enough detail, like full titles or author's names, for you. So if you see things you need more info on, just let me know and I can get that info for you,

Regena

[Janet in Toronto]

This was for my son when he was 10. I combined:

How Nature Works by David Burnie, Reader’s Digest, ISBN: 0895773910
How the Body Works by Steve Parker, Reader’s Digest, ISBN: 0762102365
Real Science 4 Kids – Biology Level 1 by Dr. R.W. Keller, Gravitas Publications (“Biology” in schedule below)

I got the first two books used from amazon.com.

Sorry about the formatting in the attachment. I had two science periods per week, so using the date column, you can see that on some days there was only one task (reading or lab) and sometimes more than one.

Hope this is helpful!

Janet

[Lorna]

We have been doing science for the last couple of years the Well Trained Mind way. We use the 'How...Works' series. Last year we did the 'How the Earth Works' and 'How the Universe works'. We used these books as a spine going through them two to four pages a day (depending on how much experimenting there was). We also use the Janice Van Cleave books for extra experiments and write them up in a science notebook. We find that once we are a bit of the way into these books we go off at tangents and focus on special interests. We loved the geology aspect of Earth science and spent a lot of time at the museum and also collecting rocks on a beach that had a particularly fascinating history. Wwe went along to the local astronomical society meeting and got to see Saturn through a telescope with all its beautiful rings. This was such a moving experience I found tears welling up in my eyes (not something I expected at all).
We are studying 'How Nature Works' now. We have been on a visit to the zoo, the botanic gardens and a zoological museum. We are now reading 'The Life of Mammals' by David Attenborough. We are also watching some of his natural history films. The children have focused on Deer as an enrichment/fun project by a company called 'The Hands of a Child'. This has given them an idea of classification and discussing animal behaviour; looking into variation within a species, deer anatomy. It has taught them a surprising amount which can be applied more generally.
The 'How .... Works' books are very well written. They don't provide assignments - you really have to do this. The experiments can be next to impossible sometimes and sometimes great (I prefer Janice Van Cleave for both 'wow' and practicality). They make an excellent spine for this age though. Don't be put off by the pictures of children doing the experiments, these books are more aimed at teenagers and interested adults. I haven't found anything else like them.
My only sadness is that they don't really do a chemistry one. They have one called 'How Things Work' but it doesn't really cover much chemistry, mainly physics. If there was a chemistry one there would at last be a decent book to go with those atrociously written chemistry sets.
The 'How...Works' books are an excellent jumping off point. Use them alongside field guides, experiments books and others gleaned from your library. Science has become our favourite subject because it is so varied.

[PollyOR]

bump

[Pata]

We do science the WTM way, except we have science 4-5 days a week because my dd is a science-lover. I've made my plans using WTM recc. and experiments available here (http://www.elementalscience.com), they also include a student notebook with narrations and pictures to use. It's worked great here, but then I did design the plans for her ;)!

[Annabel Lee]

...and I just used the science plan laid out in the WTM book. Since I have a K'er and a 2nd grader, I thought I'd go with what is supposed to be for the grade inbetween them (1st) and do life science. I have the '04 WTM edition and got the recommended spines, and some of the recommended other books. I did get some other encyclopedias as well, which has been helpful. Instead of just picking 20 animals for the animal portion, I have been teaching by classification. Susan addresses how to do this in the book. We started with vertebrates: mammals ending with marine mammals, then fish, reptiles & amphibians, and birds. I just made up the lesson plans and scraped together resources myself. Library books, esp. DK books and Burgess have been great. I'll second the Janice VanCleave books for interesting experiments - get her Animal experiment book. Since mine are littler, I get books by Jim Arnosky related to the animals we're studying. My boys love the art in them.

Now that we're moving onto invertebrates, I am relieved to have Jessica's (Trivium Academy) Invertebrate, Plant, Human Body, Germ, and Medicine lesson plans/outlines. They are so detailed, down to what to read/do *daily*. They're on her blog and she published them on lulu, I think.

Another helpful thing has been a subscription to cosmeo dot com. It's put out by Discovery Kids Channel and has anything and everything, not just science. I've never seen United Streaming, so I don't know if it's the same basic thing or not. It sometimes has language arts games about the science topic you're covering, or videos for different grade levels to watch. I like the ones that have quizzes at the end; makes my kids pay closer attention.

I've been planning on using a curriculum for science (earth/space) next year, thinking that would make it easier since it would already be broken down into what to do weekly or daily for me. That's really important to do, or you'll get stuck on one topic for too long. We're still on birds. :D

[arcara]

Have you looked at R.E.A.L. Science by Pandia Press? It's a Classical program. They only have grammar stage biology, earth science, and chemistry, so far. They have a 'try-before-you-buy" program so that you can really check it out.

[sagira]

Have you looked at R.E.A.L. Science by Pandia Press? It's a Classical program. They only have grammar stage biology, earth science, and chemistry, so far. They have a 'try-before-you-buy" program so that you can really check it out.

I like this.

[Suzannah]

I did follow the WTM plans for science up until last spring. It was all great, but with a new infant (and serious lack of school planning on my part) I sort of flubbed our first semester of biology. I opted to use Apologia's "Botany" for the end of the year. We enjoyed that so much that we began this year with their astronomy book. We are currently back to the WTM method for earth science.

Next year DS has the opportunity to take Apologia General Science with a friend so I think he'll do that. But I haven't decided yet what to do with DD. We might continue into WTM chemistry (DS loved it in 3rd grade) but we may take the opportunity to do Apologia's other Elementary Science books on zoology.

I think I like both ways about equally well, but I wanted to try out the Apologia books since I'd heard so much about them. They were fun and we were easily able to do the experiments together (note my kiddos' ages). I did require DS to keep a page of definitions and they both kept notebooks but DS had more detailed diagrams and things.

Blessings!

[Makita]

I do! In fact, I'm in the midst of writing an earth science curriculum for the Logic Stage. I am a former science specialist (before kids) and have a lot of experience with that level even though my kiddos are young yet. If I get good feedback from my earth science unit, I'll be writing units for life sciences, physical sciences and chemical sciences, too. Let me know if you may be interested in knowing more.

[Suzannah]

I'm in the midst of writing an earth science curriculum for the Logic Stage.

Cool! Keep us posted!

[Makita]

Cool! Keep us posted!

A sample is available here, Earth Logic: Our Dynamic Earth (http://www.hslaunch.com/mypage/downloader.php?file=userfiles/300/58046844128.pdf&id=1651). Please let me know if you have any suggestions or questions.

The complete curriculum is available for purchase on my blog.