Science for older student in LHFHG/Beyond

[farmfamily]

Hello All!

I combined my older two recently and we are in the last 10 weeks of LHFHG. Carrie suggested I would want to beef up the science for my older daughter if we combined, but so far we haven't added anything. Now I'm weighing my options for what to do with her in addition to the science which is already in LHFHG, and next school year for Beyond. She will be 8 in August. She is second grade this year and third grade next year for Beyond. Here are the options I've considered:

1) Don't add anything - we're busy enough already! And she shows no particular interest in science (she loves history, reading, and art). I don't want her to be lacking or behind her peers, though.

2) Have her read assigned pages in biographies of scientists (I'm thinking perhaps the Mike Venezia science bio.s among others). She could narrate orally twice a week, and perhaps write a couple sentences in summary once or twice a week (writing is not her forte - but I'd like her to work on it). My daughter is an excellent reader. She is now reading Owls in the Family for DITHOR (book pack level 3), and she reads with as much speed and expression as most adults - her only faults are breezing past and mispronouncing words she is unfamiliar with, and occasionally skipping smaller words or changing word order, but not so as to affect the meaning or completeness of the sentence. She LOVES to read, and is always begging me for more reading material!

3) Read aloud said biographies. I'm not as fond of this option, since it will add time to our schoolday - but adding 15 min or so a day would be tolerable.

4) Read aloud the science portion of the Bigger Extension Pack, saving the history extensions for when we get to Bigger - would also add time, but perhaps not much?

5) Add Apologia Zoology 1 - again it would add time to our schoolday - but we are in a fabulous location for bird-watching.

#2 is probably my favorite option - but I'd love some advice on this question. - Or new ideas?

Thanks for your time...

[Tidbits of Learning]

I needed to add in for science for one of my older girls when we combined a few years ago. We also did the left from LHFHG and the right from BHFHG. I used Singapore's Earlybird Start-Up Science 1, 2, 3 and 4. It worked great and was not very long. It was also very inexpensive. I did not do it with my ds with whom she was combined. He did the science in the guide. I will pm you a link to it.
Here is a quick synopsis about it from another site-

This colorful series from Singapore Math introduces early concepts in life science, physical science, chemistry, and earth science to the very young. Each book focuses on one of these sciences, and contains 29 lessons and an answer key. Lessons are a page in length, with each topical lesson containing a short informational segment, follow-up questions or a hands-on activity. The material is presented in its simplest form, and most often the questions repeated at the end simply ask the student what was discussed at the top of the page, although in some cases, it might be helpful to have read a little more material on the subject as well. The range of subjects is pretty impressive, including animal habitats, parts of the ear and eye, seeds and how they sprout, electromagnets, conductors, circuits, mixing colors, evaporation, how sound is made, sinking or floating, seasons, solar system, Milky Way, constellations, meteors, food chains, and more.

I couldn't recommend it more to add to science in the younger guides if you have an older child who is combining.

[funkmomma71]

I like your option #2, though I wouldn't limit the reading to only biographies. You may want to look ahead at which One Small Square books are scheduled and use others in that series. There are also loads of library books you could use, but of course you would have to screen them since most of them sneak in evolutionary ideas. You could also get your hands on the CLP Nature Readers books 2 & 3, those wouldn't have to be edited. A couple of other good books are A Kids Guide to Creation and A Kids Guide to Bible Animals, I have these books and the Creation one would probably line up well with the Science in Beyond. My daughter has really enjoyed reading these books.

[chillin'inandover]

I will try to answer your question about science for older but I don't know the context of Carrie's previous comment. Sorry! Doing Beyond as an 8 year old is the recommended age so I am not sure why you would need more science for Beyond. LHFHG has 3 different science books depending on child's age-The World God Made/K; Our Father's World/1st grade; and God's Wonderful Works/2nd grade. If you did Beyond science with God's Wonderful Works that would be what the program suggests. If you did Beyond with the younger book that is how you could bump it up that way. I don't believe it is recommended to add to science if you are in recommended age and Bigger is for 7-9 year olds with extensions for 4th-5th grade. Science is meaty enough as written and your day would be longer if you added the extras mentioned.

