Tuesday 29 July 2014

Science in the Beginning


It look us a long time to find the perfect science curriculum/book. This year we started using the book Science in the Beginning by Dr Jay Wile. What an absolute blessing this book has been to us.

As you note from the title of the book Science in the Beginning it is creation based. It jumps of from day one all the way to the sixth day of creation. With every lesson there is a hands-on activity and also lesson reviews where the kids can write and draw what they learned in a journal. There is no official journal that are part of this book, you just use what you have. With the text book you also get a parents help book.
 
Learning about light

The book was written so everyone could clearly understand it. If teaching science to your kids was one of your biggest homeschool fears, well fear no more, it is very straight forward. Everything you need to know and the supplies you need is all listed in the book. The supplies are basic items you will find in your home, with an exception of a few extras.


Learning about colours and light

Before we purchased this book, we worked on the sample that is downloadable from the publishers site. The kids loved it from the get go. The experiments are fun and easy to understand and they just want to know when we are doing the next lesson.

For those who live in South Africa, the book can be purchased from Oikos Ministries.

This book is part of a series, we are only using the first book in the series. It can be used teaching multiple ages at once - always a bonus when homeschooling various grades/levels.


What the kids understood about what light is.
How do we see colours?
How we use the book:
We gather all the supplies and do the experiment. Then I read the lesson to them. (My children are Afrikaans, but I still read it to them in English and explain in Afrikaans.) Finally they would answer the review questions and do the written/drawing assignment.

Check out this videos of experiments Dr Wile did.


Guiding Light


Wind


Cloud formation

Here is a great article Dr Jay's Top 10 Homeschool Science Tips.

We really love this book and hope you will give it a go to.

Update: I just noted there is a downloadable notebook free from the Publishers site. You can download it HERE, go to the Download tab at the middle and the file is the bottom one. I am planning on printing and using that one too.

Blessings

Maryna