Bigger Hearts for His Glory:
Experiments get done every week with BHFHG at our house. I can honestly say this would not happen with just any science program. A few things have to happen for science experiments to happen at our house... has to use things we have on hand... has to be something my dc can do... has to be accomplished within a fairly short amount of time... can't often carry over into the next day - week- month... has to be linked to something we are learning... has to be from a God honoring point of view... HOD does all this!
Plus, I want my dc to have an inquisitive nature about learning science, rather than the idea that all of science is already figured out, and it's just something to be memorized. Science has a practical side to it. Much of science is developed to solve problems. Scientists aren't just people sitting around saying, "Hey, let's mix this together for fun and see what shakes out!"
They are intelligent, think outside the box type people who are usually trying to improve life somehow - i.e. everyone is getting sick from drinking milk and wine, why? Pasteur figures out that by heating liquid to a certain temperature and cooling it quickly growth of harmful micro-organisms can be slowed, and EUREKA! "Pasteurization" becomes a scientific discovery to solve a problem and to make life better for all!
I LOVE this about science with HOD!
My sons link science with not only theories and experiments, but also with people and problems and historical events. Much more meaningful than any way I ever did science!!!
History and science just overlap and become a simultaneous learning - for example, here Riley learned that a boat would sink if it didn't have an air pocket for history. He put a paper towel in the bottom of a glass and pushed it straight down into a bowl of water. The air pocket within it prevented the paper towel from getting wet. However, when putting the glass in the water at an angle, there is not an air pocket, and the paper towel gets wet. This can cause a boat to sink!
Though he learned this for "history", he learned "science" too. Love that.
(Can you see Wyatt baking away in the background?!?)
Riley made a neat art project for Longfellow's poem about footprints in the sand. He enjoyed reading about Longfellow in history, and he traced his feet and did some fun painting for this project. He followed the directions in his BHFHG's guide to do this all on his own, other than he asked Wyatt to trace his foot (I was teaching Emmett, and they know to move on and figure things out themselves rather than interrupt me if it's not their teaching time with me
).
Horace Greeley was such an inspiring young boy and man. He fit perfectly with the Godly Character trait he was matched with from Bible time: discipline. Horace was very disciplined. He showed self control and discipline within his growing up years by challenging himself to read many books and learn to spell very well, even though his family had relatively no money and very few books. Riley said, "He reminds me of Abraham Lincoln - Horace walked 7 miles to borrow a book, and Abraham Lincoln did that too!" I like how HOD helps foster history connections across time. Horace was also bullied by other boys in the print shop, but he chose to ignore them and keep on working, doing more type set work in a day than some of those boys had been able to do in a month. Needless to say, his employer was pleased he'd hired him. So many excellent conversations naturally come from HOD! They are timely. We have been talking about using time well, about being good hard workers, and how that will help them grow into young men that work hard, have good jobs, and support their families well. Excellent timing with this lesson, as toward the end of winter and of the school year, my dc often need a "roll up your sleeves and dig in" kind of talk!
Here Riley practiced type-setting and realized - it takes awhile! Especially to put together an entire newspaper... yes, well done IS better than well said.
In Christ,
Julie
We were treated to seed cake like they had at like those that were sold at plays, baked pears like those in Shakespeare's era, and Yorkshire pudding. 
), and we taped a little man on it to represent us on one side of the world. It was such a good illlustration about how the sun doesn't really go down like we think. The sun just stays exactly where God perfectly placed it and our earth spins instead. The kids got a few good giggles about our cute little boy taped to the earth!!! 
