I have a VERY bright 7yo going into the 3rd grade. After viewing the science in Adventures, I have some concerns that it will not be enough to keep his interest. This is the type of child that will go to the library and ask the librarian for books on military war planes and devour each book. He loves science and I do not want to discourage that. How do you all handle this, those that have "walking encyclopedias" for dc? Is it too hard to add?
Sorry this is so long; I just want the best for my ds.
Blessings, Charlene
Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 2:37 pm
In my personal opinion you can add any topic of interest for your child and library books is a great way to do that. I'm sitting on this side of the screen smiling that your son is learning to use the library as a resource. Good job Mom!
We love science around here (my dh holds a PHD in Chemistry, he worked for 12 years as a research scientist before going into full time computer software development). Now, we made the mistake of overadding science to MFW the first 2 years of doing MFW and it took away the joy of science from our child. We added another full program.
What we did right was to keep doing fun experiments and visiting science centers and open houses at local university science departments. And more library books.
In Adventures, the science is light to keep interest and to keep it doable given the age of the intended audience. It also keeps to general science topics so that you have a breadth of topics to discover.
Here are some ideas to add in science:
*Adapt book basket and reading time to fit your child's needs. Maybe when they say "we want more" you can say "well, go look in book basket, let's see what we have." In the manual there is an extensive list of library books for history and science topics. We liked Magic School Bus shows and books.
*The Internet-linked book that is included with ADV--- use it to help you add in more information and ideas. When you do the birds unit in ADV -- don't forget to check out the ADV archive sticky...
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?t=330
* Do the Nature Journaling that is part of MFW---- it is more important than I realized back 4 years ago. I skipped that stuff because I saw it as "fluff" (well I did --- I didn't know). I have changed my views now. Nature Journaling helps to build some science skills that just will not get developed by sitting around reading books or only having lots of fun "blowing up the kitchen." All three (hands on experiments, book knowledge, and journaling) are important, I think.
Journaling will help with learning to pay attention to details and learning how to keep good records of your findings. Over and over and over my husband in his years of being a PhD faculty member had to keep excellent records of research and good documentation. Now that he writes software code, he still has to pay attention to details and DOCUMENTATION. LOL
If you have a child who is loving science the way you have described your son, use journaling to get him started in the right direction on that. His college professors will thank you for it. :)
--crystal
Posted Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:23 am by cbollin
*also, let your children do the work on the experiments as much as possible all on their own as well as the clean up. Help them to follow instructions, but let them "take chances, make mistakes". Let them come up with ways to vary the experiment and do it again. (my kids love doing that as long as I back off and let them do it.)
Realize also, that they'll gain more and more information over the years. I had to learn that the harder way. My dh holds a PHD in chemistry and we tried to make sure our oldest knew every science thing out there. It's really ok to let them wanting a bit more. They can look it up in the books themselves from book basket. So, find books that are easier for them to use (even if it is a little bit below reading level.) She's more likely to remember what she finds and reads too.