Science fun!

We've tried a few science curriculums over the last few years.  And I have not fallen in love with any of them.  One had too many experiments and we just couldn't keep up with them.  This same one also did not have very interesting books...I mean even I was super bored reading them.  Another one was based more online and yes I could have printed the entire book out, but honestly I just want to be able to order it and have it delivered to my door lol.  Call me lazy, but in all reality I'm just busy and don't need even more busy work for myself ya know.  This one also moved through the material way too quickly and not much of it was absorbed...also not many experiments.  

Since then I've been searching for the 'perfect to me' science curriculum and after reading through many I finally took the plunge and ordered another one!  It's an Earth Science & Astronomy curriculum that has a printed teacher's manual with a schedule of what to do each day.  There is also a workbook for each of the boys where they write things they've learned from our readings, results of experiments, definitions, short quizzes...I love it!  It has us do one experiment each week and also includes a few longer projects for us to do as well.  We're only on week 2, but so far I really like it!  And I love that for this year I am able to teach them the same curriculum...I like when we can learn about things together.  But next year it looks like that may change as Vann's content will be a little too much for Chaycers...we'll see though.  If that's the case this company, Elemental Science, has the same subject for both boys to do that will be age appropriate for each of them.  

So, last week we learned about the inside of the Earth and one day we had this fun snack.  They each made the inside of the Earth out of different fruits...yum!  We used raspberries, strawberries, oranges and apples. They decided that next time we need to include blueberries and green grapes for the crust to show the land and water...good thinking boys!  As simple as this sounds, it was a really fun way to reinforce what they learned earlier in the week.  As they ate their snack they both talked (without me telling them to) about what part of the Earth they were eating...it was music to my ears!  

Vann's making his Earth snack.

Chaycers is all done and ready to eat it!

Vann's layers of the Earth.

He loved it!

Even little Ash thought it was yummy!

Then we did an experiment...here they are writing about what happened.

It was a simple one showing how the inside of the Earth contains liquid which makes it wobble ever so slightly as it spins.  

I hope we continue to enjoy this science curriculum!  It's funny because as I was searching for a new one to try, I realized that we have done a lot of science without using an official curriculum.  This made it hard to pick a topic because we have in fact covered quite a lot of it.  We learn about it daily without even trying.  So that was a little reassuring since I was feeling a bit like I was failing in the science department.  Good to know I wasn't!  

It was hard to pick which topic to cover first, but I ended up choosing Earth Science & Astronomy because even though we've talked about some of it (biomes, planets, weather - we just did this a few weeks ago again), it's been awhile wince we've covered some of it.  I figure we can buzz through the parts we've already dug deep on or just dig even deeper to ensure we learn something new.  

Okie doke, I'm off to make lunch for my munchkins.  Have a fun day!