Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket


Thursday, August 21, 2008

Working the Plan, My Way

It's great to have a plan! It's even better when you use the plan to work for you instead of against you. I have 12 weeks of invertebrate lessons that have been making me feel absolutely guilty for a while now, we read The Children of Summer by Margaret Anderson and then I decided it was time to just dive right in.

I'm not going to take 12 weeks though, but the lessons will be done before Sept. 15th. This week we've been doing a lesson a day. I told a friend about this and she said it was one of the beauties of homeschooling, being able to make a 12 week study happen in 12 days if we wish without rigid formality, just as a part of our daily lives. We can read science books at bedtime if we wish.

So far this week, we've talked about invertebrates and studies Sponges (week 2 of my plans), Cnidarians (week 3 of my plans) and today we'll read about Flatworms, Segmented Worms and Roundworms (week 4 of my plans).


On our day of sponges, we read Secrets of the Animal World: Sponges, Filters of the Sea and Sponges are Skeletons. We also skim read DK Animal and then Camille did her Sponges worksheet.

The next day we did Cnidarians and read, A Jellyfish is Not a Fish; Coral Reef Hideaway (about Sea Anenomes), Burgess' Seashore Book (chapters concerning jellyfish and sea anenomes) and then DK Animal. We skipped reading Secrets of the Animal World: Jellyfish, Animals with a Deadly Touch.

Today, we'll read Wiggling Worms at Work; Life in a Bucket of Soil (the chapters about worms) and What's Eating You? Parasites only what concerns roundworms. Or maybe we'll do it tomorrow instead. *Smile*

 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think what you are doing sounds perfectly appropriate. I would say, Camille may not retain as much information as is on her worksheets, but not to worry--go for the exposure, then when you revisit the subject in high school, she'll remember the joy of learning it the first time, and it won't be intimidating or discouraging, and she'll already have a pathway in her brain that will just need to be "bushwacked" to uncover it again! (if THAT made any sense! lol)

Sounds like you've picked some wonderful books.

chris in va

Andrea said...

Science is so much fun! You've got a great plan in place!
Andrea

Anonymous said...

I am going to start using your curriculum next week. Where did you get the coloring pages, I think I missed that. Thanks

Asma

Jessica said...

Asma,
I hope you'll enjoy them as much as we have! The worksheets come from Evan-Moor's Giant Science, I recommend buying the E-book and just printing out the pages you need.

Also from Life Science 100+ Series, Grades 5-8.
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=87566&netp_id=113312&event=ESRCN&item_code=WW&view=covers

Don't worry that it says Grades 5-8, it can be used with younger students. If you only want one, the Evan Moor is the better one to purchase.

:) Let me know if you need any help.
Jessica