Your dc is on the younger age for grade just like my ds (July birthday) and as hsers we can tailor dc's education so I see you have bumped up the basics like dictation so that is good. Not sure if you are doing DITHOR but that has a nonfiction section that the dc reads independently and One Small Square book is listed as level 2 DITHOR. My son loves science but struggles with writing and history so on our day 5 in our day 4 program we add science -Apologia and One Small Square books and others not mentioned here with labs/experiments as my ds interest leads so the joy is not lost. My ds reads nonfiction books like Apologia and One Small Square for fun as this is his favorite reading. He is 9/4th grade so he reads his own science but this is not recommended until they are 9. He reads other genre only when required in DITHOR and within the guides so it isn't necessary to read extra nonfiction genre unless the interest is there. I confess to preferring nonfiction too. I have 2 dd 18 & 19 who prefer historical fiction and fantasy so I believe the interest is God led not Mommy led/limited. HTH Tammy

[psreit]

I agree with Tammy. Because your dd will just be 8, you could just do the science that's writtten. Since you only have 10 weeks of LHFHG, and if she is not a sciency person, I would not add narration and extra writing. She will get enough of that from the storytime in the Beyond guide. If you feel she could use a little more, since she likes to read, just let her read library books on different science topics, but nothing else. In your first option, you said you didn't want to do that because you didn't want her to be behind her peers. There have been numerous threads about concern that dc will be 'behind grade level'. I'm not sure how to paste things, so I will give you a thread title to search...."Ds has fallen behind, how can I get him caught up?" I'm sorry I don't know how to attach a link. If you type that in the search bar, you should be able to read it. The bottom line is that we cannnot compare our dc to what others are doing. Don't base what you do on what you *think* everyone is is doing. Hopefully this thread will be helpful.

[farmfamily]

Thank you all for your replies. I see there is more than one opinion of how to tackle this! I like the suggestion of the more laid-back approach of making of making science biographies, or good science books like Funkmomma71 suggests available, but not doing a very formal study of them.

This is exactly what Carrie wrote in my other post (we take SO long to complete Bigger each day):

In pondering your situation, if you desired to combine your kiddos (in simply looking at the age of your kiddos), you could ponder combining them with the younger student in mind. In order to do this, you'd need to pull your older student back to combine with your younger student in LHFHG for the left side and probably the Storytime on the right side. Then, you'd need to raise the level of the 3R's to make sure those are enough, probably through using what was working from those areas in Bigger (which you already have). You'd also need to raise the science level as well.

So she says to "raise the science level." Perhaps she wrote this specifically for my case, which was bringing a child who had completed 10 units of Bigger to be combined with a child in LHFHG (last 10 units of that), and not necessarily for all 8 year olds in Beyond.

Someone pm ed me with a suggestion to read the Thornton Burgess Bird Book, which I thought was an excellent idea.

I now hope Carrie or Julie will pop in to answer the question - should I really "raise the science level," and if so, how?

[raceNzanesmom]

We have shelves of science books, plus DVDs like Magic School Bus, Bill Nye, Beakman's World, Nat'l Geo, etc etc etc. I find ds will do tons of science learning without me ever having to really teach anything extra. Ocassionally, I'll ask him to draw a pic about what he's learned, or he'll narrate after reading. Most of the time it comes naturally just from his excitement from what he's learned.

[my3sons]

As long as your dd is in the recommended target age range of a guide, she would not need to beef up her science. The target age range of LHFHG is ages 5-7, and the target age range of Beyond is ages 6-8. If she falls within this range for the majority of the year, science need not be extended. If, however, she is older than the target age range for the majority of the year, then you would want to beef up the science. If this is the case, I personally like your Option #2, as long as the biographies focus a good portion of the time on the "science" part of the scientist's life. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[farmfamily]

Thank you Julie!

I will not add to the science. I feel relieved not to have to worry about this! My daughter will be 8 the whole time we are doing Beyond (she has a summer birthday). We will do a One Small Square book and other science-related books as much as possible within DITHOR, and other than that, I won't sweat it!

I am thinking of having her do a Bigger-style vocab card once a week and copy the Bible verse on a card as in Bigger. She will finish English 2 which she is currently doing & then start English 3, and continue with DITHOR & math. Other than that, it will be Beyond as written.


Thanks so